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Without A Clue [1988]
![Without A Clue [1988]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41PBZQPP4XL._SL160_.jpg)
The actual plot is about forged bank-notes ruining the Empire but is constructed to allow for the usual excursion by picturesque steam train to a clue-ridden holiday destination and some dirty deeds down by the docks. The leads coast through their routines but the supporting cast has an appropriately rat-like and embittered Inspector Lestrade from Jeffrey Jones, a winsomely duplicitous Victorian heroine from Lysette Anthony and a rather good goateed sadist Professor Moriarty from Paul Freeman. It can't hold a magnifying glass to Billy Wilder's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, but as a Holmesian footnote it edges a deerstalker or so ahead of Gene Wilder's The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother. It certainly beats the Peter Cook-Dudley Moore Hound of the Baskervilles and John Cleese in The Strange Case of the End of Civilisation as We Know It.--Kim Newman
RRP: £9.99
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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
The basic joke of the would-be romp Without a Clue is that Dr Watson (Ben Kingsley) is a detecting genius who has had to hide his light under a bushel by hiring an alcoholic ham actor Reginald Kincaid (Michael Caine) to pose as his imaginary alter ego Sherlock Holmes. He is now frustrated because the blundering idiot is hailed as an infallible hero while he is forever being pushed out of the picture. To really work, the film should have cast a leading man who gives the impression that he might make a good serious Holmes, but Caine is all too credible in his idiot act. In one of the best jokes Watson covers up a faux pas by complementing Holmes on his convincing disguise as a drunken lout, and so the laughs that should come in a flow only manage to trickle.
An amusing Holmes pastiche, worth having
Review date: 2008-03-15 Rating: 8 out of 10
Dr. Watson has a problem. He's always been the brains behind Sherlock Holmes, a fictional character he dreamed up as cover for the cases he has solved. He even hired a third-rate ham actor, Reginald Kincaid, to impersonate Holmes. But now he's fed up with the fatuous dimwit Kincaid whom everyone is fascinated by and who seems to believe his own notices. He longs to be known as John Watson, Crime Doctor, and to receive the recognition due him for his amazing deductive powers.
That's the set up, and it's a funny one, especially with two first-rate actors as Ben Kingsley playing Watson and Michael Caine playing Kincaid. Watson finally boots out Kincaid and decides to solve a case as himself...but no one is prepared to take Dr. Watson seriously as a detective, even his publisher. Plates for 5-pound notes are stolen from the Royal Mint, the powers of England want Holmes on the case, Watson finds he may need Kincaid after all, and the game's afoot.
Caine makes a spectacular dimwit who finally and inadvertently comes through. Kingsley combines frustration and resentment in a performance that is funny and believable. They both learn something about friendship.
The movie has its weaknesses. It goes on a bit, the climax is workmanlike, and it's essentially a one-joke premise. It still, however, is a very nice, amusing movie, especially if you're a fan of Holmes pastiches. If you're stuffy about Holmes and the sacred canon, well, you may not find this suitable. I thought it was great fun.
The DVD transfer is nothing special but good enough.
Similar Products
- Clue [1986]
- Young Sherlock Holmes [1986]
- The Adventure Of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother [1975]
- Murder by Decree [1980] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- Murder By Death [1976]
Reviews
Fun, wit and humor are by essence British
Review date: 2007-07-18 Rating: 10 out of 10
Only The Brits can both reinvent Sherlock Holmes and make fun of him, or rather of us, the audience who made Sherlock Holmes into a reality, who was nothing but the figment of one isolated imagination. This film is a masterpiece of humor, of wit, of surprise, of funny and gay suspense, and I even mean strange, weird, frankly why not slightly queer. If your are learned you have a carriageful of allusions to anything and all of everything else you can think of. Oscar Wilde of course and his Lady Windermere's fan, Ben Jonson and his Silent Woman, and Shakespeare from the beginning of Titus Andronicus to the end of the Tempest, without speaking of King Lear and Hamlet who may sound banal, good enough for a couple of rooms in an inn. From time to time you have an allusion to Conan Doyle and the real Sherlock Holmes and the figment of Sherlock's imagination, Dr Watson, or something like that. I must say I loved Miss Giles. He was the best surprise, the cherry on the cake, the whip cream on the ice cream. And yet already twenty years old. Could we still do that today in our over serious time? Could we laugh at an institution like the Bible, whose Psalm 234 was made fun of in the punch line of the arrest? Are we gay enough to laugh at our little feelings and desires for ever locked up in, is it, a cabinet, a cupboard, a sideboard or a wardrobe?
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne
Excellent slap stick
Review date: 2004-05-06 Rating: 10 out of 10
Simply put ~ hilarious! Micheal Caine is great as a drunken incompetent theatrical actor who is hired by Watson (great plot line ~ huh!) to play Sherlock to make his writing come alive and save his flagging career.... the result is someone who knows nothing about sleuthing, but lots about how to drink and get himself into tricky situations and even a hilarious scene with a dog! The usual Holmes characters appear (i.e. bungling policemen and villanous Moriarty) and it brings a level of light relief to all the other Holmes films we have seen on our screens. In my view streets ahead of them all.
If you like Caine then you will love this movie, it has some lines in it which you will quote in conversation for years to come, delivered in normal "Caine cockney full volume"! Watson played by Kingsley is the straight man in the comic duo, and the partnership works well.
BUY IT - you won't be disappointed! Great for Holmes fans, and great for comedy fans... a winner for the family!
i cry laughing just thinking about this film
Review date: 2004-04-28 Rating: 10 out of 10
tears streaming down my face as i barely contain myself, laugh out loudfunny. Caine is superb as is kingsley, i am only sorry i only saw thisfilm for the first time a few weeks ago! Please add this film to yourcollection, some truly pricelessly hilarious moments.
This is a great movie!
Review date: 2003-10-15 Rating: 10 out of 10
Sherlock Holmes has solved unnumbered cases for Scotland Yard, but it turns out that Dr. Watson (played by Ben Kingsley) has a secret - there is no Sherlock Holmes! Having hired Reginald Kincaid (Michael Caine) to play the part of Holmes, Watson now wants to get rid of the man, as he is "a liar, a drunkard and a womanizer." But, when the Chancellor of the Exchequer arrives with a case that threatens the very existence of the Empire, and will talk to no one but the great Sherlock Holmes, Watson has to take Kincaid back for just one more case, and it's a whopper! There is a deep mystery here, one with Professor Moriarty (Paul Freeman) at it's heart, and only Holmes...er, Watson can possibly unravel it. [Color, released in 1988, with a running time of 1:47.]
This is a great movie! Turning the Sherlock Holmes stories any which way but loose, Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley make a great duet, battling crime and each other. The movie succeeds in being outrageously funny, and yet absolutely gripping. The movie is clean, though Leslie Giles' secret is enough to make you squirm in front of little ones. Overall, though, my family and I loved this movie, and highly recommend it to you!
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Jeffrey Jones
Ben Kingsley
Lysette Anthony
Michael Caine
Paul Freeman
Creators:
Michael Caine (Primary Contributor)
Ben Kingsley (Primary Contributor)
Director(s):
Recording label: ITV DVD
Manufacturer: ITV DVD
EAN: 5037115018434
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2001-11-12
Number of discs: 1
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Running time: 102 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1988-10-21
Language: English (Original Language)