The Adventure Of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother [1975]

See Larger Image	List Price: £12.99 Our Price: £3.98 Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Starring: Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman, Dom DeLuise Directed By: Gene Wilder Average Customer Rating:
Audience Rating: Parental Guidance Binding: DVD EAN: 5039036028103 Format: PAL Label: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Region Code: 2 Release Date: 2006-09-04 Running Time: 91 Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Theatrical Release Date: 1975
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Editorial Reviews: After co-writing and starring in Mel Brooks' smash hit Young Frankenstein, Gene Wilder graduated to his own directing debut with another spoofy take on a cultural icon. The 1975 Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother gives Wilder some great trademark meltdowns, even if the movie doesn't sustain its initial comic energy. Wilder plays Sigerson Holmes, third (and bitterly resentful) brother to the more fabled Sherlock and Mycroft. Two Young Frankenstein co-stars help bring the game afoot: Madeline Kahn, as an opera singer with a problem in distinguishing truth from lies, and Marty Feldman, as a Scotland Yard man with "photographic hearing." The long early sequence that introduces all three characters to each other--and culminates in a lunatic song-and-dance number, "The Kangaroo Hop"--is truly funny, and Dom DeLuise summons up some broad laughs as a singer with a bad toupee. The British are represented by Leo McKern and Roy Kinnear, as well as a mysterious cameo by Albert Finney. (Mel Brooks isn't around, but you can spot his unmistakable pipes in a moment of voiceover.) Things become routine fairly quickly, and the last half-hour is something of a slog, so you'll have to be a Gene Wilder fan to love this one. Still, the rapport of Wilder and Kahn is something to behold: two expert comedians who always suggested an undercurrent of melancholy beneath their clowning. --Robert Horton
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: If you are a fan of Wilder and Feldmann you will love this! Comment: Previous reviews have perhaps given a better critical view of this film, but if you are a fan of Wilder and Feldmann you will enjoy this. Leo Mckern makes a fine villain who is both believable and insane, both important to the credibility. Too many of the jokes are simple such as chocolate on the face, but some are sublime such as the wonderful ballroom scene (I will not spoil the joke). For an English audience there is the added 'reassurance' of Roy Kinnear and other 'usual suspects'. The singing, dancing and fencing are unexpectedly good and the whole film becomes an enjoyable romp with some quite dramatic moments. Customer Rating: Summary: "Is this rotten or is it all terribly brave?" Comment: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother isn't Mycroft but the `forgotten' third brother Sigerson (actually the assumed name Holmes used in The Adventure of the Empty House), and there's a lot to forget about this failed attempt to do for the Holmes family what Gene Wilder did for the Frohnkensteens. Without a collaborator on the screenplay and taking the directorial reins himself, as well as the starring role, there's far more unfettered self-indulgence here than wit. There's thankfully a little less pointless hysteria from Wilder than usual, although this is sadly more than compensated for by excessive yelping from Leo McKern and tedious showboating from Dom De Luise (now there's a surprise). Indeed, this may well be the only film in which chronic overactor Aubrey Morris gives the most restrained performance. There's also an excess of messy eating and childish humor to contend with, not to mention the unforgivable waste of Marty Feldman's unique talents in a dull sidekick role. There is one funny sequence in a ballroom and a couple of moments where the ideas are good enough to survive the sledgehammer execution, but when Albert Finney, in a one-shot cameo in the film's Night at the Operatic finale, turns to the camera to ask "Is this rotten or is it all terribly brave?", it's not difficult to come up with an answer. Fox's DVD offers a decent 1.85:1 widescreen transfer with the original trailer, but doesn't include Gene Wilder audio commentary from the Region 1 disc - admittedly no great loss since it's so sparing and uninformative and filled with dead air pauses of several minutes at a time that you'll wonder if you clicked the wrong button on your menu! Customer Rating: Summary: Verdi + Dom DeLuise = Hysterics Comment: If you have never seen or heard of this film and you like clever and funny movies -this is it. From the first scenes with the "real" Sherlock slipping into drag, through Madeline Kahn as a superb Victorian Music Hall artiste, and finally The Masked Ball, as you have never seen it, with Luciano DeLuise (watch the movie and you'll see what I mean) this is a five star comedy. Customer Rating: Summary: Gene Wilder's best! Comment: This is the best and most funniest film in all movie history. There is no better song and dance than the 'Kangaroo Hop'. In fact, I perform it every day whilst on my way to the merry old opera house. More Reviews