The Case of the Exhumed Client (1955) User Reviews (2)

The Case of the Exhumed Client

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 15 February 2024]

The mysterious Farnsworth Castle has a room. Legend has it that anyone who spends the night in the Tower room will end up dead.

The legend dates to the War of the Roses. A sentry fell asleep in the Tower room had his head chopped off. Sir Charles Farnsworth slept in the Tower room.

The episode opens with Sir Charles Farnsworth's funeral and later his reading of the will to family members. It stipulates that in the event of his death. Sherlock Holmes must investigate his death.

The family bicker over this. By this time Holmes has already obtained a court order and got Sir Charles body exhumed. He had died of arsenic poisoning.

Holmes decides to spend the night on the Tower room himself. Only to find himself nearly poisoned. Holmes was sure an attempt would be made on his life.

Dr Watson is in the next room, waiting for a shout in case Holmes is in danger. Watson fell asleep!

A decent enough mystery although Holmes had no idea who the culprit is. So he decides to play a bluff to smoke them out. Shame Dr Watson nodded off instead of staying up as Holmes seemed to be in serious peril as he shouted for help.

Perhaps worth digging up

[hte-trasme · 22 October 2009]

This is a fairly solid but rather unspectacular entry into Sheldon Reynolds' 1950s series of original Sherlock Holmes stories for television. The mystery itself here and Holmes' method of finding the killer are rather clever, but the story of the episode, which revolves around a man, poisoned in a supposedly haunted room of his castle, who stipulated in his will that Holmes be hired to investigate his death, is one that is perhaps not best suited to this series half-hour format. It could be the the premise for a great character drama in a longer format or on the printed page, but here we are not even formally introduced to the suspects who wrangled over the will; we are shuffled rather quickly through enough material to know the plot, which is not as interesting.

Ronald Howard's Holmes is good here, puling off the scene well that must be carried by the suspense of his waiting in the supposedly haunted room and slowly being poisoned. He is far from the aloof and superhuman Holmes of some portrayals, falling asleep on watch, and admitting to bluffing his solution. There is a nice character moment as he and Watson prepare for his possible death overnight at the scene of the crime.

In all, this is a fun episode carried by a neat story, but the lack of time to develop that story left us with some of the less interesting plot points instead of moments establishing character for the supporting characters.