Hats--Sherlock Holmes

[jamespowers]

Rather than hijack another thread I decided to put this one up in order to discuss the hats in the Sherlock Holmes TV movies where he was portrayed by Jeremy Brett.
As prevously mentioned, I think Jeremy Brett was probably one of the best portrayals of Holmes along with Edward Hardwicke as the good Doctor Watson.

Watson always tends toward a bowler while Holmes leans toward the homburg and a tophat. I don't think I have ever seen him wear a deerstalker in any of the episodes.

Regards to all,

J

 

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

Oh, I have nothing against the things themselves. In fact, I have an inverness cape, and wear it, though without a deerstalker cap. Among my pipes, there's no calabash, but there's one in this form:

I also have some clay pipes, which meanwhile are nearly as black and oily as those described in "the canon", but still, all this is independent of iconized Holmes clich?©s.

I share your like for Brett and the Granada series, which were successful in avoiding those style traps, as you describe.

Watson always tends toward a bowler while Holmes leans toward the homburg and a tophat.

I'm afraid the bowler hat is there to convey an impression of intellectual inferiority. Definitely so with Lestrade.

I don't think I have ever seen him wear a deerstalker in any of the episodes.

It is pictured in three story illustration by Sidney Paget, though without an inverness cape. I just learned this picture below is also where Paget introduced the bowler hat for Dr. Watson.

The internet is awful if you know how to google:
Paget 1892

Brett 1987

 

[jamespowers]

Wow! That last picture is great! Thanks for ferreting that up.
Lestrade was a pompous moron that is for sure. He takes credit for Holmes' work then says he is an amateur detective! Quite a character.
I still don't think of Hardwicke's Watson as a dullard. The bowler has a taller crown than that of Lestrade from my memory doesn't it? [huh] Maybe that means more brains but still inferior?
The Granada series was great. I wonder who they have to replace Brett and Hardwicke now though. What other actors did a decent job with Doyle's characters and hats? :cool2:

Regards,

J

 

[Russ]

The Granada series did use the cloth hat, and they were careful to only bring it out when the situation called for it, namely when Holmes was traveling in the country. I can't imagine him wearing one around London, especially when most other men in town were wearing top hats or bowlers.

As for the Calabash pipe, that was the idea of stage actor William Gillette who found they stayed in his mouth better when he said his lines. From what I understand, the Calabash was not available in Britain during Holmes' time.

I never tire of reading (or listening to) the Sherlock Holmes stories. Was just listening to an aduio book of The Hound of the Baskervilles yesterday while working.

About 11 years ago I drew an illustration of the Baker Street Flat that formed in my mind as I read the descriptions of it over and over.
http://www.stutler.cc/other/misc/baker_street.html

Maybe I shouldn't mention it here, since this thread is about hats and not flats.

 

[jamespowers]

The Granada series did use the cloth hat, and they were careful to only bring it out when the situation called for it, namely when Holmes was traveling in the country. I can't imagine him wearing one around London, especially when most other men in town were wearing top hats or bowlers.

As for the Calabash pipe, that was the idea of stage actor William Gillette who found they stayed in his mouth better when he said his lines. From what I understand, the Calabash was not available in Britain during Holmes' time.

I never tire of reading (or listening to) the Sherlock Holmes stories. Was just listening to an aduio book of The Hound of the Baskervilles yesterday while working.

About 11 years ago I drew an illustration of the Baker Street Flat that formed in my mind as I read the descriptions of it over and over.
http://www.stutler.cc/other/misc/baker_street.html

Maybe I shouldn't mention it here, since this thread is about hats and not flats.

No, flats rhym with hats. That was very perceptive of you actually. Quite a good rendering. Good enough to frame.
I don't know if anyone else watched it but my friend had me watch a different Sherlock holmes on PBS. It stunk! Watson was wearing a fedora and so was Holmes! I think we moved up a little int he wardrobe department as well. The suits and hats were nowhere near accurate. It was sort of disappointing. The guy played Holmes like some sort of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy character as well. Flamboyant is one thing but this guy was waaaaaaayyyyy off.
A fedora wearing Watson indeed.

Regards,

J

 

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

This gentleman?

That would be Ian Hart with either Richard Roxburgh or Rupert Everett as Holmes. I found both fairly well, and though Everett is indeed dandyish, I think that fits the character. The aspect of d?©cadence and fin de si?®cle is underrated in the reception and filmings of Doyle, in my opinion.

Those movies seem to be set more in 1900/1910 than in 1881 or 1895, and so, there are more suits whith all three pieces of the same fabric, more of modern collars etc. I remember, I was impressed that the movie producers paid attention to details like a collar stud in Watson's neck, which was seen only for a very short moment, and in the corner of the screen. Then again, some suits were clearly identical except for colour and size, but well - Holmes and Watson could always have shared a tailor, couldn't they?

 

[jamespowers]

It could well have been but I don't remember too well. I only saw it once and that was enough. My wife tells me it was the one with Rupert Everett. The Silk Stockings one.
Maybe I just think of Brett as the quintessential Holmes. The person I picture when I read the book. Everett has a hawk like nose? I didn't notice it. Holmes has to have a prominent nose to come close to the Doyle originals.
It was set in 1910? It looked more like 1930 to me but I could be wrong. The fedora really didn't come into its own until after WWI so at least 1920 in my mind.
Everett did at least try to pull off the Holmesian ability to change his appearance. The Duke was ok but it didn't fool me a bit. [huh] His type of Holmes is kind of feminine to me. I think of Holmes as being a man who could grapple with hooligans and win. Everett, uh no.
Watson's hair was also too long and his moustache much too bushy for me but like I say, I am partial to Hardwicke's rendition. Bowler versus Fedora? Which fits the Watson character more?

