''Young Sherlock Holmes'' (also known with the title card name of "''Young Sherlock Holmes and the Pyramid of Fear''") is a 1985 American mystery

adventure film An adventure film is a form of adventure fiction, and is a genre of film. Subgenres of adventure films include swashbuckler films, pirate films, and survival films. Adventure films may also be combined with other film genres such as action, ani ...

directed by

Barry Levinson Barry Lee Levinson (born April 6, 1942) is an American filmmaker, comedian and actor. Levinson's best-known works are mid-budget comedy drama and drama films such as '' Diner'' (1982); ''The Natural'' (1984); '' Good Morning, Vietnam'' (1987); ...

and written by

Chris Columbus Christopher Columbus was an explorer born in Genoa, Italy. Christopher Columbus or Chris Columbus may also refer to: People * Chris Columbus (musician) (1902–2002), American jazz drummer * Chris Columbus (filmmaker) (born 1958), American direc ...

, based on the characters created by

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for '' A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...

. The film depicts a young

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 Watson meeting and solving a mystery together at a

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of " room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exte ...

. The film is notable for being the first full-length movie to feature a completely computer-generated character. This was a landmark moment in

special effects Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wo ...

history and influenced other future films such as ''

Toy Story ''Toy Story'' is a 1995 American computer-animated comedy film directed by John Lasseter (in his feature directorial debut), produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The first installment in the '' Toy Story ...

''.

Plot

A young John Watson transfers from his school in the country to London’s Brompton Academy, where

befriends him immediately. Holmes’ mentors there include Rupert Waxflatter, an eccentric retired professor to whom the school has given a large attic space for his inventions, which include a flying machine. Waxflatter's niece, Elizabeth, and Holmes, are in love. Elsewhere in the city, a hooded figure with a blowgun shoots two men with thorns that induce nightmarish hallucinations, causing their apparent suicides. Holmes brings his suspicions of foul play to Scotland Yard detective Lestrade, who rebuffs him. After a school rival frames him for misconduct, Holmes is expelled. He has one last duel with Professor Rathe, the fencing instructor. While Holmes says goodbye to Watson, Waxflatter is shot with a thorn and stabs himself. Dying, he whispers the word "Eh-Tar" to Holmes. Holmes, Watson and Elizabeth secretly investigate the murders, uncovering the existence of Rame-Tep, an ancient Egyptian cult of

Osiris Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wsjr'', cop, ⲟⲩⲥⲓⲣⲉ , ; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎𐤓, romanized: ʾsr) is the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He wa ...

worshippers. The trio track the cult to a London paraffin warehouse and a secret underground wooden pyramid, where they interrupt the sacrifice of a young girl. The Rame-Tep wound them with thorns and they escape to a cemetery to endure the hallucinations. Back in Waxflatter's loft, Holmes and Watson find a drawing of six men, including the three victims and a fourth man, Chester Cragwitch, who is still alive. That night, Holmes and Watson go to see Cragwitch, who explains that in his youth, he and the other five men were in Egypt, where they

looted Looting is the act of stealing, or the taking of goods by force, typically in the midst of a military, political, or other social crisis, such as war, natural disasters (where law and civil enforcement are temporarily ineffective), or rioting. ...

an underground

pyramid A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilate ...

containing the tombs of five Egyptian princesses. The resulting protest was violently put down by the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

. A local boy named Eh-Tar and his sister vowed to seek revenge and replace the bodies of the five princesses. As they return to the school, a chance remark by Watson causes Holmes to realize that Eh-Tar is none other than Professor Rathe. Rathe and his sister Mrs. Dribb abduct Elizabeth, planning to use her as the final sacrifice. Using Waxflatter's flying machine, Holmes and Watson reach the warehouse just in time to rescue Elizabeth and destroy the temple. When Rathe tries to shoot Holmes, Elizabeth shields Holmes with her body and is mortally wounded. Rathe falls into the frozen

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

. Holmes transfers to another school and Watson gives him an antique

pipe Pipe(s), PIPE(S) or piping may refer to: Objects * Pipe (fluid conveyance), a hollow cylinder following certain dimension rules ** Piping, the use of pipes in industry * Smoking pipe ** Tobacco pipe * Half-pipe and quarter pipe, semi-circular ...

that he bought during the investigations as a Christmas/farewell present. An ending credits scene reveals that Rathe escaped. Checking in to a hotel in Switzerland, he signs in as " Moriarty".

