I grew up during what was effectively the golden age of Amblin Entertainment, the production company founded by Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall. During the 1980s the company was on one hell of a hot streak. Besides Spielberg's own films, it gave us Poltergeist, Gremlins, Innerspace, The Goonies, Batteries Not Included, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, An American Tail, and the Back to the Future trilogy. One of the key feature of Amblin films was that even though they weren't always directed by Spielberg himself, they still felt like they could've have been directed by Spielberg (the words 'Steven Spielberg Presents' would be loud and proud on all the posters). With this film it feels like someone just gave Barry Levinson and Chris Columbus the script for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and said “Do that, but with Sherlock Holmes”.
Includes spoilers!
The two films were in development around the same time so there was some obvious creative cross pollination resulting in both having a central trio consisting of the hero, their sidekick and their love interest, an evil cult of offensive culture stereotypes, near identical ritual sacrifice scenes, and a third act rescue of the love interest before she ends up being sacrificed by the offensive culture stereotypes. Admittedly, in this film it is mainly Brits play acting as offensive culture stereotypes, which does fit in with the nation's long fascination/fetish with ancient Egyptian culture. A smart or considerate film might have something interesting to say about all this cultural appropriation or how the villains are essentially trying to hold British imperialists accountable for their war crimes, but this isn't a smart or considerate film.
This is one of the few Holmes adaptations that actually shows the first meeting between Holmes and Watson and the beginning of their legendary partnership. Doyle covered all this in the very first Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet, but it isn't one that ever really gets adapted. The twist here is that instead of being adults sharing a flat in London, Holmes and Watson are students at a typical Victorian boarding school full of snobbish bullies and dusty teachers who were probably ancient during the Regency. While it sells itself as a film about Sherlock Holmes' school days, this angle is clearly something the filmmakers weren't all that interested in, quickly getting Holmes expelled so he can focus on solving the case instead of having to worry about attending classes or taking exams.
This film is a little odd in that it kinda wants to be an origin story for Sherlock Holmes, but not really for Holmes as a character. Despite his young age, Holmes himself is more or less fully formed. He may not have mastered the violin yet, but he's every bit the deductive know-it-all of legend. Instead, the film is more concerned with providing a purely cosmetic origin for the costume that audiences most associate with Holmes thanks to the Rathbone movies. Throughout the film we see him acquire the various components from other people (the deerstalker from Waxflatter, the pipe from Watson, the coat from Rathe) until the iconic look is complete in the final scene. The only thing the film really tries to do with him is explain why he's so much colder and clinical (and single) as an adult. And the answer is... a woman he cared about was murdered in front of him. Hmm, Nicholas Meyer did a similar thing with The Seven-Percent Solution. And had Moriarty as Holmes' old teacher. And introduced a repressed childhood trauma relating to something terrible their father did. Chris, be honest, did you just copy Meyer's homework?
The acting from the younger cast is only a slight step up from an old BBC children's drama. Nicholas Rowe certainly has the look of a young Holmes, but his performance is flatter than a Dutch landscape and he barely has any chemistry with his co-stars. Alex Cox's Watson is just incessantly irritating, doing nothing but tag along and grumble the whole time about all the trouble Holmes will get them in and how ruined his future medical career is. Sophie Ward's Elizabeth is the worst served of the three, her primary function is to be the pretty girl that Holmes loves and loses and never anything more.
The thing that really derails the film is the mystery element, which is just flimsy and with so many obvious twists and turns. Rathe and Mrs Dribb are the only prominent adult characters in the entire film so naturally they turned out to be the bad guys. Some of Holmes' deductions are also uncharacteristic wild assumptions devoid of any factual evidence, like how he knew Rathe was the real mastermind. The joke about him missing the most obvious clue (that Rathe is Eh-Tar backwards) would've landed better if he had actually done something incredibly complicated and clever to figure out who the villain was.
This ended up being a film better remembered for its technical achievements than its storytelling ones. The famous stained glass knight (created by Pixar back when it was still a Lucasfilm subsidiary) is an exceptional piece of early computer animation that holds up remarkably well 40 years later, although its screen time was briefer than I remembered. All the hallucination scenes are terrific and by far the best part of the entire movie. Some remain genuinely unpleasant and frightening. I nearly jumped out of my seat when Bobster's dinner suddenly came alive and attacked him in the opening scene. As with other Amblin films, this one really pushed the limits of what one could get away with in a family movie.
Notes and Quotes
--Also known as Young Sherlock Holmes and the Pyramid of Fear in some countries.
--Sir Michael Hordern provides the narration as old Watson, which mainly seems to be used to fill in the gaps for scenes that were cut or condensed.
--Rathe and Dribb interrogate Elizabeth to find out where Holmes and Watson are even though Dribb just saw them both at Cragwich's house.
--First time I saw this film I wasn't well versed in Holmes lore so the significance of the name Rathe wrote down in the post-credit scene was lost on me. This was one of many films in the 80s that pioneered the use of a post-credit scene to tease a sequel, but like all the others it flopped and no sequel was ever produced.
--When he was expelled, Holmes packed up all his things in the dorm and put them on the coach to be taken to his brother's house, but he never went there as planned yet didn't have them with him when he returned to school, which was a few days later. However, in the final scene he again packs up his things in the dorm and leaves the school. Where was his luggage the whole time? Where was he staying before he started crashing in Waxflatter's lab? And how did his things end up back in the dorm?
--Rathe must be superhuman to survive falling into the frozen Thames. It needs to be incredibly cold for the entire river to freeze over. Last time was in 1963 when the temperature dipped to -20°C.
--Many of the character names (Waxflatter, Cragwich, Snelgrove, Bobster) are decidedly more Dickensian than Doyle.
--Jeffrey Archer, former Tory MP, shitty author, and convicted criminal, acted as script doctor to make it sound more authentically English.
--The sketch that Watson first shows Holmes of the six men is clearly different from the one they later show Elizabeth. When Holmes first sees it he points to the fourth man standing from the left as Cragwich, but later says he is the man sitting down.
--Speaking of which, six men were responsible for looting the tomb, but we only see three killed and no mention is made of any other deaths and yet Holmes sees the sketch and says the cult has killed everyone in it except Cragwich. How does he know the other two are dead? Were their deaths cut for time or money?
Sherlock Holmes: “A great detective relies on perception, intelligence, and imagination.”
Lestrade: “Where'd you get that rubbish from?”
Sherlock Holmes: “It's framed on the wall behind you.”
Waxflatter: “Elementary, my dear Holmes... elementary.”
Lestrade: “I despise your arrogance.”
Sherlock Holmes: “And I despise your laziness.”
Professor Rathe: “Holmes. Remember what I always taught you... control your emotions or they will be your downfall.”
Young Sherlock Holmes really wants to be Indiana Jones and Goonies for the Victorian age yet only really manages to be a decent showcase for the technical wizardry of Industrial Light and Magic. ⭐⭐
Mark Greig has been writing for Doux Reviews since 2011 More Mark Greig
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