Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady

1991 television film directed by Peter Sasdy

Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady
Based on	Characters by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Screenplay by	Bob Shayne H.R.F. Keating
Directed by	Peter Sasdy
Starring	Christopher Lee Patrick Macnee Morgan Fairchild John Bennett Engelbert Humperdinck
Music by	Detto Mariano
Original language	English
Production
Producers	Frank Agrama Riccardo Coccia Daniele Lorenzano Mirjana Mijojlic Alessandro Tasca Harry Alan Towers
Cinematography	Brian West
Editor	Marcus Manton
Running time	187 minutes
Production companies	Harmony Gold Finance Luxembourg S.A. (as Harmony Gold), Banquet et Caisse D'Epargne de l'etat, Banque Paribas Luxembourg, Silvio Berlusconi Communications
Original release
Release	6 December 1991 (1991-12-06)

Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady and its sequel, Incident at Victoria Falls (1992), are a pair of TV films made in 1991 under the banner Sherlock Holmes the Golden Years. Harry Alan Towers was executive producer and Bob Shayne was the writer on both.

Plot

Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson are elderly gentlemen in 1910 Vienna. Both are involved independently with foiling Balkan terrorists. They reunite by chance with “The Woman”: actress Irene Adler. They save Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria from an assassination at the opera house and thus delay the onset of World War I.

The film also featured a number of historical characters, including Eliot Ness and Sigmund Freud.

Cast

Christopher Lee as Sherlock Holmes
Patrick Macnee as Dr. Watson
Morgan Fairchild as Irene Adler
John Bennett as Dr. Sigmund Freud
Engelbert Humperdinck as Eberhardt Bohm
Tom Lahm as Eliot Ness
Jenny Quayle as Lady Violet Cholmondley
Jerome Willis as Mycroft Holmes
Margaret John as Mrs. Hudson
Charlotte Attenborough as Margaret Froelich

Production

It was initially announced that there would be an eight-hour miniseries entitled The Golden Years of Sherlock Holmes. The project series of eight one-hour episodes soon morphed into two three-hour films.

Filming

It was shot back to back with Incident at Victoria Falls.

Locations

Filming locations were in Austria, London and Luxembourg.

Home media

Both were released in the next two years and there were drastically edited versions released by Vestron Videos. The full versions are now available on DVD.

References

^ Alan Barnes (2002). Sherlock Holmes on Screen. Reynolds & Hearn Ltd. p. 149. ISBN 1-903111-04-8.

External links

Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady at IMDb

Screen adaptations of Sherlock Holmes

Theatrical films

Silent

Sherlock Holmes Baffled (1900)
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; or, Held for Ransom (1905)
Sherlock Holmes in the Great Murder Mystery (1908)
Arsène Lupin contra Sherlock Holmes (1910)
Éclair film series (1912–1913)
Der Hund von Baskerville (1914)
Detektiv Braun (1914)
A Study in Scarlet (1914 British film)
A Study in Scarlet (1914 US film)
The Valley of Fear (1916)
Sherlock Holmes (1916)
Sherlock Holmes (1922)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1929)

Stoll series	The Dying Detective (1921) The Devil's Foot (1921) The Man with the Twisted Lip (1921) The Hound of the Baskervilles (1921) The Sign of Four (1923)

Wontner series

Rathbone–Bruce
series

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939)
Voice of Terror (1942)
Secret Weapon (1942)
Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943)
Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943)
The Spider Woman (1943)
The Scarlet Claw (1944)
The Pearl of Death (1944)
The House of Fear (1945)
The Woman in Green (1945)
Pursuit to Algiers (1945)
Terror by Night (1946)
Dressed to Kill (1946)

Downey series

Sherlock Holmes (2009)
A Game of Shadows (2011)

