Sherlock Holmes (1922 film)

1922 American silent mystery drama film by Albert Parker

Sherlock Holmes

1922 lobby card

Directed by| Albert Parker
Written by| Earle Browne
Marion Fairfax
Based on| Sherlock Holmes
by William Gillette and Arthur Conan Doyle
Produced by| F.J. Godsol
Starring| John Barrymore
Roland Young
Anders Randolph
William Powell
Hedda Hopper
Cinematography| J. Roy Hunt
Distributed by| Goldwyn Pictures

Release date

* May 1, 1922 (1922-05-01)

[1]

Running time

| 85 minutes
136+1⁄2 minutes (1922 original)[2]
Country| United States
Language| Silent (English intertitles)
Sherlock Holmes, Length: 1h 25min 28s Scene from the film.

Sherlock Holmes (released as Moriarty in the UK)[3] is a 1922 American silent mystery drama film starring John Barrymore as Sherlock Holmes, Roland Young as Dr. John Watson and Gustav von Seyffertitz as Moriarty.[4]

The movie, which features the screen debuts of both William Powell (credited as William H. Powell) and Roland Young, was directed by Albert Parker. It was written by Earle Browne and Marion Fairfax from the 1899 play by William Gillette and Arthur Conan Doyle based upon Doyle's characters, and was produced by Goldwyn Pictures Corporation.[5]

The film was considered lost for decades, but was rediscovered in the mid-1970s and restored by George Eastman House.

## Plot

[edit]

Cambridge student Prince Alexis is accused of stealing the athletic funds. Friend and fellow student Watson recommends he seek the assistance of classmate Sherlock Holmes. Meanwhile, while honing his observational skills out in the countryside, Holmes falls and is knocked unconscious. A young woman passerby, Alice Faulkner, comes to his aid, much to his delight.

Holmes accepts the case, and soon has a suspect, Forman Wells. Wells eventually confesses he took the money to try to get away from Moriarty; Wells is actually the son of a crook being groomed by the criminal mastermind for some later scheme. Fascinated, Holmes meets Moriarty face to face, impudently asking to study him, but of course Moriarty refuses to cooperate. Holmes informs Watson he has found his mission in life: to stop Moriarty.

Meanwhile, Alexis's uncle, Count von Stalburg, arrives with important news: both his brothers have been killed in a "motor accident". He is now the Crown Prince, and as such, cannot marry Rose Faulkner, Alice's sister. Heartbroken, Rose commits suicide.

Years pass. Holmes is praised in a newspaper for solving a mystery that baffled Scotland Yard. His investigative skills have failed to locate Alice Faulkner, but their paths do cross again. Moriarty is after Rose Faulkner's love letters from the Prince for blackmail. He has had her destitute sister Alice hired as a secretary by "G. Neville Chetwood", actually a henchman named James Larrabee. When the Prince asks Holmes to take the case, he initially refuses, as he holds the Prince responsible for Rose's death, but changes his mind when he learns that Alice is involved.

Holmes has Forman Wells infiltrate the Larrabee household as the new butler. Through trickery, Holmes gets Alice to reveal where she has hidden the letters, but oddly, once he has them in his hands, returns them to her, even though she intends to publish them to avenge her sister. He informs Watson that the letters will be the bait to lure Moriarty out of his lair.

For his part, Moriarty has become frustrated at being driven further and further underground by Holmes' relentless pursuit of him. He has Alice brought to a "gas chamber" (where he has disposed of others). Holmes walks knowingly into the trap, but manages to rescue Alice anyway.

Moriarty then sets his entire vast organization in motion to try to kill his nemesis. Holmes is up to the challenge, however. Most of Moriarty's henchmen are captured by the police, and when Moriarty comes in person (in disguise) to do the job, Holmes nabs him too. Holmes then plans his honeymoon with Alice.

## Cast

[edit]

* John Barrymore as Sherlock Holmes
* Roland Young as Dr. John Watson
* Carol Dempster as Alice Faulkner
* Gustav von Seyffertitz as Professor Moriarty
* Louis Wolheim as Craigin
* Percy Knight as Sid Jones
* William H. Powell as Forman Wells
* Hedda Hopper as Madge Larrabee
* Peggy Bayfield as Rose Faulkner
* Margaret Kemp as Therese
* Anders Randolf as James Larrabee
* Robert Schable as Alf Bassick
* Reginald Denny as Prince Alexis
* David Torrence as Count von Stalburg
* Robert Fischer as Otto, the Prince's valet and Moriarty's secret underling
* Lumsden Hare as Dr. Leighton
* Jerry Devine as Billy
* John Willard[6] as Inspector Gregson
* Walter Kingsford as Gunman in apartment (uncredited)

## Restoration

[edit]

