Quote: Kenneth @ April 21 2009, 11:39 PM BSTDid Basil Rathbone as Holmes ever jab a syringe into his arm?
I think one of Rathbone's films courted some controversey by ending with him shouting "Watson, the needle!" which does rather have the effect of turning it into a Mitchell and Webb sketch...but I'm not sure about the shooting up.
Jack - agree with Kenneth. I can't remember Conan Doyle including anything that wasn't relevant. 
Quote: JuliaC @ April 22 2009, 12:07 AM BSTI think one of Rathbone's films courted some controversey by ending with him shouting "Watson, the needle!" which does rather have the effect of turning it into a Mitchell and Webb sketch...
Yes, the last line in the 1939 Hound of the Baskerville film was 'Watson, the needle' It was the first film to feature Basil Rathbone.
Thanks Julia and Jack. Would be interesting to see a dramatization of this passage from The Sign of Four:
Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantel-piece and his hypodermic syringe from its neat morocco case. With his long, white, nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate needle, and rolled back his left shirt-cuff. For some little time his eyes rested thoughtfully upon the sinewy forearm and wrist all dotted and scarred with innumerable puncture-marks. Finally he thrust the sharp point home, pressed down the tiny piston, and sank back into the velvet-lined arm-chair with a long sigh of satisfaction.
Three times a day for many months I had witnessed this performance, but custom had not reconciled my mind to it. On the contrary, from day to day I had become more irritable at the sight, and my conscience swelled nightly within me at the thought that I had lacked the courage to protest. Again and again I had registered a vow that I should deliver my soul upon the subject, but there was that in the cool, nonchalant air of my companion which made him the last man with whom one would care to take anything approaching to a liberty. His great powers, his masterly manner, and the experience which I had had of his many extraordinary qualities, all made me diffident and backward in crossing him.
Yet upon that afternoon, whether it was the Beaune which I had taken with my lunch, or the additional exasperation produced by the extreme deliberation of his manner, I suddenly felt that I could hold out no longer.
"Which is it to-day?" I asked -- "morphine or cocaine?"
He raised his eyes languidly from the old black-letter volume which he had opened. "It is cocaine," he said, -- "a seven-per-cent. solution. Would you care to try it?"
"No, indeed," I answered, brusquely. "My constitution has not got over the Afghan campaign yet. I cannot afford to throw any extra strain upon it."
He smiled at my vehemence. "Perhaps you are right, Watson," he said. "I suppose that its influence is physically a bad one. I find it, however, so transcendently stimulating and clarifying to the mind that its secondary action is a matter of small moment."
"But consider!" I said, earnestly. "Count the cost! Your brain may, as you say, be roused and excited, but it is a pathological and morbid process, which involves increased tissue-change and may at last leave a permanent weakness. You know, too, what a black reaction comes upon you. Surely the game is hardly worth the candle. Why should you, for a mere passing pleasure, risk the loss of those great powers with which you have been endowed? Remember that I speak not only as one comrade to another, but as a medical man to one for whose constitution he is to some extent answerable."
He did not seem offended. On the contrary, he put his finger-tips together and leaned his elbows on the arms of his chair, like one who has a relish for conversation.
"My mind," he said, "rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation. That is why I have chosen my own particular profession,--or rather created it, for I am the only one in the world."
Would be interesting to know how long it took you to write it out.
Quote: Timbo @ April 21 2009, 9:40 PM BST.
Rathbone was handicapped by being in some awful films and having Nigel Bruce play Watson as an annoying buffoon.
I strongly disagree with that statement, I thought Rathbone and Bruce were a truly brilliant team and the films were classics in my opinion. The only Holmes and Watson that could possibly rival the two are Peter Cushing and Nigel Stock.
Quote: Jack Massey @ April 22 2009, 7:18 PM BSTWould be interesting to know how long it took you to write it out.
I didn't transcribe it, I just Googled: Holmes, hypodermic, puncture and arm.
As an aside, there's a bank/building society at 221b Baker Street now (I think, if you're that concerned, that it's an Abbey National.) Anyway, my ex's mum used to work there and one of her tasks was to reply to all the people (presumably American )who'd written to Sherlock Holmes at that address.
Can't decide if that'd be a cool job or a rubbish one.
It would be a cool job if these people were writing to Sherlock with strange and terrifying mysteries and she found herself solving them.
In fact there is the concept for a TV series right there.
Quote: Timbo @ April 23 2009, 11:04 AM BSTIt would be a cool job if these people were writing to Sherlock with strange and terrifying mysteries and she found herself solving them.
In fact there is the concept for a TV series right there.
It could be called 'Murder she wrote'. 
Quote: Rob H @ April 23 2009, 11:06 AM BSTIt could be called 'Murder she wrote'.
Wasn't there a Viz Top Tip a few years ago that went something like:
Criminals, if you're planning on throwing a dinner party at your country house and murdering one of your guests, do not invite Angela Lansbury because she will invariably find you out.
Quote: Kenneth @ April 23 2009, 11:15 AM BSTWasn't there a Viz Top Tip a few years ago that went something like:
Criminals, if you're planning on throwing a dinner party at your country house and murdering one of your guests, do not invite Angela Lansbury because she will invariably find you out.
Hmmmm, I'd have to think of some other eye-candy to invite then...
Quote: Kenneth @ April 21 2009, 11:39 PM BSTI've read it. You should not skip the Mormon bit.
Just finished it now. Thanks very much for recommending me not to skip the Mormon bit, as I've now read the book and have come to the conclusion of how important the Mormon bit is, even if it is a little bit too drawn out. A brilliant read.
I'm just looking at a recipe for a paella but the rice bit is a bit long and boring. Should I skip it and go on to the fish? Worried of Barcelona.
According to The Sherlock Holmes Cookbook (1928, Columbo University Press), there is no excuse for skipping the rice bit. As for going straight to the fish, that's a real no-no. Instead, Holmes recommends that you cover some dried Welsh mushrooms in hot red wine and soak. Heat a spoonful of peanut oil in a beguiling 9-inch copper skillet. Add chicken thighs (not fish!) and cook until golden. Carve chicken into small pieces. Add onion and sauté for about 5 minutes. Add crushed garlic, ginger, bay leaf and rosemary, and cook for two more minutes. Drain the Welsh mushrooms and add them to the skillet, along with a handful of red toadstools. Cook until liquified toadstool rings begin to appear. Add a dash of pork sausage and wombat juice and cook for 40 seconds. Add Portuguese red wine and reduce for about 2 minutes. Stir in a cup of mashed tomatoes and cook for 3 minutes. By now your rice should be cooked. Strain the rice and add in even layers. Cover with 1 quart of badger semen-stock and season with opium poppy seeds. When the badger semen-stock begins to boil and coagulate, reduce to simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Then serve immediately.