It's a lovely idea, to spin a Sherlock Holmes adventure around the notion that the real crime-solver was Dr Watson but, at least in this treatment, it doesn't fire on all cylinders. The simple-minded script supposes that Holmes is in fact a ham actor whom Watson is forced to employ in order to hide his own activities from the medical profession. But the vein struck is Carry On Holmes, with an enthusiastic Michael Caine as Holmes given the thankless task of incarnating a character who's just too idiotic to be true. It's impossible to identify with such a farcical blunderer and so, in spite of Ben Kingsley's cerebral medical mastermind and Lysette Anthony's spirited lady in distress, who has an amusing role to play in the finale, the charade never holds our interest until the set-piece of the final 20 minutes, a showdown in and below a deserted theatre.

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