Gene Wilder is a very good comic actor, as witness his performance as Leo Bloom in THE PRODUCERS and other films like SILVER STREET. THE PRODUCERS was the first of three films he made with Mel Brooks, and the second and third (BLAZING SADDLES and YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN) were spoofs of genres (westerns and old Universal horror films). Brooks is a master of the spoof, as he continued with his film homage to Hitchcock (HIGH ANXIETY) and his spoof of silent films (SILENT MOVIE) and his spoof of the "STAR WARS" films (SPACEBALLS) and his spoof of Dracula (DRACULA: DEAD AND LOVING IT). But Wilder decided, after YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, to do his own spoofs. He did THE WORLD'S GREATEST LOVER (an homage to Rudolph Valentino's silent romantic image), and SHERLOCK HOLMES' SMARTER BROTHER. They are good films, but they lack the better aimed blows that Brooks demonstrated in his films. Therefore, I will grant a seven out of ten, but that's because the film, SHERLOCK HOLMES' SMARTER BROTHER, is amusing and entertaining. But it should have been better.
The film shows that Wilder knows his Holmesian canon pretty well. Sigerson is a name that pops up in "The Adventure of the Empty House", when Sherlock tells Watson that he wrote a book about his travels in Tibet under the name of "Sigerson". But there is more. While the existing Holmes' stories only gives one brother to Sherlock (Mycroft Holmes, government expert), Conan Doyle occasionally left traces of what he wanted to do with his characters in manuscripts. In particular his first Holmes story (written in 1886, but published in 1887). We know it as "A STUDY IN SCARLET", but Doyle originally planned to call it "A TANGLED SKEIN". Fortunately he changed his mind, possibly because he thought in terms of paintings in that period (like Whistler's "A Study in Black and White", which we know as "Whistler's Mother"). He writes down the names of the two lead characters, roommates who solve the mystery. The great detective is named "Sherringford Holmes" (fortunately the first name was dropped and we got "Sherlock"). His roommate/narrator was named "Ormond Sacker", a name fortunately changed to the more plausible "Dr. John H. Watson". However, you will notice that Mr. Wilder's screenplay made the character of Sigerson Holmes' police associate "Sgt. Osmond Sacker". He recalled the name, but changed it a little.
The film takes up the idea that Sherlock has a younger brother, Sigerson, who is jealous of his brother's fame as a detective (he refers to him as "Sheer luck" Holmes at one point). Sherlock and Watson decide to let Sigerson solve a case which is based on several of the Holmes stories: A British Statesman (John Le Messurier) is given a state document to guard, and faces a plot involving Moriarty (a splendidly wacky Leo McKern), Dom DeLuis (as a blackmailer and opera singer named Eduardo Gambetti - based on a minor villain named Eduardo Lucas in "THE ADVENTURE OF THE SECOND STAIN"), and Madeline Kahn.
The film has some wonderful moments of total silliness. Moriarty, here finally shown to be an Irishman, has a serious emotional health problem - he has to commit a brilliant crime every couple of minutes, and he complains, "Imagine trying to think up a real corker every couple of minutes!" He, good Catholic that he is, has figured out how to handle the problem of his sins - he has a mechanical priest who, for a penny coin, will put out a card saying "Absolved". Gambetti is a well known amateur Italian opera singer, and we see a production he is putting on at his home for his well heeled friends. It has a jealous husband character say, "You touched my wife's bubbies" to Gambetti's character. Sacker has the mental equivalent of a photographic memory - he can hear a conversation and remember it word for word. Unfortunately, if interrupted when repeating it (as Sigerson has a habit of doing), Osmond has to restart his brain by hitting it, like he is turning on a tape recording.
Although Sigerson is brilliant, he has incredibly stiff standards. When Jennie/Bessie (Madeleine Kahn) first shows up, her story is not totally true. Instead of being quiet and absorbing her tendency to lie (compare with Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade dealing with Mary Astor's Bridget O'Shaugnessy in THE MALTESE FALCON), Sigerson starts screaming that she is a liar. He also thinks he is far sharper than anyone else. When a coded message falls into his hands, Sigerson starts translating one odd word as an anagram of an ancient Egyptian word meaning "to eat fat". Osmond without blinking suggests the correct code secret is to read every fourth word, which turns out to be correct.
It is a film that is better in it's parts than in it's organized whole. The performances of Wilder, Kahn, the great Marty Feldman, McKern, Le Messurier, Roy Kinnear and Dom DeLuis are all quite funny, so it is worth watching. It is also a little sad. This film was made only in 1975 but only Wilder and DeLuis (among the leads) are still alive. Le Messurier had a long career in British films before this movie. McKern did too, but his greatest role (as Horace Rumpole, in the television series) was still in the future. Feldman died prematurely in the 1970s. Kinnear died under singularly tragic circumstances in an accident while making a film. Kahn, although she did have further film and stage and television success, died of cancer only a couple of years ago - way before her time should have ended. And her death reminds us of the death of Wilder's beloved wife Gilda Radner. So, despite the comic success of the film, there is a feeling of sadness watching it now looking at it's cast.
