salemcat Totally Satisfying.Unlike "The Sign of Four", where, sadly, Sherlock is on the wrong team, "The Master Blackmailer" has an exceedingly pleasant conclusion.A loathsome worm, Charles Augustus Milverton, harms others with malice, needlessly. His fortune is assured; any money he coerces from others feeds his black heart more than his purse.His doom is pleasant. He is middle-aged, in excellent health, and would have had many years before him. Years he could have tortured others with.Suddenly, much to his surprise, not a single cartridge, but 2/3 of an entire revolvers' cylinder is emptied into his lungs, liver, spleen, and any other organs that may have been in the way.He is seen suffering from the punctures, yet happily his assassin has saved a final pair of rounds to increase his pain and further his injuries.Best of all, no rounds were to his face. Which makes the final application of high-heels to his eyes and face, transforming his features into a simple blood pudding, all the better.There are times when mercy would be inappropriate.

Hitchcoc "The Case of Charles Augustus Milverton" is the basis for this entry in the Holmes saga. In it a master blackmailer with no sense of compassion uses young women by buying up incriminating letters and documents from disreputable, money grubbing people. He pays a healthy fee, but gains recompense at a future time. Usually, these are young women with marriage prospects, who have done something that will either destroy any possibility of matrimony or cause embarrassment to their upper crust husbands. A young military man takes his own life and this leads to a series events, including one where Holmes and Watson risk their careers to do what is right. Milverton is one of the slimiest villains in the history of literature, having almost no redeeming qualities. His portrayal is subtle and quiet, like a cobra lying in the bush. But he is the most evil kind of cad with no qualms about engaging his psychotic plans. He considers himself a shrewd businessman and carnage is his business.

tedg An earlier comment of mine was deleted by a complaint from a blackmailing reader, who threatened me to go more lightly on his pet world.This was never a great Holmes story. It is of the "take action and disguise self" branch of the Conan Doyle tree. I much prefer the scientist who deduces, ideally deducing what's going on the master criminal's mind.Here, the story structure has four women whose lives are touched by the bad guy. They are the center of the thing, these four, not Holmes, and every sequence is set up to illuminate them not the detective. Two are women who have been successfully blackmailed. One (the redhead) not yet. The fourth sets a kind of symmetry as she is employed by the criminal and exploited emotionally not by him, but by Holmes. These four are mirrored by other women and men dressed as women in a portrayal of a sort of survivalist London underground.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

smokehill retrievers I tend to look askance at departures from Doyle's sacred writings, but the additions in this film were well-chosen and done well. Those of us who have most of the Holmes canon mostly memorized tend to forget that for many viewers this may be their first exposure to Holmes, Watson and the foggy streets of Victorian London. A bit more atmosphere and additional plot may be a good introduction for newcomers to the Foggy Fables.The large body of work left by Brett and his associates is, I believe, the best and most faithful Holmes films so far.