The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

This movie is a fine example of a director who had it right but the studio hurt the final product. Billy Wilder finished this movie running at 3 hours long, but the studio cut it into a 125 minute movie. You... Full review

This film is sometimes described as a comedy, and while it has humorous bits (a more sardonic and biting form of humour most of the time), it has never really felt at home being classified as a comedy, in my... Full review

The difficulties in producing 'The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes' are denoting for an aging director who refused to accept a change in the film industry. Originally, this film was more than three hours long and an anthology of Holmes'... Full review

One of fiction literature's most fascinating pairs of characters, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are depicted well here in this gem from Billy Wilder, which has a biting, clever and witty script, as well as superb production values. It was... Full review

As a Conan Doyle purist, I had not intended to watch this film when it first appeared on UK TV some years ago. Curiosity overcame me and I switched on at the sequence with Stephens and Genevieve Page on their... Full review

Sherlock Holmes (Robert Stephens) and Dr. Watson (Colin Blakely) get involved in a very weird case involving a mysterious French woman (Geneuieve Page), Sherlock's brother Mycroft (Christopher Lee), midgets, Scotland, the Queen and the Loch Ness Monster! Believe it or... Full review

This has always been one of my favorite movies. A good take on Holmes, a witty story, a bittersweet ending and music by Miklos Rozsa that sets the tone perfectly. When I saw it had become available on DVD I... Full review

Billy Wilder's take on the world's most famous detective is both painstakingly faithful and sardonically subversive to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's idiossyncratic creation. Presented as a case that loyal companion John Watson duly recorded but requested remain secret until long... Full review

Of the films on Sherlock Holmes which have been made, this Billy Wilder version is a masterful blend of drama and comedy. It also has excellent score to match this marvelous film and its main character.Robert Stephens has captured the... Full review

This film is Billy Wilder's lost masterpiece. The film is presented in a two hour and five minute version. If was originally intended to run over three hours, giving the viewer a larger look into the character of Sherlock Holmes.... Full review

Nevertheless this is an entertaining movie, skillfully weaving its tales around the Holmes mythology. Presented as a dialogue track with some footage, stills and pages from the original script. ... Full Review

Unfortunately, the picture was sold as if it were something shocking - I read an article in the short-lived Show magazine entitled The Private Sex Life of Sherlock Holmes. The pair embarked on a massive roadshow production that, with endless casting, took four years to bring to the screen. ... Full Review

This unjustly forgotten Billy Wilder film takes on the much-loved character of Sherlock Holmes and attempts to humanize him by examining his vulnerabilities:....while Christopher Lee as Mycroft is excellent, making him the only actor in Holmes screen history to play both the detective (in the German-made SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE NECKLACE OF DEATH) and his brother..... ... Full Review

Director Billy Wilder hated the final edit of The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970, MGM/UA, $19.98), a subversive take on the world's greatest detective, which hints that he may have been gay. The visual quality of this disc is the worst of the recent MGM/Wilder DVDs, with terrible-looking grain in some shots. ... Full Review

Colors are saturated at a realistic level and reflect a palette of early 1970s film stocks and DeLuxe processing. The film element used for the transfer is in very good condition, displaying only minor blemishes and only a slightly noticeable grain structure. ... Full Review

Billy Wilder , 1970). Wilder's valentine to Conan Doyle 's mythical detective is an odd blend of comedy and melancholy, pairing Robert Stephens as a foppish and surprisingly vulnerable Holmes with Colin Blakely's lovable Dr. ... Full Article

Im often accused of being cold and unemotional and I admit to it.And yet in my own cold, unemotional way, Im very fond of you, Watson. ... Full Article

The Guardian , Friday 6 December 2002 Billy Wilder's distinctive, irreverent slant on the world's greatest "consulting detective" holds up reasonably well 32 years on; you wouldn't expect anything directed by Wilder and scripted by his long-time associate IAL Diamond... ... Full Article

Think director Billy Wilder and regular scribe IAL Diamond and you think funny, flinty classics: One, Two, Three, The Apartment, The Fortune Cookie. Even timeless comedy Some Like It Hot opens with the St Valentines Day Massacre and has the... ... Full Article

Robert Stephens is the detective consultant, the man from Baker Street who fakes a story about his being not all masculine to duck out on an assignment from a Russian ballerina. ... Full Article

From the Chicago Reader Billy Wilder, in an exceedingly mellow mood, portrays Holmes as a tortured man, trapped by his own legend and paying the price for his reputation of invincibility (1970). ... Full Article