The plot of "Sherlock Holmes Baffled" is unrelated to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's canonical Sherlock Holmes stories; it is likely that the character's name was used purely for its familiarity with the public. Shot from a single point of view on a stage set, the intention of "Sherlock Holmes Baffled" was probably to act as a showcase for basic film trickery and film editing effects, particularly the stop trick first developed four years earlier in 1896 by French director Georges Méliès.