Cast

Production

While the film is based on characters created by

, the story is an original one penned by Chris Columbus. Though he admitted that he was "very worried about offending some of the Holmes purists", Columbus used the original Doyle stories as his guide. Of the creation of the film, Columbus stated: When

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Sp ...

came aboard the project he wanted to make certain the script had the proper tone and captured the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwa ...

. He first had noted

Sherlockian Sherlock Holmes fandom is an international, informal community of fans of the stories by Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. The fans are known as Sherlockians or Holmesians. Many fans of Sherlock Holmes participa ...

John Bennett Shaw read the screenplay and provide notes. He then had English novelist

Jeffrey Archer Jeffrey Howard Archer, Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare (born 15 April 1940) is an English novelist, life peer, convicted criminal, and former politician. Before becoming an author, Archer was a Member of Parliament (1969–1974), but did not ...

act as

script doctor A script doctor is a writer or playwright hired by a film, television, or theatre production company to rewrite an existing script or improve specific aspects of it, including structure, characterization, dialogue, pacing, themes, and other eleme ...

to anglicize the script and ensure authenticity. The cast includes actors with previous associations to Sherlock Holmes. Nigel Stock, who played Professor Waxflatter, portrayed Dr. Watson alongside both Douglas Wilmer and

Peter Cushing Peter Wilton Cushing (26 May 1913 – 11 August 1994) was an English actor. His acting career spanned over six decades and included appearances in more than 100 films, as well as many television, stage, and radio roles. He achieved recognition ...

in the BBC series of the 1960s. Patrick Newell, who played Bentley Bobster, played both PC Benson in 1965's ''

A Study in Terror ''A Study in Terror'' is a 1965 British thriller film directed by James Hill and starring John Neville as Sherlock Holmes and Donald Houston as Dr. Watson. It was filmed at Shepperton Studios, London, with some location work at Osterley Hou ...

'' as well as Inspector Lestrade in 1979's ''

Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson ''Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson'' is a television series created by Sheldon Reynolds and based on characters and storylines from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. It starred Geoffrey Whitehead, Donald Pickering and Patric ...

''. As well, cast member Alan Cox's father, actor Brian Cox, would later have a connection: he would play Dr. Joseph Bell, the inspiration for Holmes, in the television film The Strange Case of Sherlock Holmes & Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The film is notable for including the first fully computer-generated photorealistic animated character, a knight composed of elements from a stained glass window. This effect was the first CG character to be scanned and painted directly onto film using a laser. The effect was created by

Lucasfilm Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is a business segment of The Walt Disney Company. The studio is best known for creating and producing the '' Star Wars'' and ...

Industrial Light & Magic Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an American motion picture visual effects company that was founded on May 26, 1975 by George Lucas. It is a division of the film production company Lucasfilm, which Lucas founded, and was created when he began pr ...

and

John Lasseter John Alan Lasseter (; born January 12, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, animator, voice actor, and the head of animation at Skydance Animation. He was previously the chief creative officer of Pixar Animation Studios ...

In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

, the film was titled ''Young Sherlock Holmes and the Pyramid of Fear''; in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

only "Pyramid of fear" (''Piramide di paura''). The fencing scenes were shot at

Penshurst Place Penshurst Place is a historic building near Penhurst, Kent, south east of London, England. It is the ancestral home of the Sidney family, and was the birthplace of the great Elizabethan poet, courtier and soldier, Sir Philip Sidney. The ori ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

Music

The film music was composed and conducted by

Bruce Broughton Bruce Harold Broughton (born March 8, 1945) is an American orchestral composer of television, film, and video game scores and concert works. He has composed several highly acclaimed soundtracks over his extensive career and has contributed man ...