Regards to all,

J

 

[221b]

Sherlock

You guys are my type of people! I love Sherlocks Homburg, it fits him so well.
I didnt care too much for the new movie. Rupert had no personality! It did look like the 30's. Phones, cars, look at the shirt collars. It did not feel Victorian to me.

 

[Russ]

That great Homburg

I've been tempted to buy a nice Homburg like that but "shillings have not been so plentiful with me as they once were."

 

[Flitcraft]

Jeremy Brett does make that homburg look pretty cool- gotta confess it made me think of getting one, too- just afraid I'd look more like a "Godfather wannabe" than a cool sophisticate like Mr. Holmes!

 

[scotrace]

About 11 years ago I drew an illustration of the Baker Street Flat that formed in my mind as I read the descriptions of it over and over.
http://www.stutler.cc/other/misc/baker_street.html

You really do fine work. I just wasted too much time at your site.

 

[scotrace]

Another Holmes

Anyone remember the late 1960's BBC series starring Peter Cushing as Holmes?

I think he was considered among the best (After Gillette), until Brett absolutely nailed the character.
The series tended to overdo the Deerstalker. But he also wore a nice Homburg.

 

[jamespowers]

Anyone remember the late 1960's BBC series starring Peter Cushing as Holmes?

I think he was considered among the best (After Gillette), until Brett absolutely nailed the character.
The series tended to overdo the Deerstalker. But he also wore a nice Homburg.

That homburg Cushing is wearing is clearly not from the right age. The crown is too short and he put two forward dents in it. Looks like a fedora with a curled up brim. A stingy brim at that.
I don't remember him being that great in that role either. He was however very cut out for the role he played in Star Wars.

Regards,

J

 

[Doctor Strange]

I thought Peter Cushing made a very good Holmes way back in the Hammer Films version of "The Hound of the Baskervilles," circa 1959. Other good semi-recent film interpretations include John Neville in the 1965 "A Study in Terror", Robert Stephens in Billy Wilder's "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" from 1970, and Christopher Plummer in "Murder By Decree" (1979).

But I still prefer Basil Rathbone!

 

[jamespowers]

I thought Peter Cushing made a very good Holmes way back in the Hammer Films version of "The Hound of the Baskervilles," circa 1959. Other good semi-recent film interpretations include John Neville in the 1965 "A Study in Terror", Robert Stephens in Billy Wilder's "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" from 1970, and Christopher Plummer in "Murder By Decree" (1979).

But I still prefer Basil Rathbone!

Rathbone was ok but I couldn't stand Nigel Bruce's interpretation of Watson. Watson was not an idiot. :rage: He just could not make the same deductive leaps as Holmes could. It ruins the movies for me to see Watson so portrayed no matter how good Rathbone was. :eusa_doh:
I have not seen the other movies you mention so I cannot comment on their performances.

Regards,

J

 

[Doctor Strange]

I agree that Nigel Bruce's bumbling Dr. Watson is completely inaccurate to Conan Doyle and something of a cheap shot - really just a POV character for the dumber folks in the audience to identify with. But I consider the films and the stories as different continuities (after all, most of the Rathbone films take place in the 1940s), so it doesn't bother me that much.

There's plenty of room for different interpetations of Holmes, and - as my previous post indicated - I've enjoyed many of them! (I didn't say that Rathbone was any kind of "definitive" version, just that he remains my favorite.)

 

[Flitcraft]

Re: Dr. Watson's IQ....

I remember seeing Jeremy Brett play Watson to Charlton Heston's Holmes in a stage version of Conan Doyle's stories. Brett definitely played Watson as something of a bumbler (probably at Heston's insistence), but Brett credited this experience to helping him sympathise with Watson and insist that the good Doctor be portrayed as a man of some intelligence (he is after all, a medical doctor)- he's just not as gifted as Holmes.

 

[jamespowers]

Brett definitely played Watson as something of a bumbler (probably at Heston's insistence), but Brett credited this experience to helping him sympathise with Watson and insist that the good Doctor be portrayed as a man of some intelligence (he is after all, a medical doctor)- he's just not as gifted as Holmes.

Exactly my point. :eusa_clap How many doctors get through medical school as idiots? lol
There can be different views of the Sherlock Holmes stories, just don't associate Conan Doyle's name with them if they are not accurate. Rathbone was a modern interpretation for sure. I even saw one that involved Larry Hagman as Holmes in the 1970s. Totally ridiculous. Holmes had been flash frozen by Watson in his laboratory in the 1890s because he had contracted a disease that was incurable at the time. It just goes downhill from there. :eusa_doh: That was just another interpretation---a lousy one at that.

Regards,

J

 

[221b]

Hats

On PBS they are showing "Mystery - The Dark Beginings of Sherlock Holmes"
It is about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his adventures with his old teacher. His teacher was the inspiration for Sherlock. Great show so far, Great Hats and suits!:eusa_clap

 

[jeboat]

Sherlock Holmes?

Do you mean to say the someone besides Basil Rathbone actually played Sherlock??? Eh, wot!?!

jeboat