rodrig58 This is good, so I wanted to see it a second time. Probably the best part of Morgan Fairchild. One of the best roles for Christopher Lee. Same for Patrick Macnee. All three are beautiful and charming. Actually, all the actors are very good. Precise direction by Peter Sasdy. Another movie directed by him which I liked very much and I've seen it several times, is "Doomwatch" (in Romania, it was distributed with the title "Misterul din insula Balfe" - "The Mystery of Balfe Island").

Leofwine_draca SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE LEADING LADY looks great on paper. It's an epic 3-hour TV miniseries featuring Holmes and Watson as old men, still trotting the globe and sorting out criminals wherever they meet them. The narrative features the return of two fan favourites (Mycroft and Irene Adler) in a brand new adventure. The film was made by veteran producers Harry Alan Towers and Egypt's Frank Agrama (DAWN OF THE MUMMY), among others, and shot in Luxembourg - no doubt due to the tax breaks available there. The director was Peter Sasdy, a seasoned Hammer veteran who certainly knows his stuff. Finally, and best of all, it features Christopher Lee and Patrick Macnee as the intrepid twosome.Unfortunately, such a production could never meet the standards expected from the sheer quantity of talent involved, and this turns out to be an entirely middling affair. It's watchable, certainly, but also long-winded, and the insistence on throwing real-life characters in the mix, like Sigmund Freud and, most bizarrely, Elliott Ness, is an odd one. There were two scriptwriters, one British and one American, and I blame the latter for the annoying US-centric elements, not least Morgan Fairchild's presence as Irene Adler. Talk about out of place...Still, it's not all bad. Lee is, as you'd expect, excellent as the famous detective, bringing him ably to life in his twilight years. Macnee is the closest we've got to the lovable Nigel Bruce yet, and the supporting cast features some experienced British character actors like John Bennett and Ronald Hines; the presence of Engelbert Humperdinck is more of a mystery. Speaking of mystery, the plotting is perfectly adequate, but there's little true deductive reasoning for Holmes to carry out; the whole thing seems beneath him, and occasionally he seems a bit stupid and a far cry from the original Conan Doyle creation.

arborite Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady was an enjoyable movie, and I thought it was well made. I haven't seen many Sherlock Holmes productions and I'm not really familiar with the specifics of the original stories or the history of the character, so I can't say how well this movie stands up as a Sherlock Holmes production. However, considered by itself as an individual movie it's definitely worth viewing.I'm not generally a fan of movies produced for television, but Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady didn't suffer from the problems common to most TV productions. Sets and costumes were numerous and elaborate, and the sound was full, unlike many TV productions with flat sound that is clearly from a set. The plot was well laid out and easily followed, unlike the second production in this series (Incident at Victoria Falls), which I think is a bit convoluted and confusing. One small warning-- this movie was apparently originally broadcast in segments as a small mini-series, and the total run-time is about 3 hours. You'll need to set aside some time if you plan to watch it all in one go.Patrick Macnee was fun as Watson, and Christopher Lee plays a convincing Holmes. Morgan Fairchild seemed to be a good fit as the Leading Lady, though there were a couple singing scenes with poor lip-syncing, which might be partially her fault but could also be attributed to the editor and director. The cast is quite large for a television production, with lots of secondary and minor characters, and good performances throughout the movie.Overall, Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady is a nice period piece and I enjoyed watching it.

rose-294 Not really good, but not really terrible either. Starring Christopher Lee as aged Holmes, Patrick MacNee as Watson and Morgan Fairchild as theatre diva Irene Adler, this TV production has respectable but anodyne BBC costume drama look and so-so mystery. Script by Bob Shayne and British crime fiction writer H R F Keating is a bit dull, direction by Peter Sasdy lacks lushness of Twins of Evil (1971). Polluted by some atrocious dialogue, like "witty" (read: juvenile) mockery of gluttons - in Freudian terms, I am not in anal state to enjoy such antics - and enlivened by cameos from famous historical persons, this is a mediocre pastiche.