Violet Merville is determined to marry the man she loves, who Holmes knows has already murdered one wife.Violet Merville is determined to marry the man she loves, who Holmes knows has already murdered one wife.Violet Merville is determined to marry the man she loves, who Holmes knows has already murdered one wife.
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaRepeated references are made to "oil of vitriol." This is the old name for sulfuric acid, in this case thrown in the faces of women to disfigure them.
- GoofsIn one scene, Baron Gruner is listening to a recording of a baritone singing the "Madamina" aria from Mozart's "Don Giovanni", and the singer is backed by a full orchestra. Such recordings were impossible to make in the nineteenth century, when the story takes place. Until the advent of electrical recording (i.e., using microphones) in 1925, singers and instrumentalists had to stand around a large horn to make recordings, and the use of a large orchestra would have distorted the sound. Special "chamber music" arrangements had to be made of orchestral pieces to prevent distortion and overload. Recordings were made on wax cylinders then, not discs, and the quality of sound was far worse than demonstrated in this episode.
- Quotes
[first lines]
Baron Gruner: Oh. Oh, my dear. My dearest. I warned you; I said, "Do not go too near the edge."
Baroness Gruner: Why did you push me, Baron?
Baron Gruner: My dear wife... you, you're dreaming.
Baroness Gruner: No. Dying. Dying.
Baron Gruner: Oh, my darling.
- ConnectionsVersion of Sherlock Holmes: The Illustrious Client (1965)
Featured review
The Illustrious Client
A representative of a very special client calls on Holmes.
Violet Merville is desperately in love with Austrian Baron Grunner (Anthony Valentine.) A monstrous cad of the highest order, Holmes regards him as a murderer who threw his first wife off a cliff.
Miss Merville will not hear of any attempts to discredit the Baron. Even though there is a history of him disfiguring his previous mistresses with acid.
Holmes has to persuade Miss Merville against marrying this man. His best hope is to steal a diary the Baron has but the Baron knows that Holmes is on his tail.
A suitably atmospheric story, Valentine is both slimy and charming. He shows his ruthless side by hiring goons to beat up Holmes. He even sees through Doctor Watson's charade.
There is an element of poetic justice at the end. On the other hand Miss Merville was so stubborn, you kind of felt that she deserved to suffer a horrible fate.
Violet Merville is desperately in love with Austrian Baron Grunner (Anthony Valentine.) A monstrous cad of the highest order, Holmes regards him as a murderer who threw his first wife off a cliff.
Miss Merville will not hear of any attempts to discredit the Baron. Even though there is a history of him disfiguring his previous mistresses with acid.
Holmes has to persuade Miss Merville against marrying this man. His best hope is to steal a diary the Baron has but the Baron knows that Holmes is on his tail.
A suitably atmospheric story, Valentine is both slimy and charming. He shows his ruthless side by hiring goons to beat up Holmes. He even sees through Doctor Watson's charade.
There is an element of poetic justice at the end. On the other hand Miss Merville was so stubborn, you kind of felt that she deserved to suffer a horrible fate.
- Prismark10
- May 10, 2020
- Permalink
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