When a secret document of Her Majesty the Queen’s is stolen
from her Confidant’s safe, it somehow falls to Sherlock Holmes’ younger
brother, Sigerson, to solve the case. Having lived in the shadow of his
successful sibling for so long, Sigerson is eager to prove himself and leaps
hot onto the trail helped by oddball Sgt. Orville Stanley Sacker in
investigating an opera-singer-turned-blackmailer and becoming romantically
linked with a slippery and seductive music hall songstress.
All right so I found this for $5. I’d never
seen it before, but it was Gene Wilder and Madeline Khan and Marty Feldman and
I was all excited because I thought it was going to be like Young Frankenstein or Dracula Dead and Loving It, you know a
classic Mel Brooks spoof. As it turns out Mel Brooks had absolutely nothing to
do with this movie, it was all the work of Gene Wilder and as much as I love
the man, I have to admit that this movie was a bit of a waste of $5. I’m a
little disappointed right now.
When a secret document of Her Majesty the
Queen’s is stolen from her Confidant’s safe, it somehow falls to Sherlock
Holmes’ younger brother, Sigerson, to solve the case. Having lived in the
shadow of his successful sibling for so long, Sigerson is eager to prove
himself and leaps hot onto the trail helped by oddball Sgt. Orville Stanley
Sacker in investigating an opera-singer-turned-blackmailer and becoming
romantically linked with a slippery and seductive music hall songstress.
I
think with Mel Brooks behind the wheel, this might have made for a clever
detective spoof. As it is Gene Wilder tries to walk amongst the Brooks giants
such as Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles, stumbling and taking
rather a big fall in the process. The idea was good. It had potential. But
unfortunately, the silly-but-immaculately-timed comedy styling of Brooks was
attempted to be mimicked and just didn’t work. This film was just silly for the
sake of being silly. The sight gags didn’t work very well, aside from the ballroom scene, there
was an overabundant use of music that I found irrelative, and then at one point
it seemed to be taking the piss out of the swashbuckling nativity movies of
old… maybe a jab at the silliness and unperiod-ness of The Adventures of Robin Hood or something, I don’t know. Whatever
was Gene’s intention; it was not achieved in this film. It’s a sad truth.
Starring
Gene Wilder, Madeline Khan, Marty Feldman, Leo McKern, Roy Kinnear, Douglas
Wilmer, Thorley Walters, and Dom DeLuise, The
Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother is a bit of a flop of a movie
filled with outdated swashbuckling action, romance, comedy, and really made up
of general spontaneity and stupidity. I’ll admit that it got a few laughs and
chuckles out of me, but ultimately it was a pretty stupid film.
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