Sherlock Holmes and Silent Films

"no ordinary merit" [REDH]

In 2014, the Sherlockian world was taken by complete and utter surprise when William Gillette's 1916 film Sherlock Holmes was discovered. It was the closest thing we'd ever have to seeing Gillette on stage, and Russell Merritt, BSI ("The Trepoff Murder") was part of the team that restored it.

We carried the news on our site, but now we're pleased to share the backstory of how it came to be, thanks to an interview with Russell Merritt, a University of California Berkeley film professor and an expert on silent films. In this episode, Russell also discusses the impact of Eille Norwood and the whereabouts of his 45 movies, the recently rediscovered 1929 German film Der Hund von Baskerville, and how he is likely the last person to first read A Study in Scarlet in an original Beeton's.

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Information on sponsors, links, and notes available below.

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Sponsors

This episode includes our two longtime sponsors. Please support our sponsors by visiting their sites:

• Wessex Press
• The Baker Street Journal

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Links

• This episode: ihose.co/ihose147
• The Houghton Library
• Holmes and the Snake Skin Suits: Fighting for Survival on '50s Television
• Zacherle, the "Cool Ghoul"
• The Scowrers and Molly Maguires of San Francisco
• The British Film Institute (BFI)
• Eille Norwood's The Sign of Four at the SFSFF
• The BSI at Chautauqua
• Long Lost William Gillette Sherlock Holmes Film from 1916 Found

Many more links, articles and images are available in our Flipboard magazine at ihose.co/flipsherlock as well as through our accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

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