Thu 10 Jun 2010
Archived Reviews: Two Made-for-TV Movies — LOIS & CLARK Begins and SHERLOCK HOLMES Is Revived.
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[23] Comments
● LOIS & CLARK: THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN. Feature-length premiere of the TV series. ABC-TV, 12 September 1993. Dean Cain (Clark), Teri Hatcher (Lois), with Michael Landes (Jimmy), Lane Smith (Perry White), John Shea (Lex Luthor), & Tracy Scroggins (“Cat” Grant). Based on the DC Comics superhero characters. Director: Robert Butler.
“Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a guy up there in a costume, with a cape!”
Or words to that effect.
A retelling of Clark Kent’s first days at the Daily Planet, how he meets Lois Lane, star reporter, how he foils Lex Luthor’s attempt to sabotage a new space station, and why on Earth he needs a secret identity and a costume anyway.
More entertaining than any of the big-budget movies, this much more reasonable facsimile of the long-running comic book is flawed by a certain lack of subtlety, but I still found it a lot of fun. (And it goes almost without saying that I would have preferred Margot Kidder, who must not have been available, there’s no kidding about that.)
COMMENT: Why is it that whenever I watch network television any more, no matter what I watch, that everybody on every show always seems younger than I am?
● 1994 BAKER STREET: SHERLOCK HOLMES RETURNS Made for TV, 1993 CBS, 12 September 1993. Anthony Higgins, Debrah Farentino, with Ken Pogue as James Moriarty Booth. Based on the characters created by Arthur Conan Doyle. Director & screenwriter: Kenneth Johnson.
Not to be confused with The Return of Sherlock Holmes, a 1987 TV-movie with almost the same opening plot lines, except that (as I recall) the city then was Boston, and this time it’s San Francisco.
When Holmes is popped out of the deep-freeze machine he’s been in for nearly 100 years, he suddenly has to confront all the changes that have taken place in the world, and when he tries to dazzle it with his amazing deductive abilities, the results are, sorry to say, not always on the mark.
Lots of opportunity for little bits of comedy, in other words, as well as a hint of romance. Not as bad as perhaps I’m making it sound, but still not very good.
COMMENT: Personally, I think that every piece of fiction that has been written about Sherlock Holmes since Conan Doyle died has been fundamentally a bad idea, and they’ve all had to start building from there. With the probable exceptions of Anthony Boucher and John Dickson Carr, everybody else should have forgotten the idea.
slightly revised.
[UPDATE] 06-10-10. First of all, let me point out, in case you hadn’t noticed, that these two network movies were shown on the same evening, which I’m sure was a Sunday. Luckily we’d had our VCR for some time by then. What did people do without them? The good old days were often not so good.
Secondly, note my stated preference for Margot Kidder as Lois Lane, rather than Teri Hatcher, but as the series went on, I believe the latter’s charms began to sway my preferences a tad.
Both she and Dean Cain were complete unknowns when the series began, and it stayed on the air for four years. I think it lost a lost of momentum when Lois and Clark got married (long before they did in the comic book), but at the time, the ratings went sky-high.
And by the way, those of you who have met me in person. Doesn’t Dean Cain look a lot like me? If I were as good-looking as Dean Cain?
Although I should still have them on videocassette, I recently purchased the first season’s shows on DVD. I’ve not watched them yet, and perhaps I won’t for a while, for fear of being disappointed. I enjoyed the series then; maybe I won’t so much now. (Yes, I know. The boxed set shown is that of the second season.)
As for the Sherlock Holmes movie, I don’t know why I was so hard on all of the books and movies based on Doyle’s characters, and believe it or not, I softened my phrasing in that comment above from the way I said it in 1993. They are what they are, some are better than others, and they’re all fun.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes, which I mentioned being the same story as Sherlock Homes Returns, only earlier, was previously mentioned on this blog back here. It’s in Comment #2 following a review of The Missing Person, another movie with Margaret Colin in it.
June 10th, 2010 at 10:11 pm
Despite budgetary restraints LOIS AND CLARK got by on a lot of charm from its stars, and not bad writing that — mostly — kept a balance between the restraints of comic books and television. If nothing else we got Michael J. Pollard as the embodiment of a certain inter dimensional imp with an name full of consonants.
As for Lois Lane — good as Kidder was, much as I like Hatcher, great as Noel Neil and Phyllis Coates were, I have to put my vote in for SMALLVILLE’s Erica Durance. “Somebody saaavveee meeee …”
Somehow I missed this Sherlock Holmes outing, and it sounds as if it was a lucky break. I sill remember the one with Larry Hagman as an LA motorcycle cop with a head injury who thinks he is Holmes — though thanks to Hagman that one had it’s moments.
