‘The Valley of Fear’ Revisited
What a strange book this last Sherlock Holmes novel is, a
real curate’s egg – good, as the cleric politely said to his host, in parts.
The first half could stand as a classic Holmes’ story of deduction, but then it
roars off into the coal mines of Pennsylvania, with a plot based around the secret
and notorious union organisation known as the Molly Maguires, called in the
book, the Scourers. That too is a story that can stand by itself with only a
tenuous link at the end to the first story.
The novel, while enjoyable enough, has the slightly tired feel of the later Holmes stories when Conan Doyle had become heartily sick of his creation and wanted to move on.
Still, it has inspired several films, Conan Doyle apparently loving to see his work on the silent screen. The first, made in 1916, is sadly now presumed lost.
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‘The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes’, made in 1935, is a black and white British film starring Arthur Wontner (on left) as a credible-looking Holmes and Ian Fleming (no, not that one) as a very stupid and vain Watson.
It starts with the murder but merges the two stories in the way that film can, with flash-backs and edits, and, though very dated, isn’t at all bad.
In 1983, an animated version of ‘Valley of Fear’ was made
with Peter O’Toole voicing Holmes.
The book has also been adapted for stage and television and
there is even an Italian TV version of 1968, La valle della paura’.
