Without a Clue

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional creation of Dr. John Watson who serves as the central character in a series of short stories published in The Strand Magazine. Watson uses the character to enable him to solve crimes incognito, so as not to disrupt his career as a doctor. He therefore decides to satisfy public demand to see Holmes in person by hiring unemployed actor Reginald Kincaid to play the part of the hero of his detective stories. Kincaid must rely on direction from Watson, memorizing the doctor's exacting, detailed instructions every step of the way.

After a major case, Kincaid oversteps his boundaries with Watson, who fires him. Watson wants to write the character off so as to start a new series about "The Crime Doctor", with Watson himself being recognized as the great detective, but the idea is received coldly. And with a new crime of arson at a paper warehouse to investigate, Watson finds that he is unable to get information on his own.

That crime then becomes a link in a major case when the British government seeks the aid of "Holmes" and will accept no one else. The mystery involves the theft of printing plates for £5 banknotes, with the printing supervisor, Peter Giles, having gone missing on the night of the robbery. The counterfeiting of these notes would cause the inevitable collapse of the British Empire's economy. Watson is therefore forced to retrieve "Holmes" from the pub to which he has retired.

Scotland Yard's Inspector Lestrade is jealous of "Holmes". Rather than relying on the regular police, therefore, Watson uses the twelve-year-old street urchin, Wiggins, the leader of a street gang that he calls "Baker Street Irregulars", to keep an eye on people and hunt out evidence. One line of enquiry leads Watson to the printer’s daughter Leslie, whom he and the womanising "Holmes" invite back to their quarters to recover from the shock of false evidence of her father’s death.

Watson and “Holmes” discover that Professor Moriarty is the mastermind behind the scheme and disturb him on the docks while receiving a consignment of printing ink. Watson is apparently killed while tracking him, forcing “Holmes” to solve the case on his own. The trail takes him to an abandoned theatre where the forgeries are being printed. There he discovers that Watson is still alive after all and the two team up to defeat Moriarty for good. In the process Leslie is unmasked as an impostor and Moriarty’s spy.

When they return to 221B Baker Street, “Holmes” announces to a reception committee of reporters that he is now retiring and gives full credit to the qualities of his partner Watson. For his part Watson assures the public that, far from this being so, the team of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson will continue their detective work from now on as friends.

• Michael Caine as Sherlock Holmes / Reginald Kincaid
• Ben Kingsley as Dr. John Watson
• Jeffrey Jones as Inspector George Lestrade
• Lysette Anthony as fake Leslie Giles
• Paul Freeman as Professor James Moriarty
• Pat Keen as Mrs. Hudson
• Matthew Savage as Wiggins
• Nigel Davenport as Lord Smithwick
• Tim Killick as Sebastian Moran
• Peter Cook as Norman Greenhough
• John Warner as Peter Giles
• Matthew Sim as real Lesley Giles
• Fredrick Fox as Priest
• Harold Innocent as Lord Mayor Gerald Fitzwalter Johnson
• George Sweeney as John Clay
• Murray Ewan as Archie
• Jennifer Guy as Lord Mayor's daughter

At the time of its release, the film was poorly reviewed.[2] On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 60% based on 10 reviews, with an average rating of 5.48/10.[3] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B+ on scale of A to F.[4]

Roger Ebert gave the film only two stars out of four on the grounds that the "amusing premise" that Holmes is in fact a third-rate actor hired by Watson to play the role is not enough to carry the film.[5] This was echoed by The Monthly Film Bulletin's judgement that "If this premise were to be workable, it would require the casting of an actor who could actually pass as the genuine Holmes. As it is, we are simply given a buffoon."[2] Dave Kehr, writing for the Chicago Tribune, agreed that a "Sherlock Holmes movie can be many things, but stupid isn't one of them. Still, there's no other way to consider Without a Clue, a mystery-comedy so klutzy that it tips one of its few surprises in the credit list."[6]

Vincent Canby writing for The New York Times stated that Without A Clue was "an appallingly witless sendup of the Sherlock Holmes–Dr. Watson stories".[7] Variety conceded that the film "generates a few laughs and smiles, but of a markedly mild nature and most of them provoked by the shrewdly judged antics of the two stars."[2] Harvey O'Brien thought the film seemed "more like a television production", although the choice of actors for the main characters convincingly addresses "the artificiality of the Holmes mythos" and "presents a unique redemption of the Watson figure".[8]

The film won the 1989 Special Jury Prize at the Festival du Film Policier de Cognac.[9]

• Without a Clue at IMDb
• Without a Clue at Box Office Mojo
• Without a Clue at the American Film Institute Catalog