Granada Discussion Post: The Naval Treaty

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

Let's talk telly in the discussion post for Granada's adaptation of The Naval Treaty. If you haven't seen this episode yet, you can find it at YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Video, and DVD. Follow me behind the jump for my random thoughts and impressions. Please add your own in the comments!

Canon discussion is available in the canon discussion post.



- We see Watson discover the VR shot into the wall here. He doesn't even mention it to Holmes. You'd think that would elicit some kind of response. Also, is Watson living at Baker Street in this episode? Since Granada completely eliminated Mary (and/or any other of potential Watson's wives) from the timeline, I guess the implication is that he's going back to his surgery in the scenes where he leaves Baker Street, but it seems like he's going home instead.

- The ages of the actors playing Watson and Percy Phelps are way off here, given that they're supposed to be very close in age. It makes it difficult to buy into the whole "former school chums" relationship.

- I loved Holmes' "Here's my cigarette, put it out somewhere, won't you?" routine. A reputation for eccentricity and effectiveness paired allows him to do lots of things no one else could get away with.

- "His wife's a bad lot, though. She drinks." You might drink too with the life we see of the old charwoman, surviving with two jobs and a house filled wall to wall with screaming children.

- The whole bizarre rose speech is even weirder here than in canon because Percy in the text at least doesn't have a severe fit just before it originally. Poor guy. Imagine it. All your hopes rest in this supposedly amazing detective, and after you recover from a panic attack induced by describing the crime to him, you discover he'd rather prattle on about flowers than help you recover a vital document and your life.

- I love the scene where they kick Percy's co-worker out of the room and get down to work. "Yes, yes, GOODNIGHT." The door slams and it's instantly action and narration of findings. The whole point of a visual adaptation of these stories is to watch Sherlock think. They split the dialogue in that scene cleverly to make both of them look great. Holmes is immediately listing all the little relevant physical evidence he finds, crawling over the floor. Watson takes a more practical approach, walks over to stand where he knew someone must have, and theorized from there.

- Three words: Holmes' white suit. Okay, a few more: he has a sword in his cane!

- "He really is the most inscrutable fellow, Watson." Isn't this why people love these stories, and have loved them for over a century? Sherlock Holmes is an incredible analytical mind, capable of taking everything in the world apart and knowing all the pieces and their connections. But he himself is almost impossible to take apart. Watson knows him as well as anyone alive, and Holmes is still in many ways a conundrum to him too. Readers (and viewers) interested in detective stories are also interested in a mystery in the form of a man.

Comments

[tweedisgood.livejournal.com]

So much agreement with your last paragraph, so succinctly true.

And your penultimate paragraph, not forgetting that hat, set at a rakish angle....

[tripleransom.livejournal.com]

Oh, this episode! Jeremy Brett is just so gorgeous in it. From the very beginning, intent on his chemical analysis with that stray lock of hair falling over his forehead, "you are the stormy petrel of crrrime, Watson!" to the white! linen! suit! and the rose speech, he is swoon-worthy in the extreme. The suit is real linen, too - you can tell by the way it wrinkles.
And the hat! Whether or not Sherlock Holmes would have worn his hat at that jaunty angle, Jeremy Brett always did, and to great effect.
Granada got lucky with the weather when they were filming this ep. it was beautiful high summertime and they take full advantage of it, with the scenes in the garden and that wonderful shot of Holmes dozing beneath the tree. Note that he has his jacket slung around his shoulders so that it won't get dirty leaning against the tree trunk.
I do question, however, if he would have been able to - what? hide in a haystack? - and then emerge so tidy, (hat intact) a few moments later for his fight with Joseph Harrison. Speaking of the fight, that is a really weird directing choice, isn't it? The shadow play is strange and jarring.
I gather that they wanted to leave out the Rose speech and Jeremy Brett really pushed them to put it in. He delivers it effectively, too, looking exactly like the Sidney Paget illustration, despite the fact that it's apropos of absolutely nothing. Then Miss Harrison is so put out with him for maundering on instead of getting down to business. It makes a funny moment.
Poor Mrs Tangey. I'd be driven to drink too if I lived in that kind of Hogarthian squalor. Then she gets hauled off unceremoniously to Scotland Yard on no particular grounds, mostly because she's poor - Did they really think she had the treaty stuck down her cleavage or something? - while Percy is gets to have his brain fever comfortably at home for 9 weeks.
I could go on, and on, but I won't. Can you tell that I adore this episode?

Sunday, 17 February 2013

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

User thisprettywren referenced to your post from Sunday, 17 February 2013 (http://holmesian-news.livejournal.com/268751.html) saying: [...] at (ACD) Granada Discussion Post: The Naval Treaty [...]

[firthivated.livejournal.com]

I have to agree with all comments so far. This is certainly one of my favourite episodes just for how delicious Jeremy Brett looks throughout; from his dishabille at the beginning while doing his experiment, to full dress suit with cravat while visiting Lord Holdhurst, to the beloved white linen suit. Swoon-worthy indeed!!

The chemistry between Holmes and Watson, especially in Phelps' office interrogating Garot, is wonderful. When Watson says that Holmes grandmother was French, that little show of exasperation that Holmes shows is just so cute and says so much about the Holmes/Watson friendship.

I love the slap down of Forbes by Holmes, for his sneering speech, more than you can possibly imagine.

My heart does weird little pitter-patters in the scene with Holmes after his run down the side of the house, linen coat flying,his hasty removal of his hat once inside, quickly asking Miss Harrison to stay in the room before commanding her, "promise me." And his very surreptitious look to her before leaving.

Another favourite moment was Holmes coming back to Baker St. and coercing Mrs. Hudson to hide the Treaty in the dish. You can see them conspiring out on the landing before Holmes comes into the sitting-room. Such a wonderful look at what probably happened behind the scenes in the canon story.

All in all a very lovely episode.