Sherlock Holmes in America

Sherlock Holmes in America is an article written by Clement Scott published in the supplement of The Sketch on 29 november 1899.

Article about the William Gillette's play: Sherlock Holmes (1899).

Sherlock Holmes in America

The Sketch (14 june 1899, p. 310)

MR. CONAN DOYLE, POPULAR AUTHOR AND SUCCESSFUL PLAYWRIGHT.
Photo by Elliott and Fry, Baker Street W.

Photo © Prints & Ephemera.

Few can have studied the acting of William Gillette, few can have seen him elegantly lounging about the stage with the inevitable cigar in his mouth, apparently the most indolent and blasé of creatures in existence, few can have been impressed with his tall, nervous frame, his quick-changing manner from lassitude to action like a flash of lightning, without being convinced that he would be an ideal Sherlock Holmes — a Sherlock Holmes not only after the author Conan Doyle's heart, but after the heart of his innumerable readers all over the world.

The other night, at the Garrick Theatre, New York, William Gillette made the greatest success of his career as actor-author. He has left "Secret Service" miles behind, and is to-day the hero of the most exciting detective drama ever written. Old D'Ennery and Adolphe Bélot knew how to write plays of crime that have detectives for their heroes, But Leonard (Tom Taylor's Ticket-of-Leave Man) and Le Parricide (the Detective) sink into insignificance by the side of Sherlock Holmes, as dramatised by Dr. Conan Doyle and Gillette.

It is no use going back to the book to find the Conan Doyle detective story that is here dramatised, for you would fail to discover it. "The Strange Case of Miss Faulkner" is perfectly new, invented by the author in order that it might be dramatised by William Gillette to suit his delightful style. The story is briefly this: A certain "exalted personage" has written some compromising letters, sent curious photographs, and otherwise misconducted himself with a certain young girl who apparently died of his ill-traitment, deserted and disgraced. Her sister is determined to avenge her memory, but she falls into the hands of some blackguards, who desire to blackmail the "exalted personage" by means of these selfsame letters and photographs. Sherlock Holmes scents the fraud; but, alas, poor weak humanity he falls head-over-ears in love with pretty Alice Faulkner, and returns her the letters, the hiding-place of which he has discovered by a clever and ingenious trick. Hearing that Sherlock Holmes has the blackmailing case in hand, his great rival, Professor Moriarty, determines to thwart him, and, if needs must be, to murder him sooner than he shall succeed.

The great scene in the play is where Sherlock Holmes is lured into a den of thieves at Stepney, where he finds Alice Faulkner shut up in a cupboard, bound and gagged. They are opposed by four hired nssassins, and it seems certain death for Sherlock and Alice. But his coolness and the red-hot Gillette cigar save them. Sherlock dashes out with a chair the only lamp, and smashes it to pieces. The stage is pitch-dark; the auditorium is even darker than the stage. Literally, there is a darkness in the theatre that can almost be felt. Nothing is seen anywhere but the live glitter of the glowing end of the cigar of Sherlock Holmes. This is the beacon of the brutal murderers. They proceed to follow, not the man from Cook's, but the man with the cigar. Meanwhile, Sherlock Holmes, having sconced his cigar in a corner of the window, slips out of the room with Alice by the open door, and bars as well as bolts the rats into their own trap.

In fact, it is a sensation drama of the wildest kind, that tones down into a pretty love-romance, for, of course, the girl he has rescued from death in turn saves Sherlock Holmes, when his reputation is at stake, by giving up the packet and allowing revenge to be tempered with love.

We all know the Gillette manner — the calm utterance, the supercilious laugh, the languid attitude, the fierce onslaught when the time comes. When he played in "Secret Service," at the Adelphi, and "Too Much Johnson," at the Garrick, it was observed again and again, "What a Sherlock Holmes he would make! Why, he was destined for Sherlock Holmes!" But even his best admirers could scarcely have believed that he would have acted the part with so much case, grace, courtliness, subtlety, charm, and sly humour, and given to the play just that touch of sentiment and heart-feeling that it required. He becomes at once a melodramatic actor and a romantic lover.

But the success of Gillette was not the only notable feature of the evening. Someone has invented a new method of lighting the stage which fairly astonished every spectator. I knew some radical reform in stage-lighting must come, but it has arrived sooner then I expected, and the new invention has clearly come to stay. We all know the dark scenes utilised in these days for changing a scene in the middle of an act without using those atrocious things, drop-curtains. But never before has the power of regulating the light all over the stage and the theatre been so complete and absolute.

Directly the orchestra has done playing, a light, bright theatre is turned in half-a-second into darkness blacker than pitch. Half-a-second more, and the lighted stage stands out in its full glory. But this is not all; a system of graduated tones and tints has been arrived at of singular beauty. Thus, in the last love-scene, where Sherlock Holmes, diffident, awkward, anxious, and in deadly earnest this time, declines his love for Alice, the stage, that had been bright, is gradually, very gradually, getting darker and darker. The auditorium, that had been fairly bright, sinks into darkness too, and at last we see nothing but the two beautiful faces of Sherlock Holmes and Alice Faulkner, with a stream of golden light thrown upon them, silhouetted against a deep and densely black background. The effect is weird and exquisite, and I do not see how this clearly defined cameo effect can fail to be imitated. The only thing I am afraid of is that it will make the women in the theatres n little nervous and apprehensive. Diamonds and pretty faces are tempting, and there might be a snatch as well as a kiss in the dark.

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