My favorite Sherlock Holmes incarnation

[kyuuketsuki]

Watson was anything but dim. His thought processes were different from Holmes entirely. He wasn't a genius like Holmes was, but he was a doctor. And even in the 1800s they didn't just give medical degrees to just anyone. He was quite smart, and quite fit, just coming off of deployment in Afghanistan if I recall correctly. He was anything but a bumbling idiot.

In my humble opinion, the Nigel Bruce portrayal was quite possibly the worst of all the Holmes depictions. Watson was horrible, and Holmes was depicted as a well kept gentleman. Holmes, according to SACD, was anything but. He was gruff, unpersonable, looked down on anyone, and the only person capable of getting close to him was Watson. Even his brother wasn't close to him.

Nigel Bruce's portrayal didn't start off like that, he became more of a buffoon as time went on. He was also doing the radio shows ("The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (1939 - 1947) with Rathbone through 1946) at that time. The comic element found it's way to the screen through the radio shows (and vice-versa).

Here is a list of the Rathbone/Bruce movies:
    1. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)
    2. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939)
    3. Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942)
    4. Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1943)
    5. Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943)
    6. Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943)
    7. The Spider Woman (1944)
    8. The Scarlet Claw (1944)
    9. The Pearl of Death (1944)
    10. The House of Fear (1945)
    11. The Woman in Green (1945)
    12. Pursuit to Algiers (1945)
    13. Terror by Night (1946)
    14. Dressed to Kill (1946)

Seen all of them, and yes, they all don't depict him being dim, but they all did depict him as out of shape which was unbefitting a field doctor who was shot and injured in the line of duty. Either way they messed up on the portrayal for both of them. I'm a Holmes fanatic. I haven't heard the radio shows though...

[MaitreDétective]

Concerning Benedict Cumberbatch, I peronnaly don"t see him as an incarnation of SH, more of a character inspired of Holmes and who has the same name

[Magical Mystery]

Seen all of them, and yes, they all don't depict him being dim, but they all did depict him as out of shape which was unbefitting a field doctor who was shot and injured in the line of duty. Either way they messed up on the portrayal for both of them. I'm a Holmes fanatic. I haven't heard the radio shows though...

You can find a partial archive of the radio show here:
http://archive.org/details/OTR_Sherlock_Holmes_smurfmeat

And as with any archive from this time (1930's and 1940's) there are bound to be sound quality problems.