Hey, Basil, who's yer barber? in The World of Sherlock Holmes Forum

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Hey, Basil, who's yer barber?

Author	Comment
Ray Faiola	Hey, Basil, who's yer barber?	Lead	[-]
Sep 25 08 9:57 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Classic Film Scores Restored on CD http://www.chelsearialtostudios.com
sirharryflashman		#1	[-]
Sep 25 08 12:27 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Nothing says 'brilliant detective' more than that dorky 'dragged through a hedge backwards' look! Cheers, Charles Prepolec Gaslight Grimoire Blog: News, Interviews and Updates Sherlock Holmes News: Sherlock Holmes in Films, Books and Media
Mark Redfield		#2	[-]
Sep 25 08 1:25 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I have never understood, nor accepted, fan and historian reasons for that haircut. I expected a chapter on it in Rathbone's In And Out Of Character, but was disappointed that no mention was made. I remain, as always, baffled and yet somehow mesmerized by the choice of coiffure (remembering that for a few weeks during shooting Rathbone sat in a chair in hair and make-up, presumably awake), and that there were mirrors in the Universal dressing rooms in the 1940's... Mark Redfield Visit www.redfieldarts.com <
professor liebstrum		#3	[-]
Sep 25 08 2:31 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	The locks of Sherlock. Almost as weird as Peter C's in Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell.
rogueevolent		#4	[-]
Sep 25 08 4:07 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	yikes! You've heard of the "comb-over" but what's this... a bad forehead comb-over?? I bet Basil did this because he "lost a bet." "We didn't come here to fight monsters, we're not equipped for it" -- Richard Carlson (Creature from the Black Lagoon)
Wich2		#5	[-]
Sep 25 08 5:12 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	It's an attempt to look Wildeian, yes?
Doc Savage		#6	[-]
Oct 1 08 11:17 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I believe it was an effort to more closely align Rathbone with the Yellow Nineties. Remember, updating Holmes was a somewhat radical move. (It became less radical after the initial three Universal films, which had little or nothing to do with the war.) They couldn't have him running around in a deerstalker (and there is a rather clever joke about that in Voice of Terror); but, clearly, they had to do something. Though the canonical Holmes would probably have had little patience with the Aesthetic Movement of the 1880-90s, giving him long hair would, in the 1940s, suitably 'date' him without placing him hopelessly in the past.
Wich2		#7	[-]
Oct 2 08 10:36 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	"Remember, updating Holmes was a somewhat radical move." Or it was a very conventional one, that had already been done with the entire Wontner series of films. Best, -Craig W.
Doc Savage	Or it was a very conventional one, that had already been done with the entire Wontner series of films.	#8	[-]
Oct 2 08 3:31 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Or it was a very conventional one, that had already been done with the entire Wontner series of films. Somehow, I don't think that's correct. For while the Wonter films were contemporary, they were made just a scant few years after the death of ACD. The world had not really moved that far beyond its Victorian worldview. But with the entire world at war in the 1940s, with the last shreds of the Victorian worldview (and Empire) in shambles, then, yes, I think updating it was a rather radical move.
sirharryflashman		#9	[-]
Oct 2 08 5:19 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	If memory serves, I think it is fairly safe to say that Rathbone's two Fox outings (The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes) were really the first notable instance where Sherlock Holmes had been presented in his correct period on the silver screen. Contemporary settings were pretty much the norm for all Sherlock Holmes films up to that point, including Norwood, Brook, Massey, Owen, Wontner, etc... Cheers, Charles Prepolec Gaslight Grimoire Blog: News, Interviews and Updates Sherlock Holmes News: Sherlock Holmes in Films, Books and Media
Wich2		#10	[-]
Oct 2 08 6:33 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	That's true, too, as to the larger Holmes-on-screen history, Charles. And the time between Wontner's last "contempo" film, and Rathbone's first, was a scant 5 years. Best, -Craig W.
Ray Faiola		#11	[-]
Oct 3 08 8:44 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Here, Basil, let me try MY style on you!! Classic Film Scores Restored on CD http://www.chelsearialtostudios.com
Doc Savage		#12	[-]
Oct 3 08 3:17 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	And the time between Wontner's last "contempo" film, and Rathbone's first, was a scant 5 years. Yes, but in terms of world events, it was another era entirely.
Joe Karlosi		#13	[-]
Oct 3 08 4:28 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Looks like Basil had the same barber as Red Skelton.
Wich2		#14	[-]
Oct 3 08 8:20 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	>>And the time between Wontner's last "contempo" film, and Rathbone's first, was a scant 5 years.<< >Yes, but in terms of world events, it was another era entirely.< Doc, this is not that big a deal; and I'm not arguing just to argue. But I don't follow your point? As Charles points out, the Holmes films had, for 40 years, pretty much always been set in the era they were shot. So how was it a "radical" move to stay with that tradition? Wouldn't "radical" have been to break with it, and move back to "...where it was always 1895..."? Best, -Craig Last Edited By: Wich2 Oct 4 08 3:04 PM. Edited 1 times.
sirharryflashman		#15	[-]
Oct 3 08 8:56 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	While I'd hate to put words in his mouth, I think I understand what 'Doc" is getting at. The contemporary settings of all that came before weren't all that different from the era within which the Canonical Holmes functioned. Basically from 1881 to 1914, and the later stories in some cases reflect the times within which they were written, if not the time within which they were set, extending the period in some ways, up to about 1927 or so. While I'd argue that WWI changed the world, or a view of the world, a great deal, Holmes only brushed up against that event, the Universal Holmes films put him in direct opposition to the 'enemy', which is to say the Nazis. The radical departure from even the contemporary settings of say the Wontner films is indeed rather severe, or radical. While the Wontner films had a fuzzy anytime, anyplace setting, there is no mistaking the world within which Rathbone's Holmes operates in a good chunk of the Universal series. If I'm wrong in my assessment of Doc's viewpoint I suspect I'll be corrected soon enough. Cheers, Charles Prepolec Gaslight Grimoire Blog: News, Interviews and Updates Sherlock Holmes News: Sherlock Holmes in Films, Books and Media
professor liebstrum		#16	[-]
Oct 4 08 12:23 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Here, Basil, let me try MY style on you!! Is there any photo of Boris backstage when he hasn't got a fag going?
Wich2		#17	[-]
Oct 4 08 3:05 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Not many, Prof! (And do recall Mr. Pratt's lung health in later years...)
Friend Z		#18	[-]
Oct 4 08 7:53 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	And of all the Holmes films Rathbone did, only HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES makes any kind of reference to the detective's drug use? "Watson, the needle!"
Wich2		#19	[-]
Oct 5 08 8:14 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	True, Z, but as scholars have pointed out that's an element - like Moriarity, & Mycroft - that actually appears less in The Canon than popular myth leads us to believe. I think maybe it was Gillette's play - which when done uncut, has a very big shoot 'em up scene - that first engraved the hypo in the pop-culture mind. Best, -Craig W,
Grant		#20	[-]
Oct 5 08 9:35 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I'm surprised I can answer that question, since I know the series pretty badly. In The Woman in Green, Moriarty is about to kill Holmes in some colorful way, and he asks him for suggestions (!). When Holmes suggests draining every drop of his blood with a needle and tube, "Moriarty says "Ah, the needle to the end, eh, Holmes?"

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Hey, Basil, who's yer barber?

Hey, Basil, who's yer barber?