The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

Billy Wilder, a long time Holmesian,[4] had long aspired to create a musical adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes stories.[4] After two failed attempts in 1955 and 1963,[4] he decided to embark on a non-musical screenplay with collaborator I. A. L. Diamond.[4]

Initially, Wilder planned to cast Peter O'Toole as Holmes and Peter Sellers as Watson.[5] Nicol Williamson, who went on to play Holmes in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, was also considered for Holmes.[5] Rex Harrison pursued the role but Wilder wasn't interested.[5]

The hefty British actor James Robertson Justice was offered the role of Mycroft Holmes but refused to shave off his beard. Christopher Lee took the part after George Sanders' failing health removed him from the role.[5] Lee was eternally grateful to Wilder for allowing him to take the part since it helped his career and he was able to end being consigned to horror movies.[6]

Elaborate sets were built on the backlot at Pinewood Studios, including 150 yards of the Baker Street set, at a cost of £80,000.[5] The reproduction of the Diogenes Club stood until 1973 having been used in other films such as Hands of the Ripper and Carry On at Your Convenience.[5] The sets were designed by art director Alexandre Trauner.[4]

The scenes set in Scotland were filmed on location at Urquhart Castle on the banks of Loch Ness; Kilmartin Hall on Loch Meiklie; Nairn railway station. The cemetery scene with Stanley Holloway was filmed at the Church of St Mary, Winkfield in Berkshire. Somerset House in London and the London Coliseum were also used as locations. Castle Stuart and Eilean Donan Castle in Scotland and Broadway Tower in Worcestershire made fleeting appearances.[5]

The first cut of the film ran approximately three hours and twenty minutes. As a result, large portions were deleted. The following scenes were all filmed, but were cut from the final release at the studio's insistence.[7] What remained of them was recovered and restored for the film's LaserDisc release.[8] None of the scenes survive in their complete form, with both film footage and audio.

The deleted scenes include:

- A modern-day prologue in which Dr. Watson's grandson, also Dr. Watson (a Canadian veterinarian), also played by Colin Blakely, visits a London bank to claim his grandfather's belongings. The head of the bank, Havelock-Smith, (John Williams) brings Dr. Watson his grandfather's strongbox, which contains items of Holmes and Watson's, along with a number of unpublished stories. (This scene is entirely lost, only production stills and the script survive)

- The prologue then transitioned into the 1887 portion of the film. We meet Holmes and Watson as they journey back to London by train, having just solved a case in Yorkshire. A disheveled man rushes into their compartment, and promptly falls asleep. Based on numerous clues, Holmes deduces that the man is an Italian music teacher who was having an affair with the wife of a nobleman, got caught, jumped out the window, and ran onto the train. This scene transitioned into their arrival at 221B Baker Street, as seen in the finished film. (Only the audio for this scene survives, along with production stills)

- "The Curious Case of the Upside Down Room" - Inspector Lestrade visits Holmes and Watson and asks for help solving the seemingly impossible case of a corpse found in a room that was discovered entirely upside-down, with furniture on the ceiling. The three of them visit the scene of the crime, where Holmes inspects the clues. Back at home, Holmes deduces that Watson staged the whole thing in an attempt to pique Holmes' interest, drag his friend out of a deep depression and wean him away from cocaine.[5] Watson is furious that his ruse has been discovered and that his friend intends to continue using drugs. He threatens to move out, but Holmes destroys his vials of cocaine. Watson agrees to stay, and we realize that the vials Holmes destroyed were empty, he has hidden the full vials in his violin case. (Only the audio for this sequence survives, along with production stills)

- "The Adventure of the Dumbfounded Detective" - During the scene in the film where Holmes is traveling by train to Scotland with Gabrielle, there was originally a segue into a flashback, where he told her about his student days at Oxford. Holmes had fallen in love with a beautiful girl from afar. After Holmes's crew team won a race against Cambridge, to celebrate, they pooled their money and held a lottery, with the winner getting time with a prostitute (Jenny Hanley). Holmes won, but was nervous, because he did not want to sully his love for the girl he had seen. Then the prostitute turned around, and he realized that she was that same girl. Holmes tells Gabrielle that this episode taught him emotional involvement was not worth the risk for someone in his position. (This scene is entirely lost, only production stills and the script survive)[7][8]

- "The Dreadful Business of the Naked Honeymooners" - As Holmes and Watson travel back to England on an ocean liner, having solved a case for the Sultan in Constantinople, Holmes complains that anyone could have solved the case, even Watson. When a murder is discovered on board, Holmes tells Watson to attempt to solve the case himself. Holmes watches, without saying anything, as Watson proceeds to go to the wrong cabin, where he finds a honeymooning couple (Nicole Shelby and Jonathan Cecil) passed out drunk, naked, in bed. Mistaking them for the murder victims, Watson begins to deduce an elaborate solution based on the "evidence" he sees around him, while Holmes listens, amused. When the lovers wake up, Holmes tells Watson he has gone to the wrong cabin, and Watson decides not to try to solve a case again.[5] (Only the film footage for this sequence survives, the audio is lost)

- An epilogue scene, immediately after Holmes retreats into his room to use cocaine on learning of the death of Gabrielle/Ilse, in which Inspector Lestrade arrives at 221B Baker Street and asks Watson for Holmes's help in solving the ongoing Jack the Ripper murders. Watson regretfully says that Holmes is busy and must decline. Lestrade assures Watson that Scotland Yard can solve the case without Holmes.[5][4] (Only the audio for this scene survives)

- Another deleted scene involved Rogozhin arriving at 221B Baker Street to give Holmes the Stradivarius promised to him by Madame Petrova. Still believing Holmes's story that he and Watson are both gay, Rogozhin offers roses to Watson. Editor Ernest Walter unsuccessfully argued for this to be the final scene of the film, as a nod to the finale of Some Like It Hot, but Billy Wilder refused, preferring to end the film on a more mournful note. (This scene does not survive)

A 30 ft (9m) model of the Loch Ness Monster was built for the film in 1969. The model included a neck and two humps and was taken alongside a pier for filming of portions of the film. Billy Wilder did not want the humps and asked that they be removed, despite warnings that it would affect its buoyancy. As a result, the model sank. The model was rediscovered in April 2016 during a Scottish expedition to find the Loch Ness Monster.[9][10]

Director Billy Wilder has said he originally intended to portray Holmes explicitly as a repressed homosexual, stating, "I should have been more daring. I have this theory. I wanted to have Holmes homosexual and not admitting it to anyone, including maybe even himself. The burden of keeping it secret was the reason he took dope."[11] Holmes' personal interests and particularly his feelings for Watson remain ambiguous in the film, including but not limited to Holmes' admission that he is "not a whole-hearted admirer of womankind", the enjoyment he derives from implying to outsiders that he and Watson are lovers, and his statement that Watson is "being presumptuous" by assuming there have been women in his life, among others. Mark Gatiss called The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes "the film that changed his life" for this reason: "It's a fantastically melancholy film. The relationship between Sherlock and Watson is treated beautifully; Sherlock effectively falls in love with him in the film, but it's so desperately unspoken."[12]