sherlock holmes (jeremy brett)--26 selected caps of "the empty house"

[cimorene]

blah--still no torrent for project runway 2x06, and the tracker's down for criminal minds.  on the plus side i only have one book left to read for monday's exam!

but more happily, wax gave me the jeremy brett return of sherlock holmes dvds for christmas and last night i watched "the empty house".

the first time i watched these dvds i wrote recap-reviews, including lists of high and low points and illustrative caps;  the caps were low-quality cameraphone images of the screen and are long gone, but my initial impressions are here, anyway.  last night  i obviously made

jeremy brett is totally my dead gay bi tv boyfriend.  i'm a giant sucker for animated facial acting especially, and for vigorous and energetic physical acting in general, and brett holds the camera in an unbreakable grip.  i find his performances just incredible--his lovely voice and delightful enunciation, the zillions of flickers of expression and nervous habits, everything obviously so meticulously calculated.  and the genius of his portrayal of holmes as so neurotic, twitchy, whimsical and queer:  well, it makes his holmes absolutely definitive in my mind.  (okay, i'll shut up, but not having seen the dvds in two years i had sort of forgotten the intensity of my affection.)

this isn't to denigrate hardwicke's performance as watson.  as my earlier recap mentions, he does some pretty subtle facial acting in this episode too, and i think his manners as watson, and his chemistry with brett's holmes, are ideal. his performance as straight man makes for great comic timing between the two of them, and his silent acting adds a really charming intelligence, affection and affectionate tolerance to what we get from doyle's texts.

to quote my previous review:

high points: lestrade saying holmes 'even got the better of me a time or two'; holmes's first line as himself; watson: 'surely i am as trustworthy as your brother'; holmes: 'but of COURSE, watson. it is merely that you have a kinder heart' (phrasing approximate); shots of the airgun being loaded; holmes detailing the life story of the second most dangerous man in london, incl. a totally wack metaphor about a tree.

(i tried to make the involuntary spoiler space disappear, but it wouldn't.)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

sad watson looks up at the flat he used to share with his poor dead boyfriend.

lestrade:  my secret secondary character boyfriend.  he looks like a little rat!

holmes casts off his costume and appears in watson's consulting room.

and stretches elaborately.

watson breaks out laughing in happy disbelief a couple of times over the ensuing conversation.

(it's so hard to cull caps of his facial expressions...

...because they just keep changing.)

♥

flashback to reichenback: holmes bites his tongue to keep from calling out to watson.

who is still rather hurt that holmes never contacted him.

holmes, however, is sensitive to this dynamic; you see his anxiety for watson's reaction in his careful attention, and he's rather careful and then reassuring.  well, that is, until he's overcome by the whim to take a nap.

it's just like old times!  watson has no idea where they're going or why, but at least he has a gun.

in the empty house!

back at home, holmes fondles the airgun.

colonel moran indubitably has excellent aim.

holmes shows watson moran's entry in the Sherlock Holmes Encyclopedia of Trivia About Criminals.

his favourite way to sit, with both legs folded up, grasshopper-like.

♥

shriner hat!

the whole gallery contains 62 caps, here. i plan to make some annotated scenes next time, but today i feel constrained by the need to go do some reading.

Comments

[perhael.livejournal.com]

omg i fucking love jeremy brett. his holmes is the best ever. *squee!*

[titc.livejournal.com]

I think I prefer Hardwicke as Holmes precisely for the reasons that make you prefer Burke, but it's a matter of personal preference ;-)

Brett is fantastic, I recently bought the entire collection to satisfy my Holmes/Watson cravings; and this very ep is *totally* about their love friendship.
Granada!Lestrade is also great, especially in the end of the 6 Napoleons episode when he expresses his admiration for Holmes...

moustache_wax has pics of a younger Brett on her lj, if you're interested!

[cimness.livejournal.com]

actually, i prefer hardwicke to burke by a large margin. i only had to watch, i think, the first two episodes with him for my preference to be established. when i said it wasn't my intent to denigrate his performance, i meant in comparison to brett's, which i tend to rave about. "the six napoleons" is one of my favourite dramatisations, partly for lestrade, but i also especially love hardwicke's performance in it.

i believe i've seen those younger pictures you're talking about; anyway, i've got a folder of them on my hard drive.

[titc.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I was in fact referring to the earlier post you linked to where you wrote you preferred Burke - but then again it was 2 yzears ago, & you've seen reason since ;-b
As Brett!Holmes goes older, Hardwicke is his ideal companion, I think.
OMG cuddly!

[penm.livejournal.com]

it's just like old times! watson has no idea where they're going or why, but at least he has a gun.

Made me giggle, because it's true!

[cimness.livejournal.com]

so so true. just like old times, holmes interrupts what watson thinks is an important conversation to be like, "do you have the gun? great! we'll be going out into unspeakable danger tonight" and then when watson is like "huh? why? where?" he's like, "oh, that doesn't really matter, it's boring, you don't want to hear it. plus, i'm going to take a nap."