Monday, October 7, 2013

TODAY'S NUGGET: Billy Wilder's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) - Episodic = Usually a Bad Idea

[Quick Summary: An examination of the private Sherlock Holmes.]

This film was meant to be two films with an intermission (3 hrs., 2 min.)*:

It's a long story because it's made up of a series of episodes**:

- Holmes investigates several unrelated cases. 
- Each case illuminates an unknown facet of Holmes.
- All these facets are combined in the last case.

Episodes are generally a no-no because they break up the narrative flow, i.e., too much stop-start-stop-start.

The rule applies here.

I lost track of the overall story after the second episode.

I got bored waiting for the last (and best) episode. 

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: Avoid episodes at all costs.

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond

* The final film was severely truncated (1 hr., 53 min.)
** Episodes = Separate, tenuously related stories

No comments:

perPage: 10, numPages: 8, var firstText ='First'; var lastText ='Last'; var prevText ='« Previous'; var nextText ='Next »'; } expr:href='data:label.url' expr:href='data:label.url + "?&max-results=7"'