Lost ‘Sherlock Holmes’ Film Discovered After Almost a Century

By Kevin Noonan
For Variety

A nearly 100-year-old silent film version of “Sherlock Holmes” starring famed Holmes thespian and American actor William Gillette has been discovered at the Cinémathèque Française, the French film archive announced Wednesday.

The rediscovered film is the only one Gillette ever appeared in, and is the actor’s only surviving appearance as the Baker Street detective, a role for which he was world-renowned in stage portrayals. It was Gillette who first donned the deerstalker hat that has remained popular through generations of Holmes performers, including Benedict Cumberbatch in BBC’s “Sherlock” (though Robert Downey Jr. ditched the iconic cap in Guy Ritchie’s recent franchise).

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William Gillette, is, of course, the central figure in Ken Ludwig's The Game's Afoot: It is December 1936 and William Gillette has invited his fellow cast-members to his Connecticut castle for a weekend of revelry. But when one of the guests is stabbed to death, the festivities in this isolated house of tricks and mirrors quickly turn dangerous. Then it’s up to Gillette himself, as he assumes the persona of his beloved Holmes, to track down the killer before the next victim appears. The danger and hilarity are non-stop in this glittering whodunit set during the Christmas holidays.