enthusiastically and well received in America and set the trend for Sherlock Holmes pastiches
and theatrical adaptations. During Gillette’s time, there were still large remnants of romanticism
in entertainment to help the public escape from their own dull, arduous lives. If the character of
Sherlock Holmes was displayed in a realistic setting, for example if instead of Holmes being a
private consulting detective he became a factory employee working twenty hour days, the
audiences might not have received Gillette’s play so readily. During the World War II era, Basil
Rathbone and Nigel Bruce’s first four Universal Sherlock Holmes film production series were
predominantly focused on Sherlock Holmes against the Nazis. In these four films, according to
public preference Universal altered the concept of police force inadequacy. Instead, the
government and police were held in equal regard with the detective. This is a reflection of the
adamant patriotism that was propagandized during those war times. The scripts often required
Basil Rathbone to directly point out to the audience that the Nazis and the Germans were the
ones responsible for any hardships or crimes that affected the people. This sort of propaganda
raised spirits during the war, displaying how society needed to materialize a visible enemy.
During the mid-80s and early 90s, Jeremy Brett and David Burke/Edward Hardwicke’s
interpretation of the Holmes and Watson relationship practiced fidelity to the canon with
astonishing precision. This is a characteristic of the modern age, where the general public holds
exactitude and respect for originality in higher esteem. Jeremy Brett had also altered a defining
“quality” in Holmes that had been much accepted in the Sherlockian world. He had requested to
Doyle’s daughter, Jame Dean Conan Doyle, to cease Holmes’ drug habit. The Granada series
taped specific segments where they show Holmes in conflict over the seven- percent solution of
cocaine but always rejecting it. This demonstrates society’s struggle to dispel the hippie era of
promoting drug use and to filter the contents on television for the safety of the children.
Modern characters that have adopted the Sherlock Holmes phenomena have created
legendary “flawed” heroes. Conan Doyle constructed a monstrous genius that had all the foibles
and charms of being human, a character the public could admire yet not set him at a high
pedestal because of his eccentricities. In Chris Carter’s The X-Files, one of the main characters
in the series, Fox Mulder, is nicknamed “Spooky” Mulder because of his obsession with the
paranormal and his work. He is depicted as a genius with an eidetic memory. Sherlock Holmes
was also known to easily retain out of the way knowledge and was an omnivorous reader. The
sleuth’s obsessive character trait is seen in his devotion to his work and the constant lapse of
energy Holmes suffered when he was idle. Both Mulder and Holmes could be categorized as
“Bohemian” since they both rejected much of society’s approvals and company except for their
partners. Mulder had his Scully to stabilize and take care of him while Holmes had his Watson
to look over his well being and also to stabilize him throughout the years. Holmes practiced
forensic science to build a profile of the offender(s) in his cases, and Mulder had once been the
FBI’s “Golden Boy” profiler in the Violent Crime Section. Another “flawed” hero is Thomas
Harris’ cannibalistic psychiatrist, Hannibal Lecter. In the movies Silence of the Lambs directed
by Jonathon Demme and Red Dragon directed by Brett Ratner, Hannibal is written as a
charismatic, impossibly intelligent, and elusive character. Hannibal refrains from telling much
of his knowledge to his interviewer, whether it is Starling or Graham, in order to appear more
intelligent. This is parallel with Holmes’ consistent withholding of information to Watson so he
may continue to astound his friend. Holmes himself said that it was more beneficial to have a
colleague who was perpetually surprised and astonished by his results than one who could
always predict the outcome. Doyle and Harris both utilized the art of suspense so they would
continue to maintain their control over the audience. Much of Lecter’s observations and
deductions are reflective of Sherlock Holmes’ methods. Lecter deduced a killer’s whereabouts
by examining the FBI’s case file through pure reason and intelligent conjecture. Lecter practiced
his eye to observe trifles, just as Holmes depended on this practice to discern facts about a person
or a case. Finally, in Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek : The Next Generation, Lieutenant
Commander Data of the starship Enterprise is a naïve and “technically” emotionless character.
Holmes displayed qualities of naivete about subjects that did not assist in his profession, for
example when he demonstrated his ignorance of the solar system. In all three of these modern
heroes, they share a prized emotional distance and objectivity that created a sense of superiority
and control in their actions. These qualities became part of their trademark, just as Sherlock
Holmes was so celebrated for his emotional distance and objectivity.
In some movies, the interpretation of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson created mild
controversy. In Billy Wilder’s 1970 movie The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, the famous
Baker Street sleuth was implied to be homosexual and Robert Stephens’ interpretation of the
character created an overly effeminate Holmes. During that era, homosexuality was not as
openly accepted to the public, thus the critics responded to this movie with a mixture of
vehemence and praise. Mainly they scoffed at the terrible relationship depicted between Holmes
and Watson and lightly danced over the implied homosexuality. In Basil Rathbone’s debut as
Sherlock Holmes, Twentieth Century Fox’s 1939 film The Hound of the Baskervilles, at the end
of the production, Holmes’ last words are calling to Watson to bring him “the needle” for his
cocaine. Many of the critics believed that this one statement alone should have bumped the
rating of the movie to a PG-13 because younger audience members might think to follow
Holmes’ example.
