Subtitles:

English, none

Extras:

• When Sherlock Met Sigmund (18:07)

Writer-director Nicholas Meyer scored the biggest hit of his film career when he somewhat surprisingly steered Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, into the top ten list of box office champions for 1982; it grossed more than 48 Hrs. and Poltergeist. But one could argue that Meyer's most inventive screen work is his script for The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976), which he adapted from his own, critically-acclaimed novel. Although The Seven-Per-Cent Solution was ably directed by Hollywood mainstay Herbert Ross, its real draw is Meyer's audacious pairing of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes, with the very real father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. It's an engaging combination that makes for a fascinating, often playful film.

Nicholas Meyer based his screenplay for the "retro" Sherlock Holmes adventure The Seven Percent Solution on his own best-selling novel. As any Baker Street Irregular will tell you, the title refers to the dosage of cocaine taken by Sherlock Holmes (Nicol Williamson). The Great Detective's friend and chronicler Doctor Watson (Robert Duvall), concerned that Holmes' drug dependency is getting out of hand, suggests a cure under the auspices of Viennese psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (top-billed Alan Arkin). While undergoing treatment, Holmes comes to the realization that his archival Professor Moriarty (Laurence Olivier) is not the Napoleon of Crime, but instead a somewhat pathetic philanderer. Not yet completely cured, Holmes recharges his deductive batteries by undertaking a tricky conspiracy case involving another ex-addict, beautiful actress Lola Devereaux (Vanessa Redgrave). The traditional Holmesian sleuthing and split-second rescues of the film's second half are not as innovative as the Holmes-Freud scenes at the beginning of The Seven Percent Solution, but they provide this largely cerebral effort with a rousing climax. A success with both critics and filmgoers, The Seven Percent Solution opened the floodgates for subsequent TV and movie "reprises" of Conan Doyle's immortal literary figure.

Gary Tooze

January 3rd, 2013