William Gillette's filmed version of his Sherlock Holmes stage play was shot in the United States and played theatrically in 1916. After it ran its course, it was then shipped off to France where it was recut to cash in on the serials that were popular in Parisian theaters at that time. It played French theaters in 1919 and was never seen again. For the better part of the last century, the film was believed to be lost. There were no known elements to be found and for that reason the movie never received a revival screening, let alone a home video release. Considering that in his day, Gillette was considered the definitive Holmes (having played the character on stage more than thirteen hundred times!) this was very much a missing link in the cinematic history of the world's greatest detective.

In 2014, film cans containing the dupe negative that was shipped off to France was found. A complex and time consuming restoration process was soon underway and while the intertitles were in French, English intertitles were recreated. Instructions were included with the elements as to how they were to be assembled and to the tinting colors that should be used for each scene (orange for day and blue for night). The film played at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival and now receives, thanks to Flicker Alley, it's home video debut courtesy of this lavish Blu-ray/DVD Combo set.

The story, which is split here into four parts (The Prince's Letters, Moriarty Vs. Sherlock Holmes, A Tragic Night and The Triumph Of Sherlock Holmes), pulls from a few different Holmes stories, all written by creator Arthur Conan Doyle, but it begins when The Larabees hold a young woman named Alice Faulkner (Marjorie Kay) hostage in order to force her to reveal the locations of some letters in her possession that would cause a scandal. It seems her sister had relations of some sort with a member of the Royal Family and the Larabees aim to destroy any and all evidence that would come to light. Sherlock Holmes (Gillette), with some help from his friend Doctor Watson (Edward Fielding), jumps in to try and save the day. As he sets out to rescue Alice, Professor Moriarty (Ernest Maupain) arrives on the scene…

So how does it all play out? Well, as stated, this is basically a filmed version of the stage play that made Gillette famous in the role. The first half or so of the movie is, for lack of a better term, rather stagey in how it is shot, meaning a lot of scenes simply feature two people sitting or standing across from one another discussing details of the different cases Holmes undertakes here. Having said that, as things progress there are also some interesting action scenes that take place and if the movie isn't the most dynamic or fluid example of filmmaking, silent or otherwise, it does feature some interesting scenes shot outside on some pretty effective locations and it does offer up some solid scenes of suspense. Things definitely pick up in this regard towards the end of the movie where the feud between Holmes and Moriarty is in full swing and when Holmes must escape from a gas chamber or surely perish!

The production values here are also quite good. Yes, there are definitely moments where backgrounds look to have been recycled from a play rather than created for the movie (a fireplace, for example, is clearly a painted piece and not an actual fireplace) but that's never really a detriment, in fact it somehow manages to add to the film's charm. The costuming is quite good here and if there is the occasional moment of jerky camera movement most of the time the cinematography is pretty strong. The film relies more frequently on intertitles than a lot of other silent films tend to, again, likely stemming back to the stage version, with Gillette needing to translate more dialogue for his version than he might need to had this originated as a piece intended for film. Again though, this isn't a problem, just something that makes the movie a little different. There are some pacing problems here and the story does take a little while to hit a proper stride and some may take issue with the way that Holmes' relationship with Faulkner evolves but despite some inconsistencies for the most part this does work quite well.

The real draw, for most viewers at least, is the cast. Marjorie Kay is beautiful as Alice Faulker. She looks ‘right' for the part and plays the role nicely. Edward Fielding looks exactly like you'd expect Doctor Watson to look, he's got a sort of regal charm to him and is, of course, more restrained than his better regarded partner. Ernest Maupain looks and acts absolutely diabolical as the sinister Moriarty, he's got an amazing screen presence and he uses it well. And then, of course, there's Gillette in the lead. The guy looks like he walked out of an old Holmes illustration, the resemblance is uncanny, and you can clearly tell by the way he uses his build and his body language that he's very comfortable in the part. He handles the humor, the drama, the action and the intensity that the part requires and he makes it look easy and natural. It's hard to say if he's as good as Rathbone or Brett in the part, but then, they had the advantage of sound in their portrayals, so it's not really a fair comparison to make. Let it suffice to say that Gillette is excellent and that this ‘first' Sherlock Holmes is indeed a very good one.

Video:

The AVC encoded 1080p fullframe transfer of the (tinted) black and white image is impressive when you consider the fact that this film was lost for so long and that it's only a few months away from celebrating its one hundredth birthday. There is some print damage (and some dirt that was captured in camera and which therefore can't really be eliminated) and there are scratches evident throughout but the detail is definitely there and it's generally a really nice looking picture. Depth and detail and texture don't compete with more modern fare but those accustomed to older pictures should be very pleased with just how good this really looks. There are no problems to note with any compression artifacts nor is there any obvious noise reduction or edge enhancement.