The game is afoot! This week on “Picture Perfect,” it’s an hour of music from movies inspired by the world’s greatest detective.
“Sherlock Holmes” (2009) stars Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, in Michael Ritchie’s post-“Matrix” take on the master detective. While some of the film adaptations over the years may have glossed over the character’s physicality, Ritchie’s revisionist Holmes perhaps errs a mite too far in the other direction. Hans Zimmer (whose birthday it is today) wrote the music, he too going against received wisdom, and in the process coming up with one of his more interesting scores, if only for the quirky instrumentation, which includes a Hungarian cimbalom, accordion, fiddles, and a broken-down pub piano.
Admittedly, it’s unfair to put Zimmer up against an old pro like Miklós Rózsa. Rózsa wrote the music for Billy Wilder’s melancholy portrait of the great detective, “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes” (1970). Wilder requested that the composer adapt his lovely Violin Concerto for the project, a recording of which the director had listened to repeatedly during the writing of the screenplay. Rózsa and Wilder had previously collaborated on “Double Indemnity” and “The Lost Weekend.”
The Sherlock Holmes comedy “Without a Clue” (1988) represents a missed opportunity of sorts. The hope had been for Sean Connery to play Watson opposite Michael Caine’s Holmes, a much-longed-for reunion between the two, who had worked so well together in “The Man Who Would Be King.” In the end, it was Ben Kingsley who assumed the role.
The fun conceit that sets “Without a Clue” apart is that Holmes is the fictional creation of mastermind Watson, who is in reality the gifted crime-solver. By way of necessity, Watson hires a second-rate actor to play the part of Holmes. Of course, the actor turns out to be a bumbling idiot. Henry Mancini provides the British Light Music style score, with a nod to Edward White’s “Puffin’ Billy” (familiar stateside as the theme to “Captain Kangaroo”).
Finally, the Steven Spielberg-produced “Young Sherlock Holmes” (1985) offers a conjectural origins story, including Holmes and Watson’s first meeting as teenagers (ignoring the particulars laid out by Arthur Conan Doyle in his stories, with Watson already a war veteran who had served in Afghanistan). It’s all for fun, though it’s unfortunate the filmmakers felt the need to interject ‘80s-style special effects, rather than simply trust in the inherent magic of the subject matter. “Young Sherlock Holmes” features the first photorealistic, fully computer-generated character (a stained-glass knight). Also, some Indiana Jones B-movie antics involving an Egyptian cult seem especially out of place.
Interestingly, the film’s screenwriter, Chris Columbus, went on to direct the first two Harry Potter films. By my recollection, “Young Sherlock Holmes,” with its boarding school setting, has some of that same feel.
The music, by Bruce Broughton, is certainly buoyant and beautiful, in the best John Williams tradition. Broughton scored a handful of big screen hits, notably “Silverado” and “Tombstone,” though arguably it is in the medium of television that he’s made his greatest impact. Thus far, his work has been recognized with a record 10 Grammy Awards.
It’s elementary, my dear Watson. I hope you’ll join me for “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT
SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EDT/8:00 AM PDT
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
