Available on a superb DVD (although not in wide-screen format, alas), "Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace" is actually quite watchable and far from the "badly edited, deplorable hodge-podge of nonsense" decried by Christopher Lee, despite the fact that his own performance was "one of the best things I've ever done!" Actually, Lee is by no means the saving grace of this Sherlockian entry. That honor belongs equally to the lovely Senta Berger (and she looks especially enticing here in her form-hugging Vera Mugge costumes) and that delightful oaf of a villain, Leon Askin. Hans Sohnker's dapper Moriarty also has the edge on Lee, who admittedly is robbed of his voice (as is Thorley Walters as a conventional, bumbling Dr Watson). Although I noticed a tip of the hat in the credits to "The Valley of Fear", the script bears not the slightest relationship to that novel at all, but the play holds the interest and is actually quite ably staged and expensively set.