It seems at times as if everyone has had a shot at Holmes in print — and of course the results vary — but I’ve some fond memories of A STUDY IN TERROR (Fred Dannay and Paul Fairman by most accounts), SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE WAR OF THE WORLDS by Manly Wade Wellman, THE ADVENTURE OF THE PEERLESS PEER by Philip Jose Farmer, TEN YEARS AFTER BAKER STREET by Cay Van Ash, and of course August Derelith’s SOLAR PONS (the only pastiche with it’s own pastiche by Basil Copper).
But looking at something like this one you sometimes wish the copyright restrictions were a little more stringent. At least in England — in the not so distant past — Dame Jean Doyle could take a dislike to Michael Hardwicke and ban him from writing about Holmes (a tragedy in that case, but at least she had the power). To bring this full circle even Superman couldn’t save Sherlock Holmes from some of these guys.
June 10th, 2010 at 10:58 pm
I had to look that Larry Hagman movie up. Its title is The Return of the World’s Greatest Detective, and it was made for TV in 1976.
Never heard of it.
Hagman plays Sherman Holmes, while Jenny O’Hara plays Dr. Joan Watson, with the plot just you describe it.
This is amusing. On the same IMDB page, there’s this “If you enjoyed this title, our database also recommends…”, and the fourth of the five is The Manchu Eagle Murder Caper Mystery (1975), starring Gabe Dell, Jackie Coogan, Huntz Hall and Joyce Van Patten.
Never heard of this one, either.
But getting back to your comment, David, do you know, I watched only the first half hour of SMALLVILLE and never another? Not because it was bad, since it wasn’t, but I had something else to do, rather than watch the rest of the first episode of a series that was going to be canceled in three weeks anyway.
So, I was wrong. This time.
— Steve
June 10th, 2010 at 11:17 pm
Durance didn’t show up on SMALLVILLE until a few seasons ago.
Three weeks, ten years —
THE RETURN OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST DETECTIVE is far superior to THE MANCHU EAGLE etc. Gabe Dell and Huntz Hall are enough to scare me off alone — certainly the adult Gabe Dell and Huntz Hall. All I recall about it is Dell is a mail order private eye and Will Geer a doctor with a bad pill habit.
There were some odd films (mostly made for television) in that era, from that Ross Martin outing as Charlie Chan to that great private eye movie with Richard Boone and Michael Dunne as a P.I. team.
June 11th, 2010 at 2:47 am
Do you remember a seventies TV film called “Murder Can Hurt You”? I have a vague memory of this; I think it was a send-up of then popular TV detectives, in the manner of the Neil Simon scripted Murder by Death film parody of Great Detective from literature.
June 11th, 2010 at 11:47 am
Curt
That brings back memories! I hadn’t thought of this movie in years.
Here’s the IMDB link:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081201/
And some of the cast:
Victor Buono … Chief Ironbottom
Tony Danza … Pony Lambretta
Jamie Farr … Studsky
John Byner … Len ‘Hatch’ Hatchington
Gavin MacLeod … Lt. Nojack
Buck Owens … Sheriff Tim MacSkye
Connie Stevens … Sgt. Salty Sanderson
Jimmie Walker … Parks the Pusher
Burt Young … Lt. Palumbo
Marty Allen … Det. Starkos
I wonder if it would be as funny now as it was then? Or even if it was funny then. My memory’s as vague on this as yours, Curt.
June 11th, 2010 at 11:55 am
Sorry David–Michael Pollard was not on Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. The imp (Mr. Mxyzptlk) was played by Howie Mandel.
June 11th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
I’ll have to double-check, but my recall is that Michael J. Pollard’s appearance as Mr. Mxyzptlk (pronounced pretty much as it’s spelled) was on the syndicated SUPERBOY series.LOIS & CLARK’s Mxyzptlk was (again, if memory serves) Howie Mandel.
I would also like to take this opportunity to defend (sort of) Ross Martin’s appearance as Charlie Chan. To his credit Martin played Chan straight – complete sentences, low-level dialect, restrained behavior. Contrast that with Leslie Nielsen’s Greek tycoon, so far over the top as to make his later comedies seem – well, serious. Even Richard Haydn had the brakes on here. The low budget was a distraction, but it was sorta cute that a TV-movie shot in Vancouver was actually set in Vancouver. No classic, but not a disaster either.