, who has a long-standing history of scoring orchestral film soundtracks. The music for the film was nominated for

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

and also received a

Saturn Award The Saturn Awards are American awards presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. The awards were created to honor science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, but have since grown to reward other films be ...

. The film soundtrack, released by

MCA MCA may refer to: Astronomy * Mars-crossing asteroid, an asteroid whose orbit crosses that of Mars Aviation * Minimum crossing altitude, a minimum obstacle crossing altitude for fixes on published airways * Medium Combat Aircraft, a 5th gen ...

, was released on

audio cassette The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Otte ...

and

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...

but not

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in O ...

. A limited edition of the entire score was released as a promo CD in 2003; Intrada issued the entire score commercially in 2014. MCA track listing: # Main Title (1:58) # Solving the Crime (4:53) # Library Love/Waxflatter's First Flight (2:23) # Pastries & Crypts (5:44) # Waxing Elizabeth (3:35) # Holmes and Elizabeth – Love Theme (1:54) # Ehtar's Escape (4:02) # The Final Duel (3:51) # Final Farewell (1:53) # The Riddle Solved/End Credits (6:25) Intrada track listing, with tracks on the original release in bold: ''Disc 1'' # The First Victim (2:57) # The Old Hat Trick (1:45) # Main Title (2:01) # Watson's Arrival (1:03) # The Bear Riddle (:46) # Library Love/Waxflatter's First Flight (2:54) # Fencing With Rathe (1:07) # The Glass Soldier (3:22) # Solving The Crime (4:54) # Second Attempt (1:11) # Cold Revenge (4:08) # Waxflatter's Death (3:38) # The Hat (1:21) # Holmes And Elizabeth – Love Theme (1:58) ''Disc 2'' # Getting The Point (6:25) # Rame Tep (3:06) # Pastries And Crypts (6:44) # Discovered By Rathe (5:05) # To Cragwitch's (1:32) # The Explanation (1:48) # Cragwitch Goes Again (1:23) # It's You! (6:17) # Waxing Elizabeth (3:37) # Temple Fire (3:24) # Ehtar's Escape (Revised Version) (4:04) # Duel And Final Farewell (5:41) # The Riddles Solved And End Credits (6:27) # Ytrairom Spelled Backwards (:48) # Main Title (Film Version) (1:42) # Belly Dancer (1:02) # Waxing Elizabeth (Chorus) (3:01) # Waxing Elizabeth (Orchestra) (3:37) # Ehtar's Escape (Original Version) (4:03) #

God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen" is an English traditional Christmas carol. It is in the Roxburghe Collection (iii. 452), and is listed as no. 394 in the Roud Folk Song Index. It is also known as "Tidings of Comfort and Joy", and by other varian ...

(arr. Bruce Broughton) (01:06) Illusionist

David Copperfield ''David Copperfield'' Dickens invented over 14 variations of the title for this work, see is a novel in the bildungsroman genre by Charles Dickens, narrated by the eponymous David Copperfield, detailing his adventures in his journey from inf ...

used the music from the soundtrack for several segments of his ''The Magic of David Copperfield XIII: Mystery on the Orient Express'' television special, in which he levitated an entire train car from the famed

Orient Express The ''Orient Express'' was a long-distance passenger train service created in 1883 by the Belgian company ''Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits'' (CIWL) that operated until 2009. The train traveled the length of continental Europe and int ...

. This is also one of only three

Amblin Entertainment Amblin Entertainment, Inc., formerly named Amblin Productions and Steven Spielberg Productions, is an American film production company founded by director and producer Steven Spielberg, and film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marsha ...

productions on which the logo is accompanied by the music composed for it by

John Williams John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (15 November 2022)Classic Connection review '' WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who w ...

; the others are ''

The Color Purple ''The Color Purple'' is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction.

'' and ''

The Money Pit ''The Money Pit'' is a 1986 American comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, book ...

''.

