How Arthur Conan Doyle Plotted Against Sherlock Holmes

How Arthur Conan Doyle Plotted Against Sherlock Holmes

Larry Holzwarth - October 15, 2020

How Arthur Conan Doyle Plotted Against Sherlock Holmes
American actor, producer, and writer William Gillette as Sherlock Holmes. Wikimedia

17. Doyle wrote plays featuring Holmes and Watson

Arthur Conan Doyle wrote his favorite of all his Holmes stories was the short story The Adventure of the Speckled Band. In 1910 Doyle returned to the story, which originally appeared in 1892, with a three-act play titled simply The Speckled Band. He wrote the play in a week, later noting, “I shut myself up and devoted my whole mind to making a sensational Sherlock Holmes drama”. As he had so many times during his career, he turned to Holmes to lift him out of financial difficulties. An earlier play he had written was forced to close after being a minor success. Following the death of King Edward VII Britain’s theaters closed and Doyle, who had leased the theater at his own expense, lost considerable money.

Doyle clashed with the actor portraying the lead villain, who gradually through rehearsal altered the character’s role in the play. Exasperated, Doyle asked a mutual friend, J. M. Barrie (creator of Peter Pan) to attend a rehearsal and arbitrate the dispute. Barrie complied, and sided with the actor after seeing the play. The play was a major success in London, running for 169 shows before touring British theaters, followed by a tour of the continent. In autumn, 1910 it opened in America in Boston, later moving to New York, where it enjoyed similar success. In 1931 the script was used for the film, The Speckled Band, with Raymond Massey cast as Sherlock Holmes.

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