“Meet the world's greatest detective...and Sherlock Holmes.”

 Personal Observations:

“Any critic is entitled to wrong judgments, of course. But certain lapses of judgment indicate the radical failure of an entire sensibility.”
      —Susan Sontag

From beginning to end, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. The self-proclaimed professional film critics do not, however, share my humble opinion. These learned and accomplished men and women who, with their trusty and much thumbed dictionaries and thesauri in hand, and driven by the fear that they may one day be discovered to be no more than a portentous cadre of politically and socially motivated hedonists and sophists pursuing an agenda far removed from the technical aspects of acting, directing, writing, and producing—in a word, film making, and, consequently, returned to those damp, gray, basement cells where once, unseen and unnoticed, they began their meteoric rise up the rungs of the journalistic ladder by penning obituaries and social calendars, found this lighthearted homage to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle lacking in artistic merit and devoid of social and philosophical virtue.

Admittedly, Without A Clue lacks a great many of those spicy ingredients which, as determined by the US movie industry, are indispensable to delicious box office recipes, or is it receipts? It lacks nudity, graphic or implied sex acts, incest, blood, gore, racial injustice, sexual intolerance, and religious bigotry. It makes no effort whatsoever to promote public awareness of the myriad politically correct causes so vehemently espoused by Hollywood's liberal elite and their devoted, for lack of a better word, sycophants.

The reviews that I read were liberally sprinkled with such well-worn banalities as: wooden performances, uninspired, slapstick, and so forth. One prominent critic went so far as to accuse Michael Caine of “playing Michael Caine.” Possessed of such keen insights and a rapier wit, this individual will, undoubtedly, soon attain the pinnacle of his or her profession.

I, on the other hand, derived great