You won't be disappointed!

A lot of fun.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

This final Sherlock Holmes film from Granada Television is disliked by many fans but I might be among the few who enjoyed it. In fact, in my mind it is an under-appreciated production. It is absorbing from beginning to end. It is powerfully directed by Peter Hammond with superb acting and scripting. The film is one of the few outings from the Granada series that invites multiple viewings.During the early nineties Granada started producing Holmes films that were loose, expanded versions of short stories with "The Master Blackmailer" and "The Last Vampyre".This film is also an overextended adaptation. It is based on the story called "The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor" but even purists would admit that it was one of Arthur Conan Doyle's lesser tales. This film improves what was a mediocre story by turning it into dramatic feature-length film.This film is rather unconventional for a Sherlock Holmes film or mystery movie. T.R. Bowen's script is solid but it requires patience and careful attention. It gradually reveals interspersed clues where the viewer and Holmes eventually put together. Some might find this storytelling approach irritating but it keeps you thinking all the way until the end. This also adds pretensions that you would not see from Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories as this film suggests something spiritual beyond the rational thinking that Holmes himself is known for. Its script has elements of nightmares, premonitions, freundianism, etc. The acting is excellent. Jeremy Brett gives one of his best performances as Sherlock Holmes. He was certainly ill at the time the film was made but it only benefits his acting as Holmes in this film is in fact suffering from trauma. Edward Hardwicke continues to make a dignified and intelligent Watson. Simon Williams is strong as Lord Robert Simon and Paris Jefferson is splendid as the beautiful Henrietta Doran. Anna Calder-Marshall is also good in a dual role as Agnes Northcote and young Lady Helena (who incidentally is the wife of David Burke, the actor who played Watson in the Granada series before Hardwicke).The atmosphere in this film is also top-notch. You could say this is the most cinematic of Granada's Sherlock Holmes films. Peter Hammond's direction is superb if not brilliant in creating the film's Gothic, bizarre nature. He skillfully blends visual and audio during Holmes surreal dreams as well the echoing noises that can be heard as Holmes walks through streets of London during the night. It is also has great close-ups particularly with the moment where Doran looks into the eyes of the Jaguar. Set direction is rich in particular such as with the look of Lord Simon's secret mansion known as Glaven, which turns out to be full of empty rooms, cobwebs, and torn furniture. The Eligible Bachelor is certainly weird, off-putting, and uneven but it is far from being rubbish. It's oddities are part of what makes it unique and different from so many other Sherlock Holmes films. This film is definitely not for the Holmes purists. However, casual viewers (like myself) who enjoy watching Sherlock Holmes but aren't exactly Sherlockians should enjoy it just fine.

ho hum,this is the last (i believe) of three episodes that i have found of the Shelock Holmes Adventures featuring the excellent Jeremy Brett & as every minute goes by,i am watching what i consider to be Jeremy Brett's last performance. A lot of screaming,hysterical women in this episode.More than usual.Why can't they just accept that they are wrong & leave it at that?Not worthy of mine or Sherlock Holmes attention. The dream sequence,is it true?If a brain lies numb for a length of time can it see into the future?If drugs played a part as some sort of amplifier for the brain then maybe.Geronimo,who was at one with the land & done a lot of pipe smoking had visions. As the plot unravels before my very eyes i cannot help but be riveted to the spot by Jeremy excellent performance. At the end of the show,where they are sitting in the opera box & one of the ladies thanks Sherlock,the cameras zoom out slowly & credits start to roll.I think was that thanks worthy of the great Sherlock Holmes?Who's presence had so much effect on the outcome of the case.But wait,thinking about it,Sherlock Holmes did not really play much part in concluding the events.He did manage to solve the case but it would have solved itself if Shelock had just stood back. An excellent performance (i say again) by Jeremy Brett,a joy watching Shelock Holmes living & breathing once more.

Along with The Last Vampyre, The Eligible Bachelor is one of the weaker Sherlock Holmes adaptations. If I have to marginally edge out which was worse, this probably because it is so weird and hard to get into. Well there are redeeming qualities. The production values are meticulous as usual with wondrous costumes, settings and scenery, while the music is haunting and just wonderful. And the acting is not bad at all, Jeremy Brett looks worse for wears but still has that commanding, sophisticated and gritty baritone and presence that makes him so wonderful to watch. Edward Hardwicke is rock solid as Watson, while Geoffrey Beavers and Anna Calder Marshall are good in their respective roles.However I didn't care for Simon Williams as Lord Robert St. Simon, then again I didn't like his character, so conniving and such an unlikeable monster here he is horrible to watch. Then there is stodgy direction, pedestrian pacing and a plot that meanders all over the place. And the dialogue wasn't particularly noteworthy either, it wasn't sophisticated and intelligent enough and I missed the subtle humour that is evident at times.Overall, not awful but not great. For a great Jeremy Brett-Holmes adaptation see Hound of the Baskervilles and Sign of Four. Both can be slow at times but they do have absorbing stories, stick to the spirit of their respective stories(not really a general problem as such) and have intelligent dialogue. 5/10 Bethany Cox

One of the things that supposedly led Jeremy Brett to take on the mantle of Holmes was the fact that Granada wanted to do something that no other film or television producer had done before, namely, do the Doyle stories as they were written. And for the most part, they did. It seems that towards the end of Brett's life, when he was at his weakest, they gave him the weirdest, melodramatic and nonsensical adaptations to showcase his talents. Even if I didn't know the story The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor, "The Eligible Bachelor" would've had me confused, since it is just all over the place. We start out with the upcoming nuptials of Hattie Doran and Lord Robert St. Simon (along the lines of the original story). Then we veer into a very strange subplot with Sherlock Holmes being unable to sleep because he's having a recurring nightmare (which he sketches). Throw in an old estate with jungle animals, a maimed veiled lady (possibly borrowed from The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger)a murderous husband, a wife driven mad and all other sorts of wackiness that not only was never in the original story, but which just makes the whole piece unwieldy and a mess. I've appreciated other episodes where the writers were able to dramatize some elements of "backstory" but in this case, they just added in all sorts of things that made for an over-the-top piece of melodrama that probably has Conan Doyle spinning.