Crappy film

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

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").

Am a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes and get a lot of enjoyment out of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. Also love Basil Rathbone's and especially Jeremy Brett's interpretations to death. So would naturally see any Sherlock Holmes adaptation that comes my way, regardless of its reception.Furthermore, interest in seeing early films based on Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories and wanting to see as many adaptations of any Sherlock Holmes stories as possible sparked my interest in seeing 'Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady', especially with such an interesting idea for a story and Christopher Lee makes anything worthwhile.There are better Sherlock Holmes-related films/adaptations certainly than 'Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady', the best of the Jeremy Brett adaptations and films of Basil Rathone fit under this category. It's not one of the worst either, it is better than all the Matt Frewer films (particularly 'The Sign of Four') and also much better than the abominable Peter Cook 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'.'Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady' is pretty decent and is the better Christopher Lee/Patrick MacNee Sherlock Holmes adaptation, the other being 'Incident at Victoria Falls'. The always dependable, even legendary, Christopher Lee, is excellent as Holmes, regardless of any reservations about him being too old. Patrick MacNee is both bumbling and loyal, without being too much of a buffoon or an idiot. The chemistry between them really lifts the proceedings, lots of fun and charm in it. Generally the cast fare well, didn't think luminous Morgan Fairchild fared that badly or out of place. Actually thought that applied much more to the utterly bizarre turn of Engelbert Humperdinck.The mystery is intriguing, and much easier to follow than 'Incident at Victoria Falls', and there are a few exciting moments and an ending that is at least comprehensible. There are moments of thought-provoking dialogue. It is very nicely filmed with evocative and handsome production design. However, some of the pace is long-winded with some aimless stretches. Would have liked more deduction. The music feels and sounds like it belonged somewhere else entirely, it certainly didn't fit here, while the script tends to be stodgy and banal, with quite a number of howlers.All in all, decent. 6/10 Bethany Cox

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.

Morgan Fairchild as Irene Adler? Who's bright idea was that? The story line was okay, her performance was awful. The image of Irene Adler was never written to be portrayed as a whining floozy. Ruined what could have been a fine movie. Perfomances by the rest of the cast were tolerable.