Elementary, My Dear Memory

Since childhood I've been a fan of Sherlock Holmes. For me, the actor in the definitive role of Holmes is the late Basil Rathbone. I was delighted to see Sherlock reemerge explicitly and implicitly in a couple of excellent movies in the past few years. Try to rent these two: First, in "They Might Be Giants" (1980s), set in London in the 1950s, George C. Scott plays a retired, legally insane, but harmless judge who thinks he's Sherlock Holmes. When his daughter and son-in-law bring a psychiatrist to Scott's house to treat him, the psychiatrist (played by Joann Woodward) has the name of Doctor Watson. That's all it takes to trigger Scott. Even though Doctor Watson is a woman, Scott (Holmes) treats her as his long-lost male sidekick. And off they go into the streets of London to track down Holmes' dreaded archenemy, Doctor Moriarty. Watch for the particular scene in which Scott and Woodward enter a psychiatric hospital during their pursuit of Moriarity. Note the Holmes-like manner in which Scott quickly analyzes one of the patients who is cowering on the floor in the hall.

The other movie is "The Name of the Rose" ('80s), based on Umberto Eco's famous book of the same name. It's set in a 12th-century Italian monastery. Sean Connery plays a scientifically oriented monk, Brother William of Baskerville, who is assisted by a younger monk. Functioning like Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, Connery and helper use reason and logic in investigating several murders in the monastery, resulting in a delightfully surpriseful ending.

Late at night when I can't sleep (and that's every blasted night when the morphine diminishes), I put on my hound-hunter cap, light my Cavendish pipe, walk with my cane to the kitchen table, and begin reading and taking notes on the all the crime reports in the newspaper. I'm not so convinced that Doctor Moriarty is fictional. In the morning, Jonka finds me sprawled on the floor and entangled in my London cape.

-Old Doc