The Royal Scandal

This starts off with a clunky disclaimer claiming the film is based on characters from the public domain and so isn't approved by the estate of creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. That's rather off-putting but it is still just about worth persevering with the rest of it. Matt Frewer dons the deerstalker and together with Kenneth Welsh as "Dr. Watson" they are drawn into a scandal that threatens the reputation of the King of Bohemia. It turns out that an old sparring partner of "Holmes" - the actress "Irene Adler" (Liliana Komorowska) is in town, and soon the duo deduce that she is probably behind a much greater plan to steal state secrets of a military nature. The production here is adequate; the costumes and staging look fine and the story is pretty accurate to the book. The acting, though - well that is all rather static. Frewer tries his hand at Holmes very much in the vein of Jeremy Brett rather than Basil Rathbone, and his delivery is all just a bit too calculated and sterile for me. It is also quite a long old slog, coming in just fractionally under the two hour mark for an adventure that really could do with shaving off half an hour or so. It passes the time, but I'm afraid is an instantly forgettable effort from all concerned.

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