Purists fret about going 'Holmes' again

Haunted lately by an eerie, ripping noise?

That's the sound of Sherlock Holmes purists rending their garments over Guy Ritchie's $80 million extravaganza, "Sherlock Holmes," which stars Robert Downey Jr. as the inimitable master detective, Jude Law as a surprisingly edgy Dr. John Watson and Rachel McAdams as a seductive Irene Adler.

Trailers for the film, which opened on Christmas, couple gorgeous views of Edwardian London with jolting shots of a bare-chested, bloodied Holmes in a makeshift boxing ring.

Holmes brawling bare-knuckled a la "Fight Club"? Shocking!

Holmes going all Jackie Chan on the villains? Gasp!

Holmes flirting? Oh, my!

"Get a grip!" growled noted Sherlockian Les Klinger, who's fed up with fans pointing out the obvious -- the film takes liberties with Doyle's stories. "There have been over 200 films about Holmes," said Klinger, editor of "The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes," a multi-volume collection of Doyle's work released in 2005. "Everyone has taken liberties with Holmes."

One of the very first Holmes dramatizations, the stage play "Sherlock Holmes," written by and starring American actor William Gillette, ended with impending marriage for Holmes. (Doyle's hero remained a bachelor.) Gillette, who played the role from 1899 to 1930, when he was well into his 70s, famously wired Doyle for permission to marry off Holmes. Doyle's reply is classic: "You may marry him, or murder or do what you like with him."

Epitome of Holmes

Sadly, Holmes' celluloid debut was hardly respectful. Produced by American Mutoscope & Biograph in 1900 (some scholars date it to 1903), "Sherlock Holmes Baffled" was a one-reel spoof that ran less than a minute.

"They use trick photography to make this burglar appear and disappear and Holmes is trying to get ahold of him and can't," said Holmes expert David Morrill. "And that is how we've seen him from then on."

(You want respect? Sacha Baron Cohen of "Bruno" infamy will play Holmes, with Will Ferrell as Watson, in a forthcoming spoof.)

Several things concern Sherlockians when it comes to portrayals of their man, including his look, his physical prowess and age, his attitude toward women, his mood swings and the historical setting.

Steven Rothman, editor of the influential Philadelphia-based Baker Street Journal (www.bakerstreetjournal.com), said it wasn't until 1939 -- in Fox's production of "The Hound of the Baskervilles," starring Basil Rathbone -- that Holmes was shown in the correct era. "Holmes is very much a late Victorian/Edwardian person," Rothman said.

In the popular imagination, Rathbone, who made the deerstalker cap Holmes' signature accoutrement, is the epitome of Holmes. He starred in 12 Holmes films for Universal. (In "Voice of Terror" and "Secret Weapon," he battled Nazi spies.)

Rathbone and Arthur Wontner, who played Holmes in five films from 1931 to 1937, seemed divinely ordained for the role: Each bore a striking resemblance to Holmes as Doyle's illustrator, Sidney Paget, drew him.

"Those two actors are the standard by which we judge the resemblance to Sherlock Holmes," said Morrill, 48, a writer and actor in Williamsburg, Va. "They had the look: the thin, tall figure, the high forehead and the hawklike nose."

The Rathbone films pose an even stickier problem: The actor's co-star, Nigel Bruce, portrayed Watson as the ultimate clueless straight man.

"You wonder, why would Holmes, the genius, want to spend time with a buffoon?" Rothman said.

While Downey may overplay Holmes' physical prowess, Rothman said, Rathbone played him as a weakling.

"We know [Holmes] has been a bareknuckle boxer," Klinger said. "And he also has studied a form of martial arts which Doyle calls Baritsu." Doyle meant Bartitsu, a martial art derived from jujitsu and judo.

Brett may not have been young when he played Holmes, or terribly athletic, but he captured a side of Holmes that's invisible in the classic films: his irritating eccentricities and seismic mood swings.