However, the film is an uneasy length, you cannot argue, but God do I enjoy it. A mid-tier Billy Wilder film sure, but it is still an excellent watch, thoroughly enjoyable from beginning to end. I remain as enthusiastic about it as I was when I first saw it 25 years ago.
Stephens is ably assisted by a great supporting cast. Colin Blakely's energetic Dr. Watson; Irene Handl's exasperated Mrs Hudson, and Christopher Lee's imperious Mycroft Holmes. Lee's aristocratic baring is absolutely correct for the film, though he may have a little too much energy for Mycroft.
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Wilson
Wilson
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The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes is really good fun, even in the two-hour, choppy cut. It is a 125 minutes of Billy Wilder playing Sherlock Holmes fairly straight, but pulling the rug out from under him, and making the case just get away from him.
It is sly and witty, in the best Wilder and IAL Diamond way, with only a notion towards a satiric view of Holmes, rather it is almost wholly an elegant telling of a Holmesian story.
"Were you expecting someone?"
"Not at this time of night."
"Perhaps Mrs Hudson is entertaining."
"I've never found her so."
Robert Stephens is tremendous as Holmes, with his almost-cartoon voice, fading and rising; he brings a genuine warmth to Holmes, that is not always apparent in the character (or in Wilder's films). His interactions in the first of the three stories with the ballet dancer are brilliantly played.
