Sherlock Holmes early 1900s, H. A. Saintsbury took over the role from Gillette for a tour of the play. Between this play and Conan Doyle's own stage adaptation of "The Adventure of the Speckled Band", Saintsbury portrayed Holmes over 1,000 times. Basil Rathbone played Holmes and Nigel Bruce played Watson in fourteen U.S. films (two for 20th Century Fox and a dozen for Universal Pictures) from 1939 to 1946, and in "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" on the Mutual radio network from 1939 to 1946 (before the role of Holmes passed to Tom Conway). While the Fox films were period pieces,
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson () is a 1979 Soviet film adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's novels about Sherlock Holmes. Directed by Igor Maslennikov it is the first of a 5-part TV film series (divided into 11-episodes) "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson". The film is divided into two episodes – "The Acquaintance" (, based on "The Adventure of the Speckled Band") and "Bloody Inscription" (, based on "A Study in Scarlet"). The movies are made close to the plot of the books, but have some notable, and sometimes quite humorous differences, e.g.