Bill Reviews “The Case of Harry Crocker” (1954)
This review of an episode from the “Sherlock Holmes” TV series is a draft from the “Sherlock Holmes, They Watched” film guide.
Copyright 2026 by Bill Peschel.
Harry the escape artist couldn’t get out of a murder charge, but he could flee the police and put his case in the hands of Sherlock Holmes.
Although the same length as all the other episodes, this jam-packed episode seemed longer. Watson’s convinced that Harry was guilty of killing the chorus girl, Sally King. Lestrade’s upset that the bobbies can’t keep ahold of Harry. And Holmes’ is more focused on the locked-trunk trick used by Harry’s dad than how Sally, last seen with Harry after finishing her performance, turned up dead in an alley.
Oh, and don’t forget the chorus girls they meet at the theatre, bouncing about in their frilly French corsets and fishnet stockings. Dr. Watson — despite his knowledge of women on three continents (according to canon) — looked decidedly uncomfortable.
Meanwhile, Harry’s bouncing around like Bugs Bunny, baiting the police, escaping Lestrade’s handcuffs, and begging Holmes to save him.
He had every right to plead for help. The clues were looking sternly at Harry and shaking their head. It looked like the noose for him. But Holmes realized that the chorus girl and the backstage porter came from Manchester, and that the porter loved her and hated Harry. And because she didn’t fight back when the killer’s hands encircled her throat, Holmes concluded that this was another case of the dog that didn’t bark in the nighttime.
But the finishing touch came when he compared the porter’s testimony that Sally never left the theater with Harry without removing her stage makeup first, to what they saw at the morgue and realized that the facts don’t fit.
By the way, the actress playing the distrait fiancée was Delphine Seyrig (1932-1990). She returns in the episode “The Case of the Singing Violin” — these were her first two roles — and went on to a distinguished career as an actress and director in French cinema. She’s best known for “Last Year at Marienbad” (1961). And Harry Crocker was played by Eugene Deckers, a Belgian actor who appeared in seven episodes, including “The Case of the Shy Ballerina” and “The Case of the Blind Man’s Bluff.”
About the Episode
Based on: Original story
Run time: 27 min.
Writer: Harold Jack Bloom
Director: Sheldon Reynolds
Cast
Ronald Howard as Sherlock Holmes
Howard Marion-Crawford as Dr. John H. Watson
Archie Duncan as Inspector Lestrade
Eugene Deckers as Harry Crocker
Harry Towb as Charlie Willis
Aki Yanai as Zaza
Delphine Seyrig as distraught fiancée