Adventures_of_Sherlock_Holmes;_or,_Held_for_Ransom
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; or, Held for Ransom
1905 film by J. Stuart Blackton
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; or, Held for Ransom is a 1905 American silent film directed by J. Stuart Blackton for Vitagraph Studios.[1] It was the second film based on Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, following the 1900 Mutoscope trick film Sherlock Holmes Baffled, and is usually regarded as the first attempt to film a "serious" Holmes adaptation.[2][3] The scenario was by Theodore Liebler based on elements of Conan Doyle's 1890 novel The Sign of the Four.[4]
Robert Pohle notes that "Deprived of his voice in those early silent films, Holmes was also transformed from an intellectual, armchair detective into a more kinetic action figure—almost a sort of cowboy-in-deerstalker."[5]
Although sometimes considered a lost film, fragments are still extant in the Library of Congress paper print collection.[6] The film was shot on 35mm black-and-white film, running to one reel of 725 feet in length.[4]