Other films

The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1929)
The Limejuice Mystery (1930)
The Speckled Band (1931)
Lelíček ve službách Sherlocka Holmese (1932)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1932)
Sherlock Holmes (1932)
A Study in Scarlet (1933)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1937)
The Grey Lady (1937)
The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes (1937)
Deduce, You Say! (1956)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)
The Deadly Necklace (1962)
A Study in Terror (1965)
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
They Might Be Giants (1971)
The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975)
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978)
Murder by Decree (1979)
The Case of Marcel Duchamp (1984)
Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)
The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
Without a Clue (1988)
Zero Effect (1998)
A Samba for Sherlock (2001)
Case Closed: The Phantom of Baker Street (2002)
Holmes & Watson. Madrid Days (2012)
Mr. Holmes (2015)
The Empire of Corpses (2015)
Sherlock Gnomes (2018)
Holmes & Watson (2018)
Sherlock Holmes and the Great Escape (2019)

Television/
streaming/
direct-to-video

Films

Ian Richardson	The Sign of Four (1983) The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983)
Peter O'Toole (animated)	Sherlock Holmes and a Study in Scarlet (1983) Sherlock Holmes and the Baskerville Curse (1983) Sherlock Holmes and the Sign of Four (1983) Sherlock Holmes and the Valley of Fear (1983)
Vasily Livanov series	Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson (1979) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson (1980) The Hound of the Baskervilles (1981) The Treasures of Agra (1983) The Twentieth Century Approaches (1986)
Christopher Lee	The Leading Lady (1991) Incident at Victoria Falls (1992)
Matt Frewer	The Hound of the Baskervilles (2000) The Sign of Four (2001) The Royal Scandal (2001) The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire (2002)
Ian Hart (as Watson)	The Hound of the Baskervilles (2002) The Case of the Silk Stocking (2004)
Other films	The Three Garridebs (1937) The Man Who Disappeared (1951) The Hound of the Baskervilles (1972) The Longing of Sherlock Holmes (1972) Doctor Watson and the Darkwater Hall Mystery (1974) The Return of the World's Greatest Detective (1976) Sherlock Holmes in New York (1976) Silver Blaze (1977) The Strange Case of the End of Civilisation as We Know It (1977) The Hound of the Baskervilles (1982) The Masks of Death (1984) The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1987) Hands of a Murderer (1990) The Crucifer of Blood (1991) 1994 Baker Street: Sherlock Holmes Returns (1993) The Hound of London (1993) Sherlock: Case of Evil (2002) Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars (2007) Sherlock Holmes (2010) Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes (2010)

Television series

Sherlock Holmes (1951)
Sherlock Holmes (1954)
Sherlock Holmes (1965–1968)
Sherlock Holmes (1967–1968)
Sherlock Holmes (1968)
Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson (1979–1980)
Young Sherlock: The Mystery of the Manor House (1982)
The Baker Street Boys (1983)
Sherlock Hound (1984–1985)
Sherlock Holmes (1984–1994)
- episodes
The Adventures of Shirley Holmes (1997–2000)
Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century (1999–2001)
Sherlock (2010–2017)
Tantei Opera Milky Holmes (2010–2016)
Aria the Scarlet Ammo (2011)
Elementary (2012–2019)
Sherlock Holmes (2013)
Sherlock Holmes (2014–2015)
Miss Sherlock (2018)
Sherlock: Untold Stories (2019)
Case File nº221: Kabukicho (2019–2020)
Moriarty the Patriot (2020–2021)
Sherlock in Russia (2020)
The Irregulars (2021)
Mademoiselle Holmes (2024)
Sherlock & Daughter (2025; upcoming)
Watson (2025; upcoming)
Young Sherlock (2025; upcoming)

