The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970 Billy WIlder)

In memory of Christopher Lee, who just died aged 93. He played Sir Henry Baskerville in the Hammer version, Holmes himself in Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes (1962), Mycroft here, Holmes again in Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady/Incident at Victoria Fall, and was alleged to be Moriarty in the unfilmed Baker Street Irregulars, though my contention that he also played Watson seems to be false.

Poor old Robert Stephens - who's utterly fantastic as Holmes - was heavily drinking then and suffered a nervous breakdown - you can see his hands shaking occasionally. Colin Blakely is also good as Watson - his comic timing is great - note scene with butter knife. And talking of timing, Wilder does another of his energetic musical numbers featuring members of a ballet - note the perfect way in which the girls are fluidly replaced with boys. Screenplay is excellent - many very funny lines, though part two is less funny than part one. (Watson: "We need to get married!". Holmes "Now that would make people talk!") Note the way in which any normal director would give you some night to day transition shot - Wilder does it by using a joke with a policeman. Genevieve Page is the mystery woman and Stanley Holloway is in it very briefly (one of his last films, though he lived another 12 years) and Clive Revill displays the same perfect pitch performance that he demonstrates in Avanti as a Russian (note his timing when he opens and closes the curtain of the opera box). And how can anyone resist Irene Handl as Mrs Hudson?

Miklós Rózsa's theme is his own violin concerto and is wonderful. Chris Challis shot it in diffused style; the posh sets are by Alexandre Trauner.

But. 30% of the picture is lost. Wilder left the cutting to someone else while he pursued a mysterious film project which he couldn't subsequently remember:

The opening sequence was to  feature Watson’s grandson in London claiming his inherited dispatch box from Cox & Co., there was also a flashback to Holmes’ Oxford days to explain his distrust of women [she turns out to be a prostitute]. All were shot, but deleted from the final print. So what happened? Well, it appears that United Artists suffered a number of major film flops in 1969 that pretty much scuppered the road show format for Wilder’s massive project. Studio exec’s ordered the film to be cut to fill a regular theatrical running time, whittling the film down to a 125-minute version. The episodic format made the pruning process relatively simple, so cut were the opening sequence, the Oxford flashback and two full episodes entitled “The Dreadful Business of the Naked Honeymooners” at 15 minutes and “The Curious Case of the Upside Down Room” at 30 minutes. We can only hope that the full footage can one day be restored, although a full print is not currently thought to exist.

However, in 1994 Image Entertainment released a laser disc that did contain the soundtrack (without picture) to the “Upside Down Room” sequence and picture (without sound) for the “Naked Honeymooners” sequence. With any luck, perhaps something more will come to light before a DVD version is released.

Source: http://bakerstreetdozen.com/lee2.html

It was another collaboration between Wilder and John Williams, but sadly he was cut.