To treat his friend's cocaine induced delusions, Watson lures Sherlock Holmes to Sigmund Freud.To treat his friend's cocaine induced delusions, Watson lures Sherlock Holmes to Sigmund Freud.To treat his friend's cocaine induced delusions, Watson lures Sherlock Holmes to Sigmund Freud.
- Nominated for 2 Oscars
- 1 win & 5 nominations total
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIronically, Dr. Sigmund Freud initially praised the use of cocaine, believing (like many others) that it had tremendous curative properties whilst also stimulating mental acuity and clarity of thought; he would often inject himself with the drug many times a day. He even introduced the drug to his friend Ernst Fleischl-Marxow with the best intentions. Marxow was a gifted physiologist and also a morphine addict, due to a painful injury he sustained that was only soothed by the opiate. Freud believed cocaine would help him to kick his morphine habit (which was a common belief at the time), but unfortunately it did not aid his friend, but rather added another problem, with which he had to deal, and may have been responsible for his early demise. Freud blamed himself for this, also noting with alarm his own extreme mood swings when under the influence of the drug, and determined to stop using it. Freud's paper on the deleterious effects of cocaine was the first proper assessment of its destructive side-effects, and won the physician his first widespread renown in the medical community. Freud became a strong opponent of narcotic use, even refusing pain-killers when, in later life, he became stricken with the cancer which eventually killed him in 1939.
- GoofsWhen Holmes, Watson and Freud are attacked by rampaging horses, the trainer can be seen running behind the horses in long shots.
- Quotes
Sigmund Freud: Who am I that your friends should wish us to meet?
Sherlock Holmes: Beyond the fact that you are a brilliant Jewish physician who was born in Hungary and studied for a while in Paris, and that certain radical theories of yours have alienated the respectable medical community so that you have severed your connections with various hospitals and branches of the medical fraternity, beyond this I can deduce little. You're married, with a child of... five. You enjoy Shakespeare and possess a sense of honor.
- Crazy creditsIn the opening titles, there are footnotes concerning many of the characters.
- Alternate versionsIn some airings on television, the "Madame's Song" (aka "I Never Do Anything Twice") is cut.
The movie takes the liberty of assuming that all of Dr. Watson's accounts of Sherlock Holmes are true, except for one. That would be "The Final Problem", in which the great detective supposedly dies at the hands of his arch-enemy Professor Moriarty. The movie suggests that this story is merely a cover up for a period in time in which Holmes was getting help with his cocaine addiction from none other than famous psychiatrist Sigmund Freud.
The settings and characters ring true to both Doyle's mysteries and the Sydney Paget illustrations that accompanied them. Sherlock Holmes' deerstalker and cloak, though never mentioned by Doyle, look more like Paget's illustrations than ever before, more rugged than in most film interpretations. American actor Robet Duvall, despite sometimes struggling with the British accent, portrays Watson as an intellectually and physically fit comrade for Holmes, not a bumbler. Laurence Olivier's Prof. Moriarty matches the vision of Doyle and Paget rather than the cliché mustache twirler of other movies. Only now, Moriarty isn't really a criminal mastermind. He's Holmes' childhood math tutor.
Alan Arkin depicts Freud as a man of intelligence, insight, and above all, honor.
The inclusion of lesser known characters like Mycroft Holmes and Toby is a plus. There are also references, both direct and sly, to canonical Holmes stories.
While Nicol Williamson's performance as Sherlock Holmes lacks the vigor and spark of Basil Rathbone or Christopher Plummer, Williamson succeeds in showing Holmes as a troubled individual rather than a god. The movie mixes drama, subtle humor, mystery, and even action, finally showing Holmes as the capable fighter he was in the canon. The end of the film strays from the books in order to explore the uncharted territory of Holmes' childhood, providing a deeply moving climax.
This may come truer to Sir Arthur's original vision than any other pastiche written for film so far, largely thanks to the efforts of writer/director Nicholas Meyer. It's obvious in every scene that Meyer has a great love for the writings of Arthur Conan Doyle.
- SylvesterFox007
- Jul 9, 2005
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- Release date
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- Also known as
- Sedampostotna otopina
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- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $5,000,000 (estimated)