Why so much hype?

To me, this movie is perfection.

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

There are definitely worse Holmes movies -- "Sherlock: Case of Evil" and Reginald Owen's "A Study in Scarlet," for example. And I have to admit I expected this to be worse than it actually is.I often like Charlton Heston's performances, but he is totally miscast here. Add to that the rather lame, and at times implausible, story; the often plodding pace; and the distractingly intrusive sets. However, it held my interest enough to hang on to the end -- just barely.Do yourself a favor: if you're in the mood for a good Holmes film, watch Billy Wilder's "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes," or one of the early episodes of Jeremy Brett's Granada series.

A very enjoyable edition of wondrous Paul Giovanni's play, with a great Charlton Heston(it was one of his great theatrical successes) as an Holmes based more on Frederic Dorr Steele than on Sidney Paget,and very possibly on Gillette's mould.Watson is a great Richard Johnson,very truthful and highly human as an old man hoping for an impossible romance,and Susannah Harker is a very good and alluring damsel-in distress-cum-dark lady à la Maltese Falcon.Simon Callow is perhaps the better Lestrade ever seen,but the real show stealers are Clive Wood as a sinister Jonathan Small,John Castle as an opium addicted " captain Morstan", chanting wide-eyed his loony and highly poetical lines, and great Edward Fox as an highly malignant and evil "major Sholto".The movie is highly theatrical,but ,as other reviewers told,is a precious memento of one of the best stage-play Holmes.And the script by Giovanni is a real gem,arriving directly to us from the great Agra treasure's chest

During the making of Khartoum Charlton Heston formed a lifetime friendship with Richard Johnson who played his aide in that film. They worked on a number of projects together and had a run in the United Kingdom in this play. We're fortunate indeed to have Heston give his interpretation of the master sleuth, Sherlock Holmes in a The Crucifer of Blood.Heston takes his place right along side Jeremy Brett and Basil Rathbone as a fine delineater of the analytical character of Sherlock Holmes. In the Rathbone series, Holmes purists are usually quite upset about Nigel Bruce's Dr. Watson being made more and more a bumbling idiot as the series progressed. Watson as conceived by Conan Doyle was not as bright as Holmes, but who is. His medical training in fact helps Holmes on more than a few cases.But in this film Watson is a fool though, a fool for love as he falls for Sussanah Harker, a woman who has sought out the help of Sherlock Holmes. Three men who thirty years earlier stole a maharajah's treasure while serving in India during the Sepoy mutiny are being targeted for terror and probably worse, one of them being Harker's father. Several dead bodies later Holmes does come up with the answer as we know he always does.Edward Fox and John Castle are two of the men who do the stealing and Castle as the opium addicted father of Harker is the best in the film. One man who is played as a bumbling idiot is Holmes's rival at Scotland Yard, Inspector Lestrade as played by Simon Callew. Dennis Hoey was never as dumb as this guy.I'm glad Charlton Heston's interpretation of Holmes for which he got good critical notices for the stage play is preserved here and his fans will like it. Holmes fans will like it as well.

This is a well directed and enjoyable story which captured my attention from the beginning.The cast are effective and there are some neat twists.It looks stunning at times and there is a sense of theatrical sets ( it is based on a stage play) which add another dimension to the visual style. Unfortunately the producers have cast Charlton Heston as Sherlock Holmes and he hampers the credibility of the production.Not because he is a bad actor..far from it.Unfortunately his accent suggests that he comes from that part of the UK known only to American actors and he lacks the sensitivity and intensity that I expect of Holmes. Worth catching on TV