After having never heard of this movie until I scrolled through the filmography of Gene Wilder did I come upon this forgotten film. Being that this featured the noticeable talents of performers from yesteryear : Wilder, Kahn, Feldman, DeLuise and McKern, I was expecting some interesting curios that are a reminder of 1970's comedic and cinematic styles that have faded from the fabric of our culture. After his colossal success with Mel Brooks on Young Frankenstein, Gene Wilder takes a crap shoot at his directorial and writing debut to bring us this boring spoof from his childhood passion of Sherlock Holmes. The result was a hodgepodge of the antics and shticks he frequented from song and dance numbers, frantic hollering and lunacy which proved more successful when he teamed with Brooks. Here, Gene is alone and doesn't fare as well. The jokes fall flat. The typically funny Marty Feldman has a superfluous role as Sigerson Holmes' sidekick. Poor Marty Feldman again is exploited for his Graves disease deformity. Madeline Kahn's beauty and operatic achievements shine, but the disjointed script doesn't allow her character to expand. The song and dance numbers such as the Kangaroo Hop are cringe-worthy and actually made me ill. Gene Wilder is Gene Wilder and doesn't possess any of the famed talents of his sleuth brother. Dom DeLuise is pretty funny as a zany opera star with a silly toupee. I also noticed Leo McKern, the dour, ugly and intimidating man from the Omen movies. His comedic skills are a bit off so his performance is barely tolerable.
The true core of the movie's mediocrity lies in its script and the film's title. Sigerson Holmes' is not as smart as his older brother and we don't get to see him delve into any capers that reveal investigative talent which makes the acclaimed sleuth so thrilling. Sigerson is also not stupid. So the title doesn't even work paradoxically. We don't get to see Sherlock aside from his brief part in the beginning and his 15 second talking shadow near the end. It's really a disappointment for those who crave detective stories, because the caper plot is so threadbare. The comedy gets muddled in hokey song routines that aren't funny at all. Thus, this project was bound to please no one. And watching Wilder and Kahn break into song together looked tawdry and was embarrassing.