''Hands of a Murderer'' is a 1990 British

made-for-television A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

mystery film A mystery film is a genre of film that revolves around the solution of a problem or a crime. It focuses on the efforts of the detective, private investigator or amateur Detective, sleuth to solve the mysterious circumstances of an issue by means ...

directed by Stuart Orme, starring

Edward Woodward Edward Albert Arthur Woodward, OBE (1 June 1930 – 16 November 2009) was an English actor and singer. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he began his career on stage. Throughout his career, he appeared in productions ...

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...

and

John Hillerman John Benedict Hillerman (December 20, 1932 – November 9, 2017) was an American actor best known for his starring role as Jonathan Quayle Higgins III on the television series '' Magnum, P.I.'' that aired from 1980 to 1988. For his role as ...

as Dr. John H. Watson.

Production

Filmed in England in association with

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

, the film premiered on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

on 16 May 1990. The screenplay was written by

Charles Edward Pogue Charles Edward Pogue Jr. (born January 18, 1950) is an American screenwriter, playwright and stage actor. He is best known for writing the screenplays of ''The Hound of the Baskervilles'' (1983), ''Psycho III'' (1986), '' The Fly'' (1986) and ' ...

who had penned the earlier

Ian Richardson Ian William Richardson (7 April 19349 February 2007) was a Scottish actor. He portrayed the Machiavellian Tory politician Francis Urquhart in the BBC's '' House of Cards'' (1990–1995) television trilogy. Richardson was also a leading S ...

Sherlock Holmes films, ''

The Sign of Four ''The Sign of the Four'' (1890), also called ''The Sign of Four'', is the second novel featuring Sherlock Holmes by British writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle wrote four novels and 56 short stories featuring the fictional detective. Pl ...

'' and ''

The Hound of the Baskervilles ''The Hound of the Baskervilles'' is the third of the four crime novels by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialised in ''The Strand Magazine'' from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set i ...

'' and was initially intended to be a part of that series of films.

Cast

as Dr. John H. Watson * Anthony Andrews as

Professor Moriarty Professor James Moriarty is a fictional character and criminal mastermind created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to be a formidable enemy for the author's fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. He was created primarily as a device by which Doyle could ...

Kim Thomson Kim Ellen Thomson (born 30 October 1959) is an English actress who has appeared on stage, television and film since the early 1980s in both the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Early life Thomson was born on 30 October 1959, altho ...

as Sophie DeVere *

Peter Jeffrey Peter Jeffrey (18 April 1929 – 25 December 1999) was an English character actor. Starting his performing career on stage, he would later have many roles in television and film. Early life Jeffrey was born in Bristol, the son of Florence ...

Mycroft Holmes Mycroft Holmes is a fictional character appearing in stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle from 1893 to 1908. The elder brother (by seven years) of detective Sherlock Holmes, he is a government official and a founding member of the Diogene ...

Warren Clarke Warren Clarke (born Alan James Clarke; 26 April 1947 – 12 November 2014) was an English actor. He appeared in many films after a significant role as Dim in Stanley Kubrick's ''A Clockwork Orange''. His television appearances included '' Dalz ...

as Col. Gould *Terence Lodge as

Inspector Lestrade Detective Inspector G. Lestrade, or Mr. Lestrade ( or ), is a fictional character appearing in several of the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. Lestrade's first appearance was in the first Sherlock Holmes story, the novel '' ...

Reception

Reviews for the film were decidedly mixed. ''

People A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...

'' gave the film a B review in its "picks and pans" column. Matthew E. Bunson in his ''Encyclopedia Sherlockiana'' opined "this is a surprisingly disappointing production despite the best efforts of all concerned and lavish attention to detail." Alan Barnes in ''Sherlock Holmes on Screen'' wrote that the film "is no more than a number of high-concept set-pieces linked by the flimsiest of stories."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hands of a Murderer 1990 television films 1990 films 1990s mystery films Sherlock Holmes films based on works by Arthur Conan Doyle British television films British mystery films Films scored by Colin Towns CBS network films Films with screenplays by Charles Edward Pogue 1990s British films