this be a stylish sherlock holmes film with the best foggy london atmosphere i have ever see on film just great photography with some wonderful and murky shot . i saw it on vhs and i wouldn not mind see it now that it be available on dvd . it have to look really good . unfortunately and the story doesn not match the cinematography . it just bog down in too many spot . the script could have use some good editing . it hard to watch for more than an hour without your mind wandering . christopher plummer and james mason make a good holmes dr. watson pair and respectively and with good chemistry . i could have do without all the religious exclamation speak by mason . a little too much credence be give the medium ( donald sutherland ) too and but filmmaker have always love promote the occult and especially in britain and land of harry potter . sutherland role be minor ( but play up by critic and of course . ) a another reviewer point out here and you would never see a character like that show himself in a conan doyle piece of literature . the end be typical modern day film making in which the government be corrupt and the free mason be the bigoted villain . i will stick with basiil rathbone version of sherlock holmes where you do not have all the political agenda and they concentrate on just tell the crime story .