Actors by role

v t e Films of Harry Alan Towers
Death Drums Along the River (1963) Victim Five (1964) Coast of Skeletons (1965) Sandy the Seal (1965) Mozambique (1965) 24 Hours to Kill (1965) The Face of Fu Manchu (1965) Ten Little Indians (1965) Our Man in Marrakesh (1966) Circus of Fear (1966) The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966) The Million Eyes of Sumuru (1967) The Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967) Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon (1967) Five Golden Dragons (1967) The House of 1,000 Dolls (1967) Eve (1968) The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968) 99 Women (1969) The Girl from Rio (1969) Marquis de Sade: Justine (1969) The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969) Venus in Furs (1969) Eugenie… The Story of Her Journey into Perversion (1970) The Bloody Judge (1970) Count Dracula (1970) Dorian Gray (1970) Black Beauty (1971) Treasure Island (1972) The Call of the Wild (1972) White Fang (1973) And Then There Were None (1974) Blue Belle (1976) H. G. Wells' The Shape of Things to Come (1979) King Solomon's Treasure (1979) Klondike Fever (1980) Black Venus (1983) Fanny Hill (1983) Lady Libertine (1984) Christina (1984) Black Arrow (1985) Lightning, the White Stallion (1986) Skeleton Coast (1987) Gor (1987) Platoon Leader (1988) Howling IV: The Original Nightmare (1988) Outlaw of Gor (1988) Edge of Sanity (1989) American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt (1989) River of Death (1989) Ten Little Indians (1989) The Phantom of the Opera (1989) Buried Alive (1990) Oddball Hall (1990) Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady (1991) Incident at Victoria Falls (1992) The Lost World (1992) Return to the Lost World (1992) Dance Macabre (1992) Night Terrors (1993) The Mangler (1995) Bullet to Beijing (1995) Cry, the Beloved Country (1995) Midnight in Saint Petersburg (1996) Owd Bob (1998) Treasure Island (1999) Death, Deceit and Destiny Aboard the Orient Express (2000) Sumuru (2003) Pact with the Devil (2004)

Films of Harry Alan Towers

Death Drums Along the River (1963)
Victim Five (1964)
Coast of Skeletons (1965)
Sandy the Seal (1965)
Mozambique (1965)
24 Hours to Kill (1965)
The Face of Fu Manchu (1965)
Ten Little Indians (1965)
Our Man in Marrakesh (1966)
Circus of Fear (1966)
The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966)
The Million Eyes of Sumuru (1967)
The Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967)
Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon (1967)
Five Golden Dragons (1967)
The House of 1,000 Dolls (1967)
Eve (1968)
The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968)
99 Women (1969)
The Girl from Rio (1969)
Marquis de Sade: Justine (1969)
The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969)
Venus in Furs (1969)
Eugenie… The Story of Her Journey into Perversion (1970)
The Bloody Judge (1970)
Count Dracula (1970)
Dorian Gray (1970)
Black Beauty (1971)
Treasure Island (1972)
The Call of the Wild (1972)
White Fang (1973)
And Then There Were None (1974)
Blue Belle (1976)
H. G. Wells' The Shape of Things to Come (1979)
King Solomon's Treasure (1979)
Klondike Fever (1980)
Black Venus (1983)
Fanny Hill (1983)
Lady Libertine (1984)
Christina (1984)
Black Arrow (1985)
Lightning, the White Stallion (1986)
Skeleton Coast (1987)
Gor (1987)
Platoon Leader (1988)
Howling IV: The Original Nightmare (1988)
Outlaw of Gor (1988)
Edge of Sanity (1989)
American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt (1989)
River of Death (1989)
Ten Little Indians (1989)
The Phantom of the Opera (1989)
Buried Alive (1990)
Oddball Hall (1990)
Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady (1991)
Incident at Victoria Falls (1992)
The Lost World (1992)
Return to the Lost World (1992)
Dance Macabre (1992)
Night Terrors (1993)
The Mangler (1995)
Bullet to Beijing (1995)
Cry, the Beloved Country (1995)
Midnight in Saint Petersburg (1996)
Owd Bob (1998)
Treasure Island (1999)
Death, Deceit and Destiny Aboard the Orient Express (2000)
Sumuru (2003)
Pact with the Devil (2004)

v t e Films directed by Peter Sasdy
Journey into Darkness (1969) Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970) Countess Dracula (1971) Hands of the Ripper (1971) Doomwatch (1972) Nothing but the Night (1973) I Don't Want to Be Born (1975) Welcome to Blood City (1977) The Lonely Lady (1983) Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady (1991)

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