Plan B Forum

I thought Robert Downey Jr.'s 2009 portrayal was interesting. Have you seen it?

I can forgive Brett in that he was dying as he filmed it.

I preferred a Watson who was quite tuned in to Holmes's flaws and frailty.

Holmes: How can I be expected to maintain the character when you belittle me in front of those hooligans?
Watson: Character? Are we talking about the same man who once declared with total conviction that the late Colonel Howard had been bludgeoned to death with a blunt *excrement*?
Holmes: Is it my fault you have such poor handwriting?

"Well, Watson, what do you make of it?"

Holmes was sitting with his back to me, and I had given him no sign of my occupation.

"How did you know what I was doing? I believe you have eyes in the back of your head."

"I have, at least, a well-polished, silver-plated coffee-pot in front of me," said he. "But, tell me, Watson, what do you make of our visitor's stick? Since we have been so unfortunate as to miss him and have no notion of his errand, this accidental souvenir becomes of importance. Let me hear you reconstruct the man by an examination of it."

"I think," said I, following as far as I could the methods of my companion, "that Dr. Mortimer is a successful, elderly medical man, well-esteemed since those who know him give him this mark of their appreciation."

"Good!" said Holmes. "Excellent!"

"I think also that the probability is in favour of his being a country practitioner who does a great deal of his visiting on foot."

"Why so?"

"Because this stick, though originally a very handsome one has been so knocked about that I can hardly imagine a town practitioner carrying it. The thick-iron ferrule is worn down, so it is evident that he has done a great amount of walking with it."

"Perfectly sound!" said Holmes.

"And then again, there is the 'friends of the C.C.H.' I should guess that to be the Something Hunt, the local hunt to whose members he has possibly given some surgical assistance, and which has made him a small presentation in return."

"Really, Watson, you excel yourself," said Holmes, pushing back his chair and lighting a cigarette. "I am bound to say that in all the accounts which you have been so good as to give of my own small achievements you have habitually underrated your own abilities. It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it. I confess, my dear fellow, that I am very much in your debt."

He had never said as much before, and I must admit that his words gave me keen pleasure, for I had often been piqued by his indifference to my admiration and to the attempts which I had made to give publicity to his methods. I was proud, too, to think that I had so far mastered his system as to apply it in a way which earned his approval. He now took the stick from my hands
and examined it for a few minutes with his naked eyes. Then with an expression of interest he laid down his cigarette, and carrying the cane to the window, he looked over it again with a convex lens.

"Interesting, though elementary," said he as he returned to his favourite corner of the settee. "There are certainly one or two indications upon the stick. It gives us the basis for several deductions."

"Has anything escaped me?" I asked with some self-importance. "I trust that there is nothing of consequence which I have overlooked?"

"I am afraid, my dear Watson, that most of your conclusions were erroneous. When I said that you stimulated me I meant, to be frank, that in noting your fallacies I was occasionally guided towards the truth. Not that you are entirely wrong in this instance. The man is certainly a country practitioner. And he walks a good deal."

[Watson is reading clues from a crossword puzzle to Holmes]
Dr. William Watson, M.D.: 1 Across. A simple source of citrus fruit, 1, 5, 4.
Arthur Sherlock Holmes: A lemon tree, my dear Watson.
[Elsewhere in the hotel, Moriarty shoots Sam Spade]
Dr. William Watson, M.D.: 2 Down. Conservative pays ex-wife maintenance. 7, 5.
Arthur Sherlock Holmes: Alimony...alimony Tory, my dear Watson.
Arthur Sherlock Holmes: Never cease to astound me.
[Moriarty takes a sword to Hercule Poirot]
Dr. William Watson, M.D.: 2 Down. Southern California style. 1, 2, 8.
Arthur Sherlock Holmes: A la Monterrey, my dear Watson.
Dr. William Watson, M.D.: Really good, holmes.
[Moriarty shoots M]
Dr. William Watson, M.D.: 4 Down. Burglar's entrance
Arthur Sherlock Holmes: Alarm entry, my dear Watson
Dr. William Watson, M.D.: That's rather poor, isn't it, Holmes? Right. One to go. A cowardly fish with a sting in its tail.
Arthur Sherlock Holmes: Yellow manta ray, my dear Watson
Dr. William Watson, M.D.: Brilliant, Holmes