John Barrymore and Roland Young

Material held by Eastman House was the basis for a reconstruction produced by Kevin Brownlow and William K. Everson (aided in the early stages by director Albert Parker himself, then in his late 80s), with a second reconstruction (incorporating newly found elements) undertaken by Eastman House itself in 2001.[7][8] Describing the first reconstruction attempt in 1975, Everson made it clear that reassembling the available material into a viewable form was a far from trivial task: "A few years ago all that existed of this film were rolls and rolls of negative sections, in which every take—not every sequence, but every take—were [sic] jumbled out of order, with only a few flash titles[a] for guidance [...] and a script that in many ways differed from the play, adding to the herculean task of putting it all together."[9]

The 2001 reconstruction was released on DVD by Kino International in 2009, with about 26 minutes of footage still missing. A Kino Blu-ray release followed in December 2011.[8]

## See also

[edit]

* List of rediscovered films

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ "When the titles were made locally, the films were exported with flash titles, titles of just a few frames, and the distributor could insert the [translated] titles on the place where the flash title appeared." Read, Paul, ed. (2000). Restoration of Motion Picture Film. Butterworth-Heinemann. p. 73.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "'Sherlock Holmes,' Capitol". Variety. April 14, 1922. p. 43. Retrieved February 26, 2022 - via Internet Archive.
2. ^ Pohle, Robert W. Jr.; Hart, Douglas C. (1977). Sherlock Holmes on the Screen: The Motion Picture Adventures of the World's Most Popular Detective. p. 94.
3. ^ Davies, David Stuart (1978). Holmes of the Movies: The Screen Career of Sherlock Holmes (1st ed.). Bramhall House. p. 28\. ISBN 0-517-23279-0. "It has been suggested that, although there may have been legal reasons, the mediocrity of so many of the earlier Holmes films was the deciding factor in releasing the film in Britain under the title of Moriarty."
4. ^ The AFI Catalog of Feature Films: Sherlock Holmes
5. ^ Original first Broadway performance of William Gillette's play version, Sherlock Holmes, on which the 1916 Gillette and 1922 Barrymore films are based. The play produced by Charles Frohman opened at the Garrick Theatre on November 6, 1899 and ran to June 1900. Gillette revived the play numerous times over the years, according to the IBDb.com database
6. ^ Steinbrunner, Chris; Michaels, Norman (1978). The Films of Sherlock Holmes. p. 18.
7. ^ Bennett, Carl. "Progressive Silent Film List: Sherlock Holmes (1922)". SilentEra.com. Retrieved May 22, 2009.
8. ^ a b Bennett, Carl. "DVD Review: Sherlock Holmes (1922)". SilentEra.com. Retrieved November 22, 2009.
9. ^ Everson, William K. (September 25, 1975). "program notes 1975-09-22" (PDF). The Theodore Huff Memorial Film Society. New York University. Retrieved May 22, 2009.

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sherlock Holmes (1922 film).

* Sherlock Holmes at IMDb
* Photo of Barrymore and director Albert Parker filming on location at the Wayback Machine (archived October 15, 2012)
* Sherlock Holmes on YouTube, the scene in which Holmes and Alice Faulkner first meet
* Stills at moviessilently.com

* v
* t
* e

Screen adaptations of Sherlock Holmes

Theatrical films|

| Silent|

* Sherlock Holmes Baffled (1900)
* Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; or, Held for Ransom (1905)
* Sherlock Holmes in the Great Murder Mystery (1908)
* Arsène Lupin contra Sherlock Holmes (1910)
* Éclair film series (1912–1913)
* Der Hund von Baskerville (1914)
* Detektiv Braun (1914)
* A Study in Scarlet (1914 British film)
* A Study in Scarlet (1914 US film)
* The Valley of Fear (1916)
* Sherlock Holmes (1916)
* Sherlock Holmes (1922)
* The Hound of the Baskervilles (1929)

| Stoll series|

* The Dying Detective (1921)
* The Devil's Foot (1921)
* The Man with the Twisted Lip (1921)
* The Hound of the Baskervilles (1921)
* The Sign of Four (1923)

|

Wontner series|

* The Sleeping Cardinal (1931)
* The Missing Rembrandt (1932)
* The Sign of Four (1932)
* The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes (1935)
* Silver Blaze (1937)

Rathbone–Bruce
series|

* The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)
* The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939)
* Voice of Terror (1942)
* Secret Weapon (1942)
* Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943)
* Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943)
* The Spider Woman (1943)
* The Scarlet Claw (1944)
* The Pearl of Death (1944)
* The House of Fear (1945)
* The Woman in Green (1945)
* Pursuit to Algiers (1945)
* Terror by Night (1946)
* Dressed to Kill (1946)

Downey series|

* Sherlock Holmes (2009)
* A Game of Shadows (2011)