(Or maybe my bar is too low…)
June 11th, 2010 at 12:44 pm
Mike,
Not much gets by you. Mxyzptlk is (a) the correct spelling, (b) was impersonated by Pollard on SUPERBOY (I’ve never seen a single episode of this series) and (c) by Mandel on LOIS & CLARK.
There was at one time a Mr. Mxyztplk, I assume who came who came first, but I could be wrong, and if the change in spelling at one point was intentional, or if the letterer for the comic book at the time had a bad day.
June 11th, 2010 at 12:47 pm
Donna
Looks like you were the first to catch David on the Mxyzptlk mixup. Mike left his comment while yours was waiting to be approved. But the time stamp tells the tale!
— Steve
June 11th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
Considering how much I dislike Howie Mandel my mind must have done a little fantasy casting to erase the memory of him. SMALLVILLE also did Mxyzptlk —- I wonder if you say Howie Mandel backwards if he’ll go away? Lednam Eiwoh — nope, still running promos for AMERICA’S GOT TALENT.
I vaguely recall the TV tec send up MURDER CAN HURT YOU, but I don’t recall it actually being funny beyond the first sight gag of the various characters being made fun of. Burt Young doing Peter Falk was inspired casting though, I think he even did a COLUMBO episode later.
Mike, I’ll grant Ross Martin used proper English, but beyond that he and the movie were both pretty bad. His make up didn’t seem much better than Roland Winters infamous squint (he looked more jaundiced than Chinese) and he might as well have been some vague Chinese detective rather than Charlie Chan (he did much better as in Chinese make up in several episodes of THE WILD WILD WEST).
Even though Peter Ustinov and Richard Hatch were Charlie and Number 1 son in a movie in the same general period (and it was bad too),and David Carradine the half Chinese Caine on KUNG FU, it was far past time for casting occidentals as Asian heroes, and rather than Ross Martin making a more dignified Charlie Chan he simply took away all the characters charm without replacing it with anything.
I’m a fan of Martin dating back to MR. LUCKY, but I think much of the blame isn’t the bad acting by others or the overly complex plot but simply casting him as Charlie Chan. When you miscast that role there is no saving the rest, and not only was he miscast, the ‘update’ with Charlie in a dune buggy and Hawaiian shirt was tacky and redolent of that cheap cheesy look that movies and television productions of the era suffer from. Sidney Toler or Warner Oland might have brought it off, but Martin didn’t.
It hurts to say this, but any of the Monogram outings with Roland Winters were better, and Charlie on television was done much better by J. Carroll Naish in THE NEW ADVENTURES OF CHARLIE CHAN. No one needed an updated hipper Charlie Chan, just the original done with some style and thought. It’s a case of bad ideas making for bad movies.
By the by, as you likely know, Charlie spoke much better English in the novels, only breaking into pidgin for an occasional aphorism or while undercover in THE CHINESE PARROT as a gun wielding Chinese cook.
And while I recognize the source of sensitivity in regard to Charlie I frankly thought that in most of the movies he was the only character presented with any dignity or common sense. But then there were a good many more positive role models for my race around then and now.
Still it’s a shame Keye Luke never got his shot at playing the old man.
Anyone but me recall THE MASTERMIND? Granted Zero Mostel was supposed to be Japanese (Inspector Hoku) but by any other name he was Charlie Chan and it was an entertaining spoof with some good slapstick as he pursued international criminal Bradford Dillman. Silly as it was it outshone either Ustinov or Martin by a mile.
June 12th, 2010 at 5:00 am
I think the best seventies Chan was Peter Sellers in Murder by Death: a hilarious send-up of the tradition.
One of the things I liked in both the Oland and Toler Chans were the sons: Keye Luke of course, but also Victor Sen Yung. I was surprised to see the latter man playing a totally different type of character in the great Bette Davis film The Letter and he was excellent. Of course his son is not as bright as Keye Luke.s but I still get a big kick out of his unquenchable enthusiasm.
The next son, Benson Fong, is pretty dire though.
June 12th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
As regards Mr. Mxyzptlk. I’ve always wanted to know how you actually SAY it! When I was a kid, I just use to pronounce it in my head as ‘Mixyzaptlok’. Maybe it’s one of those names like Cholmondley which is really pronounced Chumley.
David: Could you tell me where you found out about Dame Jean Conan Doyle banning Michael Hardwick from writing about Sherlock Holmes? This is the first that I’ve ever heard of it. The last Holmesian pastiche that he wrote must have been around 1987 (THE REVENGE OF THE HOUND). I thought that by then the character had entered into the public domain in the UK, and nothing could be done by Doyle’s estate. Hardwicke died in 1991, and I’d always assumed that he’d retired.
