The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother

[Carol the Dabbler]

The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother is a 1975 comedy starring Gene Wilder (as the title character), Madeline Kahn, and Marty Feldman.  We watched the DVD today, and found it very funny.  We're looking forward to watching it with commentary (by Gene Wilder, who also wrote and directed it) tomorrow.

 

Wilder plays Sigerson Holmes, Sherlock's kid brother, and in a few scenes, Sherlock himself is played by none other than Douglas Wilmer, who ten years earlier had played Holmes in a British television series.  His busy career ran mostly from the 50's through the 80's, but he came out of retirement in 2012 to play the elderly gentleman who calls in the bouncers at the Diogenes Club in Sherlock!

 

Marty Feldman plays Sgt. Orville Sacker of Scotland Yard, sort of a combination Watson and Lestrade to Wilder's Holmes.  I find some of Feldman's roles in Wilder's movies a bit annoying, but I really liked this one.  (Note that the character's name is awfully close to Ormond Sacker, Conan Doyle's first-draft name for Watson -- and that Sigerson was one of Holmes' aliases while he was supposedly dead.)

 

[wildwoodflower]

The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother is a 1975 comedy starring Gene Wilder (as the title character), Madeline Kahn, and Marty Feldman.  We watched the DVD today, and found it very funny.  We're looking forward to watching it with commentary (by Gene Wilder, who also wrote and directed it) tomorrow.

 

Wilder plays Sigerson Holmes, Sherlock's kid brother, and in a few scenes, Sherlock himself is played by none other than Douglas Wilmer, who ten years earlier had played Holmes in a British television series.  His busy career ran mostly from the 50's through the 80's, but he came out of retirement in 2012 to play the elderly gentleman who calls in the bouncers at the Diogenes Club in Sherlock!

 

Marty Feldman plays Sgt. Orville Sacker of Scotland Yard, sort of a combination Watson and Lestrade to Wilder's Holmes.  I find some of Feldman's roles in Wilder's movies a bit annoying, but I really liked this one.  (Note that the character's name is awfully close to Ormond Sacker, Conan Doyle's first-draft name for Watson -- and that Sigerson was one of Holmes' aliases while he was supposedly dead.)

 

This is a long held guilty pleasure of mine. As teenagers, my kids were known to break into "Why don't we all drink some very sexy wine," to distract me when I was pissed off at them. If they could start me laughing then their transgressions were forgotten. I love Gene Wilder so so much. He's one of very favorites Holmes:-)

[Carol the Dabbler]

Gene Wilder is one of my very favorite just-about-anyones.  He somehow manages to be simultaneously innocently sexy and hilariously ridiculous.

 

Your kids are lucky to have a mother with a guilty pleasure!  I can only remember one time that I escaped punishment due to my mother's sense of humor, and that was an accident on my part.  She chased me into my bedroom, and I retreated to the far side of the bed.  She lunged after me, onto the bed, and the slats fell out.  By the time we stopped laughing, neither of us could remember why she'd been angry.  So I guess I was fortunate to have an old-fashioned bed!

 

My favorite Wilder movie is The Frisco Kid, but I like just about anything with him in it.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Wilder's commentary is at least as enjoyable as the movie.  He does perhaps the best job of it that I've ever heard, letting us know what to look for ahead of time (unlike all too many commenters, who say, "Did you notice that thing that just happened -- well, it was very important").  A real pro!

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Still watching the commentary.  Didn't Moftiss say somewhere that nobody ever does Moriarty as Irish?  Or maybe they said rarely.  Anyhow, Leo McKern does Moriarty here with an Irish accent.  (I checked the spelling of his name just now, and found that McKern -- previously known to me as Rumpole of the Bailey, and Number 2 from The Prisoner -- was actually Australian.)

 

[Pawse]

This is a new one on me!