Bill Reviews The Case of Lady Beryl (1954)

Fidelity to Sherlock: 1.5 gun

Holmes works in his laboratory and sets a trap to catch the killer. He also makes a nifty deduction about a false confession.

Quality of episode: 4 guns

Even if the mystery is shortchanged, an amusing time was had by all.

Sherlock Holmes producer Sheldon Reynolds took care early on to snag the audience’s attention so they’ll return each week. He used stylish camera work, so in the first episode it stares down accusingly on the fiancée of the murdered man. Holmes needed to make surprising deductions, so Sheldon borrowed from the stories and added more of his own invention.

This episode even picks up from the end of episode one, when Watson raced out of 221B to argue with Inspector Lestrade, who the newspapers praised for solving the case. This episode opens with Watson bursting into Lestrade’s office, only to find the genial man agreeing with him. Terrible how reporters get the facts wrong. Scandalous! He’ll tick off the reporter the next time he sees him.

This mollifies Watson so when news arrives of another murder, Lestrade asks him to come along and messages Holmes asking for help.

Sgt. Wilkins arrives at 221B to find Sherlock at his lab experiments — the camera moves across the bottles labeled “Poison,” “Deadly Poison,” “SNAKE POISON,” then “Tea.” Soon, the constable’s got his jacket off and helping with the experiments on fingerprints.

When Watson and Lestrade arrive at 221B, Lestrade describes how they found the victim, and that Lady Beryl confessed to shooting him. Holmes drops the snapper: Lady Beryl didn’t do it!

Cue commercial.

With half the episode spent, the solution must be truncated. There’s a jailhouse scene with Lady Beryl, with a nice zoom in of her stunned face. For a bit of star power, she played by Paulette Goddard, Charlie Chaplain’s ex-wife and actress, who nearly played Scarlett O’Hara in 1939’s Gone With the Wind. Now in her 40s, she carried her glamour into television.

She gets a few scenes, with the rest devoted to introducing Lord Beryl’s assistant, Ross. With Lord Beryl possessing a solid alibi and Lady Beryl out of the picture, it doesn’t take a Sherlock to say whodunnit. Holmes only has to lay a trap to get Ross to confess. He tries to flee, Watson lays him out with a well-placed foot, and its handshakes and smiles all around.

Like the first episode, the mystery wasn’t much, but the scenes are amusing and Ronald Howard plays Holmes as a genial friend you wouldn’t mind having a cup of tea with, so long as he gets it out of the right jar.