Sherlock Holmes: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

2. Peter Cook - The Hound Of The Baskervilles

You can see why this sounded like a good idea. Holmes and Watson, especially in their myriad screen interpretations, are quite broad characters in their distinct and instantly recognisable tropes and tics, something that would lend itself to a successful comedy double act to send up. As such double acts go, the relative screen personas of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore are also a good fit for the detective duo, with the more imposing Cook with his arrogant sneer widely seen as the star with Moore as his perennial sidekick. Unfortunately, the whole thing is a horrible mess with neither Pete and Dud nor frequent Andy Warhol collaborator and Flesh For Frankenstein director Paul Morrissey having the creative control to make the film that any of them wanted. What we are left with is a film that strives for the Carry On style and never quite achieves even that. Cook seems to think that a stereotypical "Jewish" accent and mummy issues will be the making of a hilarious Holmes, but the entire thing falls completely flat. Much of the time he appears not to be bothered at all, as if he'd already lost interest in the project by the time filming came round, which, to be fair, he probably had.