June 12th, 2010 at 4:30 pm
Bradstreet
The ‘ban’ was effective only in England and happened around 1987. I forget the details, and I don’t think it was binding, I think most Holmes pastichers in England asked Dame Jean’s permission rather than needed it, however some British copyrights to some Holmes material was still in effect then in England. If you remember REVENGE was notably approved by the Doyle estate so any sequel would have had to be by an approved writer. The ban also stopped Hardwicke from working on any television or radio adaptations which were usually approved by the Doyle estate. Whether the approval was sought for legal reasons in the UK or prestige it was a major blow to Hardwicke who up to that point had been the first choice of the estate for official Holmes pastiche.
Copyright laws vary from country to country. Check out the disclaimers at the various international Project Gutenberg sites sometime.
Sorry I don’t recall more details but it was a long time ago. As far as I know the ‘ban’ was unresolved at Hardwicke’s death.
The source was probably either Armchair Detective, Mystery Scene, Mystery Fancier, or Clues since those were my main sources, and I think an interview with Hardwicke in one of those, though it is possible it was mentioned in relation to an interview with the illustrator of REVENGE Jim Steranko. If If I run across the source I’ll confirm it, but I think it was mostly likely Armchair Detective.
I don’t think he knew what he had done wrong and was a bit upset all things considered — especially since he had just written REVENGE a major contribution to Holmes pastiche and a fairly big career step for him. I believe there was some hope at the time for a followup to REVENGE, and the ban meant he would not be writing it.
He died before anything could be resolved, and I don’t know that he planned anymore Holmes work or not, but I do remember he was perplexed as to why Dame Jean had moved against him. As a leading authority and pasticher of Holmes (and Victoriana in general)it was certainly a blow.
While it was far from his only career as a writer (among other things he did the novelization of THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING) Holmes had been the source of much of his recognition as a writer (the novelization of Billy Wilder’s THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES and several non fiction works of Holmesiana written with the cooperation and approval of the Doyle Estate).
I’m not sure about this part, but I do seem to remember that there was a suggestion that the ban resulted because some critic or other suggested Hardwicke was a better writer than Conan Doyle or because of some offhand remark by Hardwicke Dame Jean took the wrong way. It was a minor stir among the major British Holmesian scholars who probably felt constrained to keep silent rather than risk being cut off by the Doyle estate themselves. Since most major projects in the UK involving Holmes sought the approval of the estate (and still do to some extent) and it’s cooperation no one else wanted to be cut off from a major source of income and research material.
For a Holmes scholar like Hardwicke it was a major blow. I do recall that the ban didn’t stop him from doing Holmes material in the States or elsewhere, but he seemed reluctant to go against the wishes of Dame Jean.
This is from a biographical essay by Jean Upton and likely has something to do with the uproar:
“Our relationship began, naturally enough, through Sherlock Holmes. It was 1987, and Jean had come under attack for refusing permission to publish pastiches using the characters of Holmes and Watson. Having just finished reading a couple of weak, disappointing efforts, I supported her decision and wrote to tell her so. Her friendly reply clarified her reasoning. “I understand some, in fact, perhaps many Sherlockians have such an appetite for Holmes that they just crave for more stories regardless of the pen that writes them ‑ with the result that some new readers may not realize that they are not reading a genuine Holmes story and may judge the worth of the originals by the inferior pastiche.” When one considers how many people of our generation thought that Nicholas Meyer was the creator of Sherlock Holmes, it was easy to understand her concerns!”
As I remember it the ban was only against Hardwicke, but it may be that he was just the most effected because of high hopes for a sequel to REVENGE. In any case her ban would not have effected Nicholas Meyer who was under no constraints regarding the Doyle Estate.
At her death Dame Jean left the remaining active copyrights to an institution for the blind (she had chronic bad eyesight since childhood).
Unless someone has more details that’s all I know.
June 12th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Michael Hardwick’s final novel was 1989’s NIGHTBONE which looks to be a Victorian mystery, but not Sherlock Holmes. I don’t know if he retired after that or simply didn’t write anymore.
Of course many of his books were written with his wife Mollie Hardwick who also wrote on her own.
And to correct myself it is Hardwick and not Hardwicke. Guess I’m confusing him with Edward Hardwicke, Dr. Watson from the Jeremey Brett series.
