Sherlock Holmes in Film und Fernsehen: Ein Handbuch

Review: The latest publication from Baskerville Bücher is Sherlock Holmes in Film und Fersehen: Ein Handbuch, edited by Michael Ross. This 240-page paperback is, I think, the first thorough German language study of the subject. The contributions cover the silent Holmes movies in Germany, various Baskerville hounds, that curious comedy Der Mann, Der Sherlock Holmes War, the TV films with Erich Schellow, the multinational hotch-potch Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes — and five great Holmeses: Rathbone, Cushing, Lee, Richardson and Brett. The book is of interest even to the non-German speaker. The filmography includes details of the actors who dubbed soundtracks into German, and I’ll bet Harry Wüstenhagen sounded more convincing in Das Halsband des Todes than the American whose voice issues from Christopher Lee’s mouth in the English language prints!

Reviewed by: Roger Johnson [District Messenger, no. 237, November 2003]