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Sherlock Holmes - Das Beryll-Diadem
episode 5
West Germany 1968
produced by WDR
directed by Paul May
starring Erich Schellow, Paul Edwin Roth, Herbert Tiede, Christian Wolff, Ingrid Resch, Alexander Hegarth, Hans Künster, Manja Kafka, Carmen Steinkrauss, Karl Bockx
screenplay by Nicholas Palmer, based on the short story The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet by Arthur Conan Doyle, music by Rolf A. Wilhelm
TV-series Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes (Erich Schellow), Sherlock Holmes in Germany
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Arthur (Christian Wolff), son of rich banker Holder (Herbert Tiede) has
a gambling problem, and is thus in debt - and his father cuts him off.
Later that same day, Holder shows him and his niece Mary (Ingrid Resch) a
beryl tiara a client left with him as security for a loan, a tiara he
locks away in his desk that can be opened quite easily. That night, Arthur
is found at the desk with the tiara that has a piece missing. Of course
he's immediately suspected of having stolen the missing piece, even though
it can't be found on him or anywhere in the house, and is arrested for
theft. That's of course where Holmes (Erich Schellow) and Watson (Paul
Edwin Roth) come into play, and Holmes is soon enough convinced that
Arthur holds something back, very probably to protect someone, and soon
enough he tracks down Arthur's gambling partner Sir George (Alexander
Hegarth), steals a pair of his shoes dressed as a vagrant, proves they
match the shoe prints found in Holder's garden, then he and Watson pay Sir
George a visit, confront him with their findings, upon which he tries to
attack them but is knocked out by Watson - and of course, the missing
piece of the diadem is found on him. Later, Holmes explains the case to
Holder: Arthur was very much in love with Mary - as much was well-known -
but she not with him. And in the night of the theft, Arthur witnessed Mary
and George, obviously her lover, stealing the tiara, but when George made
his getaway, Arthur tried to stop him and at least tore the tiara out of
his hands to return it to the desk - which is when Holder found him. Now
Arthur was completely unaware that a piece was missing from the tiara at
that point, and remained hush about what really happened for Mary's sake
... Now like many of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes
short stories, The
Adventure of the Beryl Coronet is not one that lends itself
particularly well to a film or TV-adaptation, as it's a rather dry tale of
Holmes deducing, and the fact that technical limitations of the time
didn't allow for much of a cinematic extravaganza to begin with, meaning
the whole thing looks very stagey on top of everything else. Now on the
plus side of course, Erich Schellow as Sherlock Holmes seems to get better
with every episode, but most of the other actors take a very stilted,
theatre like approach to their roles,a nd Paul Edwin Roth's Watson comes
across as rather rude even. Another problem with this episode is that it's
played very much to the letter, all attempts at irony and social
commentary even (prevalent in the source story) are ignored or just bent
back into a straight approach. So in all, just not very good,
unfortunately.
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