The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

United Artists | Release Date: October 29, 1970

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

75	METASCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

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100

Geoff Andrew

With a stunning score by Miklós Rozsa, carefully modulated performances, lush location photography, and perfect sets by Trauner, it is Wilder's least embittered film and by far his most moving. Read full review

The PlaylistStaff (Not Credited)

For all the fun and games, there’s also a depth to it that many Holmes adaptations miss. Read full review

Don Druker

The cutting of more than 40 minutes from the original film hurts its initial continuity, but once the action begins, this takes on a magical quality that makes it one of Wilder’s best efforts. Read full review

Michael Wilmington

A bittersweet comedy about the great sleuth's great love and the one case he couldn't handle. [07 Jan 2000, p.L]

Jamie Russell

Fortunately, the script is brilliant enough to work even in this reduced form - with the captivating performances of Stephens and Blakely putting a hilariously camp spin on Wilder's overblown adventure. Read full review

Adam Lowes

It’s often very amusing, sometime surreal, and the script is chock-full of some wonderful zingers, delivered with razor-sharp timing by the magnificent Stephens. Read full review

EmpireKim Newman

A true evocation of the spirit of the Strand Magazine, this is the best Holmes movie ever made and sorely underrated in the Wilder canon. Read full review

The TelegraphStaff (Not Credited)

Billy Wilder's endearing film, ostensibly a parody, is seen by many as an important influence on the BBC's Sherlock series. [02 Dec 2017, p.32]

Kevin Thomas

Robert Stephens is Sherlock, Colin Blakely is Watson, and the movie is one of Wilder's least cynical and most romantic, a sadly elegant celebration of gaslit sleuthery. [09 Apr 1989, p.4]

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

Although the film was cut by more than 30 minutes by United Artists, what is left of this satirical, intimate look at the revered character is intriguing and wholly entertaining. Read full review

Terry Lawson

Even Wilder's most ardent admirers split on 1970's little-seen, much-edited adventure-comedy "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes", but all agree it is one of his most personally felt movies. [18 Jul 2003, p.11E]

Vincent Canby

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes is comparatively mild Billy Wilder and rather daring Sherlock Holmes, not a perfect mix, perhaps, but a fond and entertaining one. Read full review

Andrew Sarris

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes emerges ultimately as a poetic parable of both storytelling and moviemaking, and somehow it all fits together. [12 Nov 1970, p.59]

Roger Ebert

Billy Wilder's "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" is disappointingly lacking in bite and sophistication, the first two qualities we'd expect from the director of "The Apartment" and "The Fortune Cookie." Read full review

The GuardianPeter Bradshaw

Billy Wilder's distinctive, irreverent slant on the world's greatest "consulting detective" holds up reasonably well 32 years on; you wouldn't expect anything directed by Wilder and scripted by his long-time associate IAL Diamond to be anything less than funny and watchable, and this is both. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

Billy Wilder's enterprise is a strange one because of its shift in directions from quite good satire to straight spy stuff. It is in large part old-fashioned, in that it's mile-wide and ancient-history Sherlock Holmes, but it's also handsomely produced and directed with incisiveness by Wilder. Read full review

Pauline Kael

It's a graceful picture, but it dawdles, and Stephens doesn't seem to have the star presence that Holmes requires.