The Speckled Band

I watched the film "The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes." Professor Moriarty, who Holmes says, is behind most of the crime in London, comes to see Holmes, when he hears he is retiring and wishes Holmes a "pleasant and permanent retirement" in the country. An American man with a false passport meets with Moriarty, looking for an American who is wanted by their secret society. Holmes receives a letter from Fred Porlock, who he says is a man of "many aliases," and one of Moriarty's "creatures," whose letter has numbers and the word "Birlstone" on it. Holmes believes it is a note referencing the Brownstone Castle and an Inspector comes by to tell Holmes, Mr. Douglas has been murdered at that castle. Holmes, Watson, and two inspectors find no signs of a struggle, a chair in a weird position, a sawed off shotgun (made in Pennsylvania), Douglas's wedding ring missing, and card with "V.V. 341" pinned to the body. They are told the drawbridge is drawn every evening, but the "locked" door to the tower, which is accessible at night, is unlocked. There were bloody footmarks at the window and muddy boot prints behind the curtains. There is mark, a triangle inside a circle, of the forearm of the body, branded by iron, the mark of the Scowrers. Mr. Barker, an old friend of the Douglases, discovered the body and rang the bell for the butler and Barker claims the window as the only way out. A new candle was lit in the room, after Douglas's old one burned out. Holmes calls the most important clue as the fact that Douglas "exercised every morning," and one of his dumbbells is missing. Mrs. Barker tells them of her time in "The Valley of Fear," where she met a man named John Murdock, an English man who was looking for boarding. Murdock is harassed by Ted, the boss of the Scowrers and Murdock joins the society. The Scowrers put a hit on a newspaper man, and Murdock is charged for the murder but found non-guilty. Mrs. Douglas begs her husband to run away with her, after he is found out as an informant to the police. Watson stumbles upon Mrs. Douglas and Mr. Barker laughing in the garden, while Holmes finds the dumbbell in a bag. Holmes concludes that Mr. Douglas is still alive and the murdered victim was the intruder, the Scowrer who met with Moriarty. Moriarty is arrested for "the attempted murder of Mr. Douglas."



"The Speckled Band" is a murder mystery. Helen Stoner Armitage hires Holmes to investigate the death of her sister Julia, from two years before, after she hears whistling in her sister's old room. Helen then tells Holmes about her eccentric stepfather, Dr. Roylott, who has friends who are "wandering gypsies." After his wife died, Dr. Roylott closes his practice in London, and retreats to Stoke Moran with his two stepdaughters. Dr. Roylott keeps a Cheetah and a Baboon as pets, as well as having a love for Indian animals, which is why Helen and Julia locked their doors at night. On the night, Julia dies, she asked Helen of had heard the whistling in the "dead of the night." Helen find Julia, "convulsing," and Julia says, "It was the band! The Speckled Band!" before she died. Julia was figured to have died from "pure fear and nervous shock." After Helen leaves, Dr. Roylott calls upon Holmes, after following Helen. While investigating their house, Holmes asked Helen if her stepfather had a cat, because there was a saucer of milk on top of the safe in Roylott's room. They discover Julia's bed was clamped to the floor and a ventilator was put in as the same time as the bell rope, which is a dummy. They set up a stakeout, waiting to catch the killer, suspecting Dr. Roylott, because he has been abusive to Helen. When they enter Dr. Roylott's room, they find he has been bitten and killed by his other pet, a deadly Indian snake, called a swamp adder, which has a skin with a spackled band. I think with every story we have read, we get a better understanding of Holmes's characteristics. When investigating the case, we are told, Holmes "refused to examine the third chamber," trying not to waste his time or our time as readers. Watson tells us Holmes works, "rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic," letting in on his basic work philosophy and how he approaches each case.



I thought the video's quality was pretty bad and I had problems with the WSU video on demand playing the last ten minutes to the end, with static and freezes in the speech of the characters. I had to switch to the one on Hulu, which I could barely hear and the screen, which was played, was smaller. These technical difficulties hindered my view of the film. I wish they could have preserved the quality of the original film better, without static. The story itself was pretty interesting and the acting was good, so I would give it 3 out 4 stars. I hadn't read "The Valley of Fear," so it was a new story for me, but I definitely want to read the story now to compare the story to the movie. The actor who plays Holmes, seems more of a serious character in the movie version, like he did in "The Musgrave Ritual" and Professor Moriarty was a welcomed presence as the villain. I felt like the flashback to the Douglas's time in the valley with the Scowrers was a bit long at twenty five minutes and was boring, feeling it could have been just told by Mrs. Douglas to Holmes and Watson, instead of showing it to us, to be more entertaining. I thought the film's lighting was a bit dark, especially in Douglas's room and the curtain and door area, and it was hard to see what was going on within those scenes, but that could have been due to the lack of quality of the filming. I liked how they incorporated Holmes saying, "Elementary, My dear Watson," which is a trademark saying someone would expect Holmes saying. I thought Holmes's treatment of official investigators was right on par, especially with Inspector Lestrade saying, "On the way I'll tell you all I know" and Holmes replying, "We're not going very far then, are we?" This dialogue shows Holmes's snarky humor.





The film, "The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes," is based on the story, "The Valley of Fear" instead of "The Speckled Band," the story in the book. The plot is different, but with similar outcomes and evidences. Both stories have Holmes investigating a mysterious death in unusual circumstances, though the film had human culprit, while the novel had a snake who was the villain. In both stories, has Holmes going to a particular room for his investigation, where the murders took place, so he can look for clues. In each room, Holmes finds clues to solve the mystery, such as furniture and bell ropes, which call to down to the help of the houses. Lighting materials are an important factor of both of the stories. In the film, new candles are used as evidence, while Helen tells Holmes, she found Julia holding a burn match and a match book in her hands when she died, trying to see her attacker. Both stories were fast paced, except for the part in the film with the flashback. The film shows us Mrs. Douglas's flashback, while she is telling Holmes how she met her husband, which shows events leading to the mystery, while the book has Helen recapping most of the events leading up to Julia's death to Holmes in his apartment. In both the film and book, Holmes suspects someone entirely different as the culprit. Instead of Mr. Douglas in the film or the snake in the novel, he suspects Mrs. Douglas and Mr. Barker in the film, as well as Dr. Roylott in novel. Both of the victims have marks on their bodies, such as the mark of the Scowrers or a snake's bite. I think both of the stories have the theme, of "Expect the Unexpected," as nothing in either the film or the novel are what they appear.