The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)

Welcome back for the ninth installment in the A-to-Z Part Deux Challenge! This week, for the letter “I”, we’re looking at I.A.L. Diamond (Writer). And the movie of his that we’ll be looking at this week…The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970).

Title: The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

Director: Billy Wilder

Released: October 29, 1970

Runtime: 2 hours 5 minutes

Available to stream on: Pluto, Prime Video, and Tubi

Sherlock Holmes (Robert Stephens) finds himself in a bit of a rut. No case that comes his way manages to excite him anymore. Little does he know; excitement is just around the corner.

Sherlock and Dr. Watson (Colin Blakely) attend a performance of Swan Lake and afterwards Sherlock has the pleasure of meeting the star of the show, Madame Petrova (Tamara Toumanova). After some small talk between the two, well three if you count who was interpreting, Sherlock realizes that this isn’t about to be just another case. Madame Petrova is retiring and wants to become a mother. Well, Sherlock is able to connect the dots and sees that he’s there for the sole purpose of becoming her baby daddy. He manages to weasel out of the situation by proclaiming that he and Dr. Watson are in a committed relationship together.

Meanwhile, Watson is living it up and dancing all around with the other ballerinas. Word spreads amongst the ballerinas that Watson and Sherlock are a thing, and they slowly distance themselves from him. Watson eventually has it explained to him why the female ballerinas have all drifted away and he is furious. He storms home and he and Sherlock have a spat.

But it seemed like Madame Petrova was persistent. I bet you’re wondering how long until she resurfaces.

Well, too bad. That’s the last we see or hear from Madame Petrova or that storyline.

Okay, now that we’re half an hour into the movie, time to get to the actual story.

Late one evening there’s a knock at the door and a cabbie is there dropping off a woman. When asked why he brought her here, the cabbie explains that he found her in the Thames River with Sherlock’s address in her hand. The woman can’t seem to speak other than the phrases, “I don’t know” and “I can’t remember”.

Sherlock, being the great detective that he is, is able to determine that she is from Belgium. Her name is Gabrielle and her husband’s name is Emile. However, despite this breakthrough, Gabrielle (Geneviève Page) still can’t recall how or when she arrived in London. She mistakes Holmes for her husband Emile, and he plays along with it in order to further his investigation.

He manages to recover her luggage and from there her memory slowly starts to come back to her. Emile worked in a copper mine and was hired by Jonah Limited. They would write each other letters constantly, until one day the letters from Emile just stopped. Gabrielle had taken it upon herself to go to the address listed on the letters from him, 32 Ashdown Street. As it turns out, 32 Ashdown Street is an empty building. Better yet, Jonah Limited doesn’t even exist. When Gabrielle reported her story to the Belgian Embassy, they suggested she contact Sherlock Holmes.

Sherlock suggests she write one more letter to Emile at the Ashdown address. Gabrielle does, leaving it as a blank letter. Why blank? Well, Sherlock believes that 32 Ashdown is a letter drop and if they sit on this blank letter, they’ll see who retrieves it.

The plan sounds great in theory, except when the mail is delivered to 32 Ashdown Street, the letter that is delivered isn’t the blank one that they wrote. No, it’s addressed to Sherlock from his brother, Mycroft (Christopher Lee). Mycroft has demanded a meeting with Sherlock and Watson at the Diogenes Club.

Mycroft demands that Sherlock and Watson immediately cease all efforts into locating Emile. But why? The reasoning given is that it’s a matter of national security. Sherlock tries pushing Mycroft, particularly on Jonah Limited. But Mycroft holds firm, reiterates that they drop it immediately, and wishes them well.

If you know anything about Sherlock Holmes, it’s that he is not about to just walk away from an intriguing case. Especially after he’s been bored by everything that’s come his way recently.

But why would Mycroft be so adamant in having Sherlock drop a case?

Does he know anything about “Jonah Limited”?

Will locating Emile help explain just how Gabrielle wound up in the Thames and who put her there?

Truth be told, prior to this week, I had zero knowledge of this movie even existing. I hadn’t heard of it, seen it mentioned anywhere online, or had it recommended by anyone. But as a child of the ’80s who loved (and still loves) The Great Mouse Detective, how could I pass up a Sherlock Holmes movie I hadn’t ever heard of?

I was a little hesitant at first as it took a bit for me to buy-in and be down for the ride. For whatever reason, I wasn’t feeling Robert Stephens as Sherlock from the start. It wasn’t until he got out of becoming the baby daddy to Madame Petrova that things changed for me, and he wound up being incredibly enjoyable as Sherlock. Colin Blakely’s Watson was just fun all throughout, super animated whether the feeling was cheer, anger, or pain.

What was really enjoyable for me is the way that everything is told. Yes, the story is from Watson’s perspective but it’s all very fresh and new. It’s not the retelling of a previous story, it’s not even a copy/paste of a previous story but with a different title. We get a more complex creature in this version of Sherlock Holmes, well at least to an extent. I wouldn’t expect a Sherlock Holmes film in 1970 to hint at Sherlock’s sexuality or that Watson would be so taken aback by the thought of it given that he spends almost every waking moment with him.

Yes, I know why the Madame Petrova scenes were there. But we could have found a different way to get there without spending the first quarter of the movie on it. The writing at times I feel could have made the twists and turns a little more complex as well. There were times where you almost feel bad for Watson. We, the viewer, has already long since figured out what Sherlock is just now realizing. Meanwhile, Watson is as clueless as he is cheerful.

That being said, once Gabrielle is brought to Baker Street, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) becomes a fun mystery with some clever humor sprinkled in and plenty of turns along the way.

Well, those are my thoughts, but what are yours? Tell me what you thought of The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) in the comments below or by reaching out on social media!

Next week we’ll have the letter “J”. Keep an eye on Threads and Instagram on Wednesday for the reveal of who it’ll be and what movie of theirs we’ll be reviewing.