June 12th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
David, You caught the same error I spotted, the extra “e” at the end of Michael Hardwick’s name. I was going to go back and delete them all, but now that it’s been pointed out, perhaps I don’t need to.
I’ve spent the past several minutes seeing if Google would come up with anything about Hardwick’s being banning from writing more Holmes fiction, but so far, nothing yet.
I do remember reading about it at the time, though, so it must have been in the fan press, where Google can’t get at it. TAD sounds like the best bet.
June 12th, 2010 at 6:09 pm
REVENGE OF THE HOUND was a fairly major release, offered in a handsomely illustrated edition so when Dame Jean issued the edict it caused a stir. I recall the ban in relation to Hardwick, and for some reason had the impression it was personal, but it may have been a general ban on pastiche and Hardwick was only the most affected since he was he more or less official pasticher for the estate.
Other than the memoir by Jean Upton I haven’t found any other reference to the ban on line, but I think my source was a TAD interview with Hardwick.
Anyway, I’m glad someone besides me recalls it.
June 13th, 2010 at 9:56 am
Thanks for all of this info. It comes as something of a shock to discover that he was left out in the cold like this, as he and his wife almost seemed to have a sort of symbiotic relationship with the Doyle estate from the 60s onwards (stage adaptions of the stories for children/complete guides/novelisations/pastiches/radio adaptions). The English pastiche ban from 1987 onwards makes sense, as I can find no new Holmes fiction stuff from them after that. However, Michael’s COMPLETE GUIDE TO SHERLOCK HOLMES was reprinted for the first time in paperback in the US a year after his death.
If you do come across anything more about this, please let me know. This has come as a real surprise, and I’d love to know the full story.
June 13th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
Bradstreet
Dame Jean died in 1994 I believe, so the ban only lasted from 1987 to then, though as you say it had to come as a blow to Hardwick, and as the quote from Upton suggests it caused some backlash against Dame Jean, and my memory is it was considered a personal affront to Hardwick by many.
American pastiche and other Holmes related material was not involved since the copyrights were long expired here and the Doyle estate was seldom consulted anyway.
If I find the original mention I’ll post something here or let Steve know, but it would take a while to go through years of TAD to find the right year. Just be pure chance if I find it anytime soon. Maybe Steve has his material in better order.
I’m not sure I ever knew what the final outcome was either than both Hardwick and Dame Jean died not too long afterward.
June 13th, 2010 at 5:39 pm
While my stacks of TAD’s are mostly accessible, the problem is that my subscription ran out around the time that university in California took over, and my set is incomplete.
But, I do have Walter Albert’s Bibliography of DETECTIVE AND MYSTERY FICTION on CD-Rom … and the bad news is is that there’s nothing I could find relating to Michael Hardwick and whatever happened with Dame Jean Doyle.
So wherever we read it, David, it wasn’t in TAD or the fan press, and I was sure it would be.
Perhaps someone reading this someday will come along and tell us more.
June 13th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
Bradstreet
I found this in the obit for Dame Jean in THE INDEPENDENT by Roger Lancelyn Green:
“An attempt to authorise (and on occasion to ban) pastiches of the Sherlock Holmes stories in America was partly successful despite the uncertainties over her copyright claims…”
June 13th, 2010 at 10:01 pm
Though he has nothing on Dame Jean Conan Doyle’s attempt to ban pastiche Chris Redmond has a good page on Holmes and Doyle material in copyright at his Sherlock on the Net Holmepage at http://www.sherlockian.net/ The link to the page on copyrights is here: http://www.sherlockian.net/acd/copyright.html
June 14th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
According to DC Comics, the true pronunciation is mix-yez-pitel-ick.
Dave Vineyard: We agree to disagree on Ross Martin as Charlie Chan.
My bar may be too low, but I thought Martin made what right choices he could, give the rushed nature of the production.
I found Peter Sellers’s Sidney Wang wince-inducing. “Say your Goddamn pronouns!” indeed.
As for “Murder Can Hurt You”, I found it okay but way overlong. Ric Meyers in TAD compared it unfavorably to a ten-minute Benny Hill mashup called “Murder On The Oregon Express”, with Benny as Ironside, Cannon, McCloud, Stavros, Poirot (Albert Finney version), with Bob Todd as Barnaby Jones, Jackie Wright as Columbo, and Jenny Lee-Wright as Sergeant Pepper.
(Why do remember this one best of all?)
June 15th, 2010 at 12:37 am
Mike
I remember the Benny Hill too. It was much funnier — and a good deal shorter.