Other films|

* The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1929)
* The Limejuice Mystery (1930)
* The Speckled Band (1931)
* Lelíček ve službách Sherlocka Holmese (1932)
* The Hound of the Baskervilles (1932)
* Sherlock Holmes (1932)
* A Study in Scarlet (1933)
* The Hound of the Baskervilles (1937)
* The Grey Lady (1937)
* The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes (1937)
* Deduce, You Say! (1956)
* The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)
* The Deadly Necklace (1962)
* A Study in Terror (1965)
* The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
* They Might Be Giants (1971)
* The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975)
* The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976)
* The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978)
* Murder by Decree (1979)
* The Case of Marcel Duchamp (1984)
* Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)
* The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
* Without a Clue (1988)
* Zero Effect (1998)
* A Samba for Sherlock (2001)
* Case Closed: The Phantom of Baker Street (2002)
* Holmes & Watson. Madrid Days (2012)
* Mr. Holmes (2015)
* The Empire of Corpses (2015)
* Sherlock Gnomes (2018)
* Holmes & Watson (2018)
* Sherlock Holmes and the Great Escape (2019)

Television/
streaming/
direct-to-video|

| Films|

| Ian Richardson|

* The Sign of Four (1983)
* The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983)

|

Peter O'Toole
(animated)|

* Sherlock Holmes and a Study in Scarlet (1983)
* Sherlock Holmes and the Baskerville Curse (1983)
* Sherlock Holmes and the Sign of Four (1983)
* Sherlock Holmes and the Valley of Fear (1983)

Vasily Livanov
series|

* Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson (1979)
* The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson (1980)
* The Hound of the Baskervilles (1981)
* The Treasures of Agra (1983)
* The Twentieth Century Approaches (1987)

Christopher Lee|

* The Leading Lady (1991)
* Incident at Victoria Falls (1992)

Matt Frewer|

* The Hound of the Baskervilles (2000)
* The Sign of Four (2001)
* The Royal Scandal (2001)
* The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire (2002)

Ian Hart (as Watson)|

* The Hound of the Baskervilles (2002)
* The Case of the Silk Stocking (2004)

Other films|

* The Three Garridebs (1937)
* The Man Who Disappeared (1951)
* The Hound of the Baskervilles (1972)
* The Longing of Sherlock Holmes (1972)
* Doctor Watson and the Darkwater Hall Mystery (1974)
* The Return of the World's Greatest Detective (1976)
* Sherlock Holmes in New York (1976)
* Silver Blaze (1977)
* The Strange Case of the End of Civilisation as We Know It (1977)
* The Hound of the Baskervilles (1982)
* The Masks of Death (1984)
* The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1987)
* Hands of a Murderer (1990)
* The Crucifer of Blood (1991)
* 1994 Baker Street: Sherlock Holmes Returns (1993)
* The Hound of London (1993)
* Sherlock: Case of Evil (2002)
* Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars (2007)
* Sherlock Holmes (2010)
* Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes (2010)

Television series|

* Sherlock Holmes (1951)
* Sherlock Holmes (1954)
* Sherlock Holmes (1965–1968)
* Sherlock Holmes (1967–1968)
* Sherlock Holmes (1968)
* Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson (1979–1980)
* Young Sherlock: The Mystery of the Manor House (1982)
* The Baker Street Boys (1983)
* Sherlock Hound (1984–1985)
* Sherlock Holmes (1984–1994)
* episodes
* The Adventures of Shirley Holmes (1997–2000)
* Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century (1999–2001)
* Sherlock (2010–2017)
* Tantei Opera Milky Holmes (2010–2016)
* Aria the Scarlet Ammo (2011)
* Elementary (2012–2019)
* Sherlock Holmes (2013)
* Sherlock Holmes (2014–2015)
* Miss Sherlock (2018)
* Sherlock: Untold Stories (2019)
* Case File nº221: Kabukicho (2019–2020)
* Moriarty the Patriot (2020–2021)
* Sherlock in Russia (2020)
* The Irregulars (2021)
* Mademoiselle Holmes (2024)
* Watson (2025–present)
* Sherlock & Daughter (2025; upcoming)
* Young Sherlock (2025; upcoming)

Actors by role|

* Sherlock Holmes
* Dr. Watson
* Inspector Lestrade
* Mycroft Holmes
* Mrs. Hudson
* Professor Moriarty

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Albert Parker

* Her Excellency, the Governor (1917)
* The Food Gamblers (1917)
* The Man Hater (1917)
* The Haunted House (1917)
* For Valour (1917)
* The Other Woman (1918)
* From Two to Six (1918)
* Annexing Bill (1918)
* Shifting Sands (1918)
* Waifs (1918)
* The Secret Code (1918)
* Arizona (1918)
* The Knickerbocker Buckaroo (1919)
* Eyes of Youth (1919)
* The Branded Woman (1920)
* Love's Redemption (1921)
* Sherlock Holmes (1922)
* Second Youth (1924)
* The Rejected Woman (1924)
* The Black Pirate (1926)
* The Love of Sunya (1927)
* After Dark (1932)
* The Right to Live (1933)
* Rolling in Money (1934)
* The Third Clue (1934)
* The Riverside Murder (1935)
* The White Lilac (1935)
* Late Extra (1935)
* Troubled Waters (1936)
* Blind Man's Bluff (1936)
* Strange Experiment (1937)
* There Was a Young Man (1937)
* The Five Pound Man (1937)
* Murder in the Family (1938)
* Second Thoughts (1938)

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