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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rated by buyers NR (Not Rated)
Type of bind: DVD
EAN num: 9780788606045
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
ISBN number: 0788606042
Label: Mpi Home Video
Manufacturer: Mpi Home Video
Quantity: 3
Publishing house: Mpi Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: October 26, 2004
Running Time: 330 minutes
Sale Popularity Level: 10850
Studio: Mpi Home Video
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Description:
Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke return for their final bow in THE MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES. Closing out the long running Granada series, Holmes and Watson are back on the case with six more arduous mysteries to solve. The ailing Jeremy Brett completes his portrayal of the Great Detective in style and Holmes' brother Mycroft plays a crucial role in the series. Episodes: The Three Gables, The Dying Detective, The Golden Pince-Nez, The Red Circle, The Mazarin Stone, The Cardboard Box
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Jeremy Brett ended his riveting run as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous sleuth in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1994), the final set of episodes in the long-running Granada Television series. In The Three Gables, an old widow receives a suspicious offer of a large sum of money to move out of her depressing mansion and leave absolutely everything behind. Holmes looks into this strange proposition and comes face to face with an enforcer and powerful pugilist, who Holmes cuts down to size with verbal agility. This adaptation may, in all honesty, be an improvement on Doyle's original story. The Dying Detective features Brett in a particularly strenuous and emotionally compelling performance as the Great Detective. Following his uncharacteristically provocative threat to expose a murderer, Holmes becomes mortally ill and delirious. Brett, who was actually suffering from cardiac problems at the time, certainly looks the part of the doomed hero, and his urgency in the role is haunting and poignant.
With Dr. Watson (the also excellent Edward Hardwicke) absent from The Golden Pince-Nez, Holmes is joined by his brother Mycroft (Charles Gray) in an investigation into the murder of a secretary to a chain-smoking, invalid professor. Gray's amusing, inscrutable performance helps supplement that of the valiantly struggling Brett, whose considerable health problems a decade into the series are well known to his devoted fans. The Red Circle draws upon facts related to a one-time, secret Italian terrorist organization. Holmes and Watson investigate a mysterious lodger who tells Holmes of her ties to the Red Circle and of her efforts, along with those of her missing husband, to break free of the Circle's long arm of revenge.
The ailing Brett largely stepped aside for The Mazarin Stone, a radical reinvention of the Doyle story, which was based on a one-act play also written by Doyle and performed in 1921. Instead of Holmes solving the crime, this time it is his brother, Mycroft (Gray again), ably assisted by Watson. (Sherlock does show up from time to time in a dream-like refrain, thinking through some knotty problem in a moonlighted garden.) Despite the absence of Brett from the main proceedings, the episode is still fun to watch, if largely out of curiosity to see Mycroft in action.
Controversial upon its very first publication in 1893, The Cardboard Box confronts some nasty consequences of adultery. Holmes and Watson link the grisly mailing of two severed human ears with a complicated love triangle. Holmes, an expert in ears, naturally, has no problem with the mystery of where they came from. But toward what end mortals pursue 'this circle of misery, violence, and fear' is another question. Though still ill at the time and at the end of his Holmes career, Brett gives a focused, remarkable performance while Hardwicke lends strong support. --Tom Keogh
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Rated by buyers 
-
Jeremy Brett is still the greatest Sherlock Holmes actor, however in these later films, his unfortunate illness that gave him an untimely death already shows heavily. Within the few years between the very first films and these, his condition deteriorated a lot and his face shows this decline.
The stories are also kind of tiring, one can clearly feel that Conan Doyle was dragging himself from story to story in these later years.
Still for any Holmes fan, this is a must have.
Rated by buyers 
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"The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" is Grenada Television's final installment of one-hour Sherlock Holmes episodes, starring the superb Jeremy Brett as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's master sleuth and Edward Hardwicke as the loyal Dr.Watson. Jeremy Brett was undoubtedly the finest Sherlock Holmes actor of his time; this series marks his last participation in his signature role.
According to the production notes, Grenada's decision to film six last episodes was made in haste and made more difficult by the unavailability of some of the series actors. Edward Hardwicke had other committments and was not present for "The Golden Pince-Nez". Charles Gray, reprising his role as Mycroft Holmes, fills in for Watson. Colin Jeavon (Inspector Lestrade) was unavailable for this series; his place is taken by an Inspector Hawkins. Jeremy Brett was seriously ill with the ailments that would eventually take his life. He appears visibly unhealthy, and his screen time in, for example, "The Mazarin Stone" is limited to very brief appearences at the beginning and end of the story. His normally energetic performance as Holmes is visible in only some of the episodes of this series. Conversly, Rosalie Williams as Holmes' landlady Mrs. Hudson get increased screen time, especially in "The Dying Detective" and "The Red Circle."
