Was "Sherlock Holmes" stripped of most drug references?
RichA
Ted Nolan <tednolan>
I haven't seen the movie yet, but Holmes's cocaine use was a fairly minor
point in the Conan Doyle stories. It was established, and seen several
times, but did not appear in most stories.
Of course, it was a major element in the non Doyle "The Seven Percent Solution"
which was a major bestseller in the US and a moderately successful movie
here as well (don't know about the rest of "The West").
Ted
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columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..
Alls Quiet
> Because they wouldn't play well to the Western audiences?
It probably was to be inferred from the pig-sty apartment. Ebert says
that all that's missing is pizza boxes to look like a college kid's
room.
I agree that references were removed out of political correctness,
just the way (the very popular) "House" rehabilitated its lead
character--in one episode, no less--from a lifelong habit of abusing
Vicodin.
Michael Black
> On Dec 30, 9:58 pm, RichA <rander3...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Because they wouldn't play well to the Western audiences?
>
> It probably was to be inferred from the pig-sty apartment. Ebert says
> that all that's missing is pizza boxes to look like a college kid's
> room.
>
But that sounds like a good description of their "digs". Two bachelors
living together, often distracted by crime-solving and then the rest of
the time one is busy writing up the stories and the other is pretty
depressed. Sherlock Holmes has always sounded like someone more
interested in knowledge and such than in keeping a place tidy.
> I agree that references were removed out of political correctness,
> just the way (the very popular) "House" rehabilitated its lead
> character--in one episode, no less--from a lifelong habit of abusing
> Vicodin.
>
I remember reading one of the books in high school, it was part of the
class, and reading the first few pages in class, everyone pretty much
realized at the same time "he's a drug addict". Since it came as a
surprise in the mid-seventies, I suspect that was already missing
from many of the movies, it certainly wasn't part of what I knew
about the character before that.
That was around the time that "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution" hit the
screens, which seemed to reinforce the notion that Sherlock Holmes
took drugs, almost as if it had been missed by many (since most had
seen various movies rather than read the books).
Michael
nick
In the present ratings environment, if Steve Martin smoking pot is
good for an R rating, then Sherlock Holmes on cocaine would be pushing
the limits of NC-17.
tomcervo
>
> > Because they wouldn't play well to the Western audiences?
>
> It probably was to be inferred from the pig-sty apartment. Ebert says
> that all that's missing is pizza boxes to look like a college kid's
> room.
Whatever else you may think of them, the BBC serial with Jeremy Brett
was very close to the actual stories--despite their "opening up"of
same. The way they looked was the way Doyle wrote them. Holmes spends
most of his time dressed as an English gentleman, which is what he
was--only in the country would he wear a deerstalker, which is
something William Gillette made popular in a play. Watson as played by
David Burke and Edward Hardwicke is an Army doctor, sensible and
intelligent, and not the dolt played by dear Nigel Bruce.
The rooms Holmes lived in were indeed cluttered, as were most
Victorian dwellings, but Mrs. Hudson was an excellent, tolerant
housekeeper. As for the drugs, the FDA was not running things back
then--you paid your money and took your choice.
Professor Bubba
Michael Black <et...@ncf.ca> wrote:
Holmes' drug use was legal at the time, of course. The apartment he
shared with Watson was (as you say) a bachelor pad. It was a mess.
For instance, Holmes had once fired his revolver over and over again
into a walk in order to form the initials VR, as a tribute to the
Queen. As for Holmes' drug habit, the 20th Century-Fox film of The
Hound of the Baskervilles ends with Holmes saying, "Watson! The
needle!"
Growing up, I was very familiar with the WW2-era Holmes movies made by
Universal, because they were run every weekend on TV as "Sherlock
Holmes Theater" or something. (Back then, the films were nearly
contemporary.) I was surprised when I got older to find that the
stories were actually set in an earlier era, and that there weren't any
Nazis in them at all.
Greg House got off Vicodin as part of his personal evolution into
something resembling a human being. His habit wasn't lifelong, BTW.
He went on Vicodin following the surgery on his leg, which was five
years before "Three Stories."
David Johnston
<mut...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>On Dec 30, 9:58�pm, RichA <rander3...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Because they wouldn't play well to the Western audiences?
>
>It probably was to be inferred from the pig-sty apartment. Ebert says
>that all that's missing is pizza boxes to look like a college kid's
>room.
Doyle described Holmes as being a slob. Since he once shot Queen
Victoria's initial's into the wall, overgrown college kid is about
right.
>
>I agree that references were removed out of political correctness,
>just the way (the very popular) "House" rehabilitated its lead
>character--in one episode, no less--from a lifelong habit of abusing
>Vicodin.
I don't recall any episode in which "House" was rehabilitated from a
lifelong habit of abusing Vicodin. Since the last one I saw was one
in which he was struggling with the urge to go back to it, and since
his recent quitting of drug was a continuing story 3 episodes long and
succeeded two other unsuccessful attempts, perhaps I haven't been
watching carefully enough.
Oh, and there were only a few Sherlock Holmes stories in which his use
of drugs was mentioned and it was described as only happening when
nothing was going on to keep him diverted. Of course by the time he
was Robert Down Jr's age, he wasn't doing it at all, since that was a
detail Doyle dropped after Holme's ressurection
Brian Thorn
<mut...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>I agree that references were removed out of political correctness,
>just the way (the very popular) "House" rehabilitated its lead
>character--in one episode, no less--from a lifelong habit of abusing
>Vicodin.
Not lifelong, House has been addicted to Vicodin only since his leg
embolism or whatever it was (that causes him to walk with a cane) at
some point fairly shortly before the show started (seen in "Three
Stories").
Brian
Mr. Hole the Magnificent
Uh, they did it in one episode after 5 previous seasons where the
characters usused his drugs very heavily, and the one episode took
place over several months in a rehab.