I love this movie so much

Sorry, this movie sucks

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

This is the second of the early Holmes film experiments that I have seen. In The Sign of Four, they messed up the detective form by showing us the entire history before Holmes appears. Here, they do something similar. While Holmes interviews a woman about her recently dead husband, we have the major part of the film time occupied in a flashback illustrating her story. That story is a small film by itself. The outer story is a combat between Moriarty and a *retired* Holmes that ends with a chase up a medieval tower with what might have been exciting camera-work in its day. This story does respect Holmes as a detective, and the task he tackles is not something we already understand. I can see that as they made extra films, they tried different mixes of explicit storytelling and deduced and explained stories.

This is the fourth film of five with Arthur Wonter in the title role. A faithful adaptation of Conan Doyle's The Valley of Fear. Holmes(Wonter)and partner Dr. Watson(Ian Fleming)investigate a mysterious murder at the Birlstone Castle. The murder seems tied in with a secret society of coal-miners from America. Holme's arch-enemy Professor Moriarty(Lyn Harding)appears to have conspired with an American gangster(Ben Weldon)to kill a Pinkerton agent trying to break up the covert society. This may not be on par with other Sherlock Holmes movies, but still provides it chills and thrills. Note that Fleming is not the famed James Bond author. Other players include: Charles Mortimer, Roy Emerton, Jane Carr and Michael Shepley.

"The Triumoph of Sherlock Holmes" recently came out on DVD. First off the copy is quite awful, although from what I have read there aren't very good video sources to take from. Secondly, Arthur Wontner's Holmes is excellent. He looks like Holmes and he acts like Holmes as portrayed by Conan Doyle.The movie is based on one of the longer length stories, "The Valley of Fear". The story includes a long flashback to Pennsylvania coal country in the US and is included in the movie. It is very well done. As near as I can tell the scenes in America were done with American actors, including the well known character actor Ben Welden, except for Boss McGinty played by Roy Emerton who does a great job.The movie contains a good many Holmesian aphorisms taken from other stories. While it's always a pleasure to hear them I can imagine if you saw movie after movie and heard the same lines multiple times it could become a little annoying.I particularly liked the Watson of Ian Fleming as every time Holmes introduces himself and neglects Watson, Watson nudges him with his arm. A small bit but nicely done.

This is a rewrite of the fourth and last novel of the original Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes series, entitled THE VALLEY OF FEAR. As with practically all other Holmes-genre cinematic endeavors (except maybe the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce ones), it also borrows bits of plot and dialog from other original Holmes stories, perhaps most notably THE FINAL PROBLEM, THE REIGATE PUZZLE, and the general background of many of the the stories collected within THE CASE BOOK OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (regarding Holmes's retirement).Arthur Wontner gives one of the better Holmes portrayals, as well as bearing a striking physical resemblance to the depictions of the great sleuth represented in the original Sidney Padget illustrations to the stories' debut publication in THE STRAND MAGAZINE. Ian Fleming's Watson, moreover, may be the most accurate interpretation of Doyle's Watson ever to appear on film - believable both as someone intelligent enough to be a physician and slow and prideful enough to mistakenly think he had solved the crime where Holmes had not. About the only thing he lacks is the original Watson's stocky build. The subtle insinuation found collectively within the original stories to the effect that Watson always had an eye for the ladies is also played up in this offering.The chemistry between all the characters is fine and includes some excellent examples of Sherlockian sardonic wit which project completely authentically even though they are entirely original to the script of this film (one being noted in the "quotations" portion of this web page).All-in-all, it is worth seeing for all fans of the Holmes of both literature and the movies.P.S. -- the secret society in the film is called the "SCOWERERS", NOT the "Scowlers" (just read the the novel).