Without a Clue
Without a Clue | |
---|---|
Directed by | Thom Eberhardt |
Written by |
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Produced by | Marc Stirdivant |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Alan Hume |
Edited by | Peter Tanner |
Music by | Henry Mancini |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Orion Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 107 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Box office | $8.5 million |
Without a Clue is a 1988 British
Plot
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional creation, the central character in a series of short stories written by Dr John Watson and published in The Strand Magazine. Watson conceives of Holmes as a way for him to solve crimes incognito, as he views detective work as merely a hobby and does not want the attention it would bring to his medical career. However, when the reading public demand to actually see "Holmes", Watson hires a washed-up stage actor, Reginald Kincaid, to play the part. Kincaid slowly learns to memorise the doctor's exacting, detailed instructions every step of the way and manages to convince the public that he is indeed "Holmes".
After a major case, Kincaid oversteps his boundaries with Watson, who fires him. Realising that he should have been honest from the start, Watson decides to write Holmes out of his stories and replace him with a new character, "The Crime Doctor", based on himself. Unfortunately, the idea of a physician rather than a detective solving crimes is rejected by the public, and when Watson attempts to investigate a crime of arson at a paper warehouse, he quickly finds that no one is willing to share information or co-operate with his inquiries.
Soon after, the British government contacts Watson, requesting that "Holmes" solve a major theft. A government mint recently reported the disappearance of printing plates for £5 banknotes, with the printing supervisor, Peter Giles, having gone missing on the night of the robbery. The counterfeiting of these notes would cause the inevitable collapse of the economy if they were allowed to circulate. Watson is therefore forced to hunt down a drunken Kincaid and clean him up before accepting the case.
Watson and "Holmes" discover that the master criminal
When they return to 221B Baker Street, "Holmes" announces to a reception committee of reporters that he intends to retire and gives full credit to the qualities of his "partner" Watson. For his part, Watson assures the public that, far from this being the end, the team of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson will continue their detective work from now on as friends.
Cast
- Michael Caine as Sherlock Holmes/Reginald Kincaid
- Dr. John Watson
- Jeffrey Jones as Inspector George Lestrade
- Lysette Anthony as fake Leslie Giles
- Paul Freeman as Professor James Moriarty
- Pat Keen as Mrs. Hudson
- Matthew Savage as Wiggins
- Nigel Davenport as Lord Smithwick
- Sebastian Moran
- Peter Cook as Norman Greenhough
- John Warner as Peter Giles
- Matthew Sim as real Lesley Giles
- Gregor Fisher as Bobby at Warehouse
- Fredrick Fox as Priest
- Harold Innocent as Lord Mayor Gerald Fitzwalter Johnson
- George Sweeney as John Clay
- Murray Ewan as Archie
- Jennifer Guy as Lord Mayor's daughter
Production
Writing
Written by Gary Murphy and Larry Strawther, two devoted
Reception
At the time of its release, the film was poorly reviewed.[2] On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 62% based on 13 reviews, with an average rating of 5.6/10.[3] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B+ on scale of A to F.[4]
Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four on the grounds that the "amusing premise" that Holmes is in fact a third-rate actor hired by Watson to play the role is not enough to carry the film.[5] This was echoed by The Monthly Film Bulletin's judgement that "If this premise were to be workable, it would require the casting of an actor who could actually pass as the genuine Holmes. As it is, we are simply given a buffoon."[2] Dave Kehr, writing for the Chicago Tribune, agreed that a "Sherlock Holmes movie can be many things, but stupid isn't one of them. Still, there's no other way to consider Without a Clue, a mystery-comedy so klutzy that it tips one of its few surprises in the credit list."[6]
Vincent Canby, writing for The New York Times, stated that Without A Clue was "an appallingly witless sendup of the Sherlock Holmes–Dr. Watson stories".[7] Variety conceded that the film "generates a few laughs and smiles, but of a markedly mild nature and most of them provoked by the shrewdly judged antics of the two stars."[2] Harvey O'Brien thought the film seemed "more like a television production", although the choice of actors for the main characters convincingly addresses "the artificiality of the Holmes mythos" and "presents a unique redemption of the Watson figure".[8]
The film won the 1989 Special Jury Prize at the Festival du Film Policier de Cognac.[9]
References
- ^ The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 15 December 2018.
- ^ ISBN 9780857687760.
- ^ "Without A Clue (1988)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 7 November 2022.
- ^ "WITHOUT A CLUE (1988) B+". CinemaScore. Archived from the original on 20 December 2018.
- ^ Roger Ebert (21 October 1988). "Without A Clue". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
- ^ Kehr, Dave (21 October 1988). "'WITHOUT CLUE' MYSTERY WITH FEW SURPRISES, SILLY GAGS". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 15 December 2018.
- ^ Vincent Canby (21 October 1988). "Without A Clue (1988) Review/Film; The Case Of an Identity Crisis". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
- ^ Harvey O'Brien, "The Curious Case of the Kingdom of Shadows: the transmogification of Sherlock Holmes in the cinematic imagination" in Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle: Multi-Media Afterlives, Palgrave Macmillan 2013, p. 77[permanent dead link]
- ^ The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia
External links
- Without a Clue at IMDb
- Without a Clue at Box Office Mojo
- Without a Clue at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films