Monday, August 18, 2014

BFI hunts for missing A Study in Scarlet (1914).

Ad for the 1914 American version of
A Study in Scarlet, starring Francis Ford
As the British Film Institute noted on August 15, it is calling on the public for assistance in locating a print of A Study in Scarlet, a 1914 silent-film adaptation directed by George Pearson that is an early screen portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. Also missing is the 1914 American version (starring Francis Ford, brother of the director John Ford), as well as Pearson's version of The Valley of Fear (1916).

BFI also has reported on its successes in locating missing films, including the country-house mystery Three Steps in the Dark (1953).
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2 comments:

Kelly Robinson said...

I'm confounded as to why articles keep referring to this as the first Sherlock Holmes film. The first I know of was in 1903. There were at least a half-dozen more before this one comes into play—including some that Conan Doyle assisted with.

5:34 PM
Elizabeth Foxwell said...

I was thinking that it might have something to do with length, but I see that "The Copper Beeches," "Mystery of Boscombe Valley," and "The Musgrave Ritual" (all 1912) are all 2-reelers, just like the Francis Ford version of "A Study in Scarlet." Perhaps people think that because "A Study in Scarlet" is the first Holmes in print, it must be the first film as well.

6:42 PM

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