Fantasy Island was silly, of course, but this episode shows how it also had a warming charm. The two stories are well developed, and there are some great cameos (one of the pleasures of watching FI is to spot actors in their autumn years, and stars-to-be). Donald O'Connor and Ron Ely show-off their comic skills in the Sherlock Holmes story (Peter Lawford, in his penultimate appearance, doesn't look well), while in the romantic story, a young Nicole Eggert is effective as a fatherless girl and is good at crying on cue. And at the centre, the majestic Ricardo Montalban as Mr Roarke, taking it all super-seriously and adding essential gravitas. Yep - great fun indeed.
Fantasy Island (TV Series)
The Case Against Mr. Roarke/Save Sherlock Holmes (1982)
User Reviews
Review this title3 Reviews
Not bad but not memorable
VetteRanger16 January 2023
The draw of this episode is seeing Donald O'Connor as Doctor Watson, friend and ally of Sherlock Holmes. And it was also refreshing to see Ron Ely, years past his role as Tarzan and the mostly forgettable Doc Savage movie.
Ely's fantasy is to help a crackerjack detective on a case, so Mr. Roarke sends him to assist the best of all ...... Sherlock Holmes. Donald O'Connor doesn't have a great British accept, but hams it up amusingly as Doctor Watson, whom Ely meets sans Holmes, who has gone missing and is now the prisoner of Moriarty.
Peter Lawford as Holmes is both underused and awful, and that's a shame.
The second story is about a mother who shockingly accuses Roake of being father to her daughter, which Roake doesn't exactly deny. To say more I'd have to check Yes on the spoilers question.
Ely's fantasy is to help a crackerjack detective on a case, so Mr. Roarke sends him to assist the best of all ...... Sherlock Holmes. Donald O'Connor doesn't have a great British accept, but hams it up amusingly as Doctor Watson, whom Ely meets sans Holmes, who has gone missing and is now the prisoner of Moriarty.
Peter Lawford as Holmes is both underused and awful, and that's a shame.
The second story is about a mother who shockingly accuses Roake of being father to her daughter, which Roake doesn't exactly deny. To say more I'd have to check Yes on the spoilers question.
Torn about this one: it was very good until the half assed ending! (But PS: The kid is annoying and Tarzan can't act!)
imdb-2528823 April 2023
Warning: Spoilers
I'm liking that both stories are entertaining here. The Sherlock one looks, at first, like it was going to be the best, what with the costumes, the tall hunk and all playing their parts well.
The other story, however, is "The Case Against Mr. Roarke" and one can't help but wonder why he'd let her go this far and then there's the odious Nicole Haggard (why couldn't it have been the cutie Heather O'Rourke returning!?) and that kid's is helluva annoying (foretelling what she was to become..!) so this kinda ruins this story for me. Still, you watch it for the actress playing the mother and for Roarke: why is he so congenial to that woman!?
The other story has Donald O'Connor (no, Mr. Otharevioo: it's NOT a cameo! Cameo is what Ricardo Montalban does, every time he appears in disguises, however, since he's the star of the show, that's hardly a cameo either! If Don O'C had played said disguised part, THEN it would be considered a cameo!) where was I? OH, yeah! As Watson.
The handsome hunk turns out to be quite a dud of an ineffective actor, but he's good to look at, if you're into that. All and all I gave this an 8/10 but the bad ending! Oh boy! I think I'm about to drop this one into a 7/10. The guy departs without his love interest, who was an evil woman, let me remind you, in the fantasy, drugging up Sherlock! And what about the other duo? Mother and child do not return home, but why? Roarke never said he's letting them live there, so please LEAVE and not a moment too soon!
Yeah, torn. It started off an 8/10 but with the bad acting (Tarzan stands there like a log when he says the bad guys are off to kill Sherlock, instead of "MOVE IT!!!") and the aforementioned rest... Yeah, I'm lowering the score to a 7/10. Sorry! ¯\_( o.o )_/¯
The other story, however, is "The Case Against Mr. Roarke" and one can't help but wonder why he'd let her go this far and then there's the odious Nicole Haggard (why couldn't it have been the cutie Heather O'Rourke returning!?) and that kid's is helluva annoying (foretelling what she was to become..!) so this kinda ruins this story for me. Still, you watch it for the actress playing the mother and for Roarke: why is he so congenial to that woman!?
The other story has Donald O'Connor (no, Mr. Otharevioo: it's NOT a cameo! Cameo is what Ricardo Montalban does, every time he appears in disguises, however, since he's the star of the show, that's hardly a cameo either! If Don O'C had played said disguised part, THEN it would be considered a cameo!) where was I? OH, yeah! As Watson.
The handsome hunk turns out to be quite a dud of an ineffective actor, but he's good to look at, if you're into that. All and all I gave this an 8/10 but the bad ending! Oh boy! I think I'm about to drop this one into a 7/10. The guy departs without his love interest, who was an evil woman, let me remind you, in the fantasy, drugging up Sherlock! And what about the other duo? Mother and child do not return home, but why? Roarke never said he's letting them live there, so please LEAVE and not a moment too soon!
Yeah, torn. It started off an 8/10 but with the bad acting (Tarzan stands there like a log when he says the bad guys are off to kill Sherlock, instead of "MOVE IT!!!") and the aforementioned rest... Yeah, I'm lowering the score to a 7/10. Sorry! ¯\_( o.o )_/¯
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