X-Message-Number: 2383
From: Ralph Merkle <>
Subject: CRYONICS Sherlock Holmes invents cryonics
Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1993 15:48:40 PDT

	HOLLYWOOD (UPI) -- Sherlock Holmes undergoes yet another exhumation
when CBS broadcasts his latest exploits in the longest title in the
sleuth's career: ``Sherlock Holmes Returns! In the Adventure of the
Tiger's Revenge.''
	In this incarnation the greatest of all private eyes finds himself
deposited in contemporary San Francisco after spending 94 years
suspended in time cryogenically, frozen at his own request because he
was bored with Victorian life.
	Scheduled for release during the 1993-94 season, the ``Tiger's
Revenge'' was written and directed by Kenneth Johnson and filmed on
locations in Vancouver, B.C., doubling for San Francisco.
	The current baron of Baker Street is played by Anthony Higgins, a
highly polished Shakespearean veteran with just the right touch of
hauteur and clipped Brit accent.
	But, horror of horrors, Holmes' sidekick, the estimable Dr. Watson,
has been replaced by a sleek and sexy medic played by Deborah Farentino.
	``Zounds!'' as Holmes might have cried, ``the game's afoot.''
	Johnson's two-hour screenplay is a gentle spoof, but deals with
Holmes respectfully and seriously enough. Had he not, surely Johnson
would be hanged from a street lamp by the Baker Street Irregulars on his
next visit to London.
	Relaxing in a Bel Air hotel lounge between sessions of post-
production dialogue looping, Higgins was an amiable Irishman man with
long sandy hair and a talent for understatement and subtle humor.
	Higgins said in his youth he had seen uncounted Holmes films and TV
movies. He welcomed the opportunity to play Sherlock when he was
approached for the role.
	He is the most recent in a long line of Holmes' interpreters on the
screen, beginning with John Barrymore in a 1922 silent film made eight
years before the death of author Arthur Conan Doyle.
	Such other actors as Arthur Wontner, Reginal Owen (who also played
Watson), Clive Brook, Raymond Massey, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing,
Nicol Williamson and Jeremy Brett have played the role.
	But the definitive Sherlock for the ages was the incomparable Basil
Rathbone whose aristocratic, stylish interpretation was utterly perfect,
just as was Nigel Bruce's faultless performance as the bumbling Dr.
Watson in a dozen or so movies.
	The old black-and-white classics starring Rathbone and Bruce still
shine from the screen like diamonds in the current pile of dinosaur
dung.
	A few of the most memorable titles dating from the '30s and '40s: 
``The Hound of the Baskervilles,'' ``The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,''
``Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon'' and ``The Scarlet Claw.''
	Films based on Doyle's novels were, of course, best. Later movies
were mostly pale immitations written by hacks and played by actors who
never measured up to Rathbone's delicious deliveries.
	Higgins may be among the best of the lot and, should the CBS version
collect impressive ratings, he may find himself playing the character
many more times in a series of network movies.
	``In addition to Rathbone, I've seen Brett and Christopher Plummer
play Holmes,'' he said. ``The character has been played by so many
actors on stage and in films it's difficult to remember them all.
	``We've tried to bring Holmes into the 20th century intact, including
the meerschaum pipe, the deerstalker hat and cape. He adjusts quickly
and brilliantly to modern society, science and the world of computers.
	``Holmes has become such a classic character that actors bring their
own perception to him, just as they do with Hamlet, but obviously not to
the same degree as Hamlet.
	``There are some physical things you have to conform to. He's
aquiline, rather like a bird, his eyes dart constantly, he temples the
fingers of his hands, in thought his chin drops to his chest. He's
angular and athletic.
	``You could have a fat Hamlet, but not a fat Sherlock.
	``There have been a thousand fictional sleuths since Doyle wrote his
first book, but Holmes is the most notable because he was the original.
He was the first to employ a system of logic and deduction in solving
crimes, an original idea. The others are various impersonations of
Sherlock Holmes.
	``He is a magician of sorts, able to pull rabbits out of hats, to see
beyond the mundane. It's thrilling to be led into that world.''
	Higgins said he was the part after Johnson saw him in a TV movie and
because he had played Professor Moriarty, Holmes' adversary.
	``In our story Holmes invents cryonics. He's solved all the crimes
there are to solve and anticipates more challenges at this time in
history.
	``There's a great deal of humor in our film and a strong magnetism
between Holmes and the woman doctor who becomes his colleague, but not a
romance. Yet.''

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