Sherlock Holmes in New York

1976 film by Boris Sagal

Sherlock Holmes in New York

DVD artwork

Genre| Crime
Mystery
Written by| Alvin Sapinsley
Directed by| Boris Sagal
Starring| Roger Moore
Patrick Macnee
Music by| Richard Rodney Bennett
Country of origin| United States
Original language| English
Production
Executive producer| Nancy Malone
Producer| John Cutts
Production location| New York City
Cinematography| Michael D. Margulies
Editor| Samuel E. Beetley
Running time| 100 minutes
Production company| 20th Century Fox Television
Original release
Network| NBC
Release| October 18, 1976 (1976-10-18)

Sherlock Holmes in New York is a 1976 American made-for-television mystery film about Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, played by Roger Moore and Patrick Macnee respectively.[1]

Despite the film's title the production was shot entirely in Southern California at the 20th Century-Fox lot in West Los Angeles, with some scenes filmed at the Mayfair Music Hall in Santa Monica.

## Plot

[edit]

The great detective Sherlock Holmes and his trusted companion Dr. John Watson travel to New York City to investigate a recent threat made by Professor Moriarty.

During their investigation, Holmes and Watson are reunited with their old acquaintance Irene Adler, now a popular music-hall singer, who reveals that Moriarty has kidnapped her son. Moriarty has also left a note for Holmes informing him that he will be approached by the police soon for aid in a crime, and should he not refuse – Moriarty also informing him that he should provide no reason for his refusal – the boy will die.

Holmes is subsequently contacted by the NYPD regarding the recent apparent theft of the international gold exchange at the New York bank, with the entire vault of gold bars having vanished seemingly overnight, the theft only secret until a planned transaction between Italy and Germany in three days' time. To protect the child, Holmes refuses the case, but a chance comment by Watson inspires Holmes to shift his attention to finding Scott to remove the blackmail card. While Watson departs with Irene disguised as Holmes to draw away the agent Moriarty has assigned to watch him, Holmes determines that Scott was tricked into cooperating with the kidnapping as an apparent joke, allowing him to find the kidnapper.

Investigating the vaults, and quickly ruling as impossible the actual removal of many tonnes of gold via a narrow tunnel in the time available, Holmes swiftly determines what has taken place; based on the speed of the lift's descent, it should take them 45 seconds to reach the vaults, but they stopped after only 42 seconds. From this, Holmes deduces that Moriarty had an empty, duplicate vault built a few meters above the real one, subsequently planting iron bars to stop the lift reaching the real vault. While everyone puzzled over how the bars of gold were stolen from the false vault, Moriarty would actually be stealing them from the real one below. In a final confrontation in New York's underground, Moriarty escapes.

The case is solved. As Holmes and Adler say their goodbyes, Adler comments that her son has a keen intellect and a certain knack for solving puzzles, implying that Holmes may be his father. The two nevertheless part ways with Adler giving Holmes a picture of her son to keep.

## Cast

[edit]

* Roger Moore as Sherlock Holmes
* Patrick Macnee as Doctor Watson
* John Huston as Professor Moriarty
* Charlotte Rampling as Irene Adler
* Gig Young as Mortimer McGrew
* David Huddleston as NYPD Inspector Lafferty
* Signe Hasso as Fraulein Reichenbach
* Leon Ames as Daniel Furman
* John Abbott as Heller
* Jackie Coogan as Haymarket Hotel Proprietor
* William Benedict as Telegraph Office Manager
* Paul Sorensen as Man In Checkered Suit
* John Steadman as Stage Doorman
* Geoffrey Moore as Scott Adler
* Charles Durning as Inspector (uncredited)

## Production

[edit]

When initially approached to portray Sherlock Holmes, Roger Moore was uninterested.[1] After reading the script, he decided to go ahead having found it "funny and original."[1] He was attracted to how different the role was than other projects with which he had been involved.

> But what I most like about playing Holmes is that there is more dialogue then I ever had in 120 Saint episodes and two Bond films.[1]

Casting John Huston as Moriarty allowed for an homage to his classic film, The Maltese Falcon by having a reproduction of the film's jeweled Falcon on Moriarty's desk.[2]

Patrick Macnee was cast as Dr. Watson and played him in the same bumbling fashion as Nigel Bruce had decades earlier.[3] Macnee went on to play a more intelligent representation of the character in two television films opposite Christopher Lee as Holmes, Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady and Incident at Victoria Falls.[3]

## Home media

[edit]

### Soundtrack

[edit]

The film was scored by Richard Rodney Bennett, marking his first work for American television; Leonard Rosenman conducted. On 9 October 2006, Intrada Records released the music on a limited edition CD alongside Georges Delerue's score for The Pick-up Artist.

### Video

[edit]

On 22 August 2014, the film was released as a manufactured on demand DVD by 20th Century-Fox Cinema Archives.

On 25 July 2016, Signal One Entertainment released the movie on Blu-ray in the UK.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d Haining, Peter (1994). The Television Sherlock Holmes. Virgin Books. pp. 73–74\. ISBN 0-86369-793-3.
2. ^ Bunson, Matthew (1997). Encyclopedia Sherlockiana. Simon & Schuster. p. 236\. ISBN 0-02-861679-0.
3. ^ a b Barnes, Alan (2011). Sherlock Holmes on Screen. Titan Books. pp. 222–224\. ISBN 9780857687760.

## External links

[edit]

* Sherlock Holmes in New York at IMDb

* 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 Boris Sagal

* The Crimebusters (1961)
* Dime with a Halo (1963)
* Twilight of Honor (1963)
* Guns of Diablo (1965)
* Girl Happy (1965)
* Made in Paris (1966)
* The Helicopter Spies (1968)
* Mosquito Squadron (1969)
* The Thousand Plane Raid (1969)
* Destiny of a Spy (1969)
* Night Gallery ("The Cemetery" segment, 1969)
* Hauser's Memory (1970)
* The Omega Man (1971)
* The Failing of Raymond (1971)
* A Case of Rape (1974)
* The Dream Makers (1975)
* Sherlock Holmes in New York (1976)
* Angela (1978)
* The Diary of Anne Frank (1980)
* When the Circus Came to Town (1981)

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