Reception

Box office

The film was a box-office disappointment, grossing $19.7 million in the United States and Canada against an $18 million budget and ranking 46th for the year at the box office. Internationally it performed better, grossing $44 million for a worldwide total of $63.7 million.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

the film has an approval rating of 64% based on reviews from 22 critics. The site's consensus states: "''Young Sherlock Holmes'' is a charming, if unnecessarily flashy, take on the master sleuth." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

the film has a score of 65% based on reviews from 15 critics.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, and wrote: "The elaborate special effects also seem a little out of place in a Sherlock Holmes movie, although I'm willing to forgive them because they were fun."

Gene Siskel Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the '' Chicago Tribune''. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted a series of movie review programs on television from 1975 until his ...

of the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' wrote: "The production is first-rate in all technical ways imaginable, but the villain that Holmes and Watson chase is not worth their intellect or time or ours." Christopher Null of Filmcritic.com called the film "great fun". Reviewing the film for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', Leslie Bennetts called it "a lighthearted murder mystery that weds Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to the kind of rollicking action-adventure that has made Steven Spielberg the most successful movie maker in the world".

Colin Greenland Colin Greenland (born 17 May 1954 in Dover, Kent, England) is a British science fiction writer, whose first story won the second prize in a 1982 Faber & Faber competition. His best-known novel is ''Take Back Plenty'' (1990), winner of both majo ...

reviewed ''Young Sherlock Holmes'' for ''

White Dwarf A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to the Sun's, while its volume is comparable to the Earth's. A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes ...

'' #77, and stated that "Conan Doyle's creation is reduced to an irritating sequence of in-jokes about deerstalkers, violins and pipes. Instead of sleuthing we get swashbuckling in the blazing temple and swordplay on the frozen Thames; creditable acting, but a crass production from start to finish."

Pauline Kael Pauline Kael (; June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for ''The New Yorker'' magazine from 1968 to 1991. Known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, Kael's opinions oft ...

wrote, "This sounds like a funnier, zestier picture than it turns out to be. ... As long as the movie stays within the conceits of the Holmesian legends, it's mildly, blandly amusing. But when one of the imperilled old men gives an elaborate account of the background of the villainy ... your mind drifts and you lose the plot threads. And when the picture forsakes fog and coziness and the keenness of Holmes' intellect – when it starts turning him into a dashing action-adventure hero – the jig is up. ... the movie lets you down with a thump when Holmes and his companions enter a wooden pyramid-temple hidden under the London streets. ... There's a resounding hollowness at the center of this picture – Levinson's temple of doom". R.L. Shaffer writing for IGN in 2010, felt the film "doesn't hold up all that well" and that ultimately "the film shall remain a cult classic – loved by some, but forgotten by most." DVD Verdict stated that the film was both "a reimagining of the detective's origin story, but it is also respectful of Arthur Conan Doyle's work" and "a joy from beginning to end."

Awards

1985 –

Academy Award For Visual Effects The Academy Award for Best Visual Effects is an Academy Award given for the best achievement in visual effects. History of the award The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences first recognized the technical contributions of special effects ...

(nominated) 1985 – Saturn Award for Best Music -

(won)

Video game

A video game based on the movie was released in 1987 for the MSX called '' Young Sherlock: The Legacy of Doyle'' released exclusively in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

Pack-In-Video was a Japanese video game publisher and video distributor. The games published were mostly focused on the Japanese market although a few titles have been published abroad. In October 1996, the company was merged with the video game division of Vic ...

. Although the game is based on the film, the plot of the game had little to do with the film's story.Young Sherlock: The Legacy of Doyle for MSX (1987) - MobyGames
/ref>

References

External links

* * * * * {{Authority control 1985 films 1980s adventure films 1980s mystery films 1980s stop-motion animated films 1980s teen films Amblin Entertainment films American adventure films American mystery films American teen films Films set in boarding schools 1980s English-language films Egyptian-language films Films directed by Barry Levinson Films scored by Bruce Broughton Films set in London Films set in Oxford Films shot at EMI-Elstree Studios Films shot in Kent Films shot in Oxfordshire Films using stop-motion animation Films with screenplays by Chris Columbus Paramount Pictures films Sherlock Holmes films Sherlock Holmes pastiches Teen adventure films Teen mystery films 1980s American films Films about cults Osiris Egyptian mythology in popular culture