"The Marazin Stone" is actually a clever melding of two different stories, the one of the title and "The Three Garridebs." Mycroft Holmes pursues a suspected jewel on one story arc while Dr. Watson deals with a suspected deception of an old teacher on the other. The two story arcs eventually mesh; Mycroft Holmes' confrontation with the villain on the London Docks smacks of borrowings from a martial arts movie but nicely wraps all the loose ends.
The last episode in the series is especially poignant. Holmes and Watson pursue a missing woman who was part of an unfortunate love triangle in "The Cardboard Box." The story has been slightly rewritten from the Conan Doyle original but fans are likely to enjoy the improvements. Jeremy Brett summons his old fire for his final turn as Holmes, surrounded by a solid cast. Ciaran Hinds (Persuasion) has an excellent turn as the sailour at the apex of the triangle.
Period authenticity was a hallmark of production through this and the other series. Noteworthy also is the effort to add in such items as telephones and motorcars as they would have appeared over Holmes' fictional working lifetime.
"The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" is a very worthwhile dramatization of the Sherlock Holmes stories by a veteran cast and production team. They are very highly recommended to fans of the series and of Jeremy Brett's matchless characterization of Sherlock Holmes, here in his last bow.
Rated by buyers -
Even with having had a mental breakdown between the very first and second series, Jeremy Brett still portrays the best Sherlock Holmes I have ever seen. As with all the other Jeremy as Holmes collections, this collection is excellent. It has not been that long ago that my wife introduced me to Sherlock Holmes portrayed by Jeremy. I am and have been a fan of the stage. Most popular actors never spend any time on the stage and the lack thereof is evident. It is evident that Jeremy spent a great deal of time on the stage which he successfully brought to the camera.
Rated by buyers -
Jeremy Brett was a genius and, though too ill to match his earlier Sherlock Holmes, he fought his health problems valiantly to complete this magnificent Granada series. Holmes and Brett fans should have this in their collections.
Rated by buyers -
One of my favorite episodes in the entire Granada Sherlock Holmes series is "The Blue Carbuncle." I only mention it because I feel that in order to truly appreciate this fine production of six stories, you have to view it in light of the context of the entire series. In "The Blue Carbuncle," one of the earliest episodes filmed, you find a classic Holmes story set at Christmastime with a younger, more energetic Jeremy Brett still discovering the promising exuberance of a new role. The story is filled with joy and humor---filmed before days when a beloved wife would die of cancer, before a diagnosis would be made of manic-depression, and before treatments and medication would ultimately deprive all of us of a truly gifted man who died too soon in the prime of life. When we fast forward to "The Cardboard Box," the last episode filmed in the series (and also set at Christmas time), we've come full circle and realize why Jeremy Brett was such a sucess in a part that so many others believed had no substance. Rather than concentrating solely on the rational, intelligent side of the character, Jeremy Brett gave us over the course of 41 dramatizations of Conan Doyle stories a completely developed emotional man. Of course, the deterioration in his health, particularly in these last six episodes, is shocking. Nothing can conceal it, but also nothing can conceal the fact that this Holmes has become emotionally involved in his cases. He can no longer treat them or the people involved as mental exercises or mere problems to be solved. This is a truly vulnerable Holmes, and as a result he's not a Holmes that we just respect, like the great Basile Rathbone's. This is a Holmes that we love and care for. However, viewers need to be warned that there is a very high emotional price to be paid for becoming involved with this Holmes. By the time he utters his last words in "The Cardboard Box," all of us faithful "Watsons" realize that this Holmes has seen enough horror, enough brutality and cruelty. There will no longer be any more adventures that willingly draw us from our beds in the middle of the night, no more "games afoot," and sadly of all, no more miraculous resurrections from the depths of the Reichenbach Falls. One can easily imagine that in keeping with the spirit of his creator Conan Doyle, this Holmes is ready to go off into permanent retirement on a quiet farm, never to work on another case again. It is heart-wrenching, however, that he had to take with him the very best actor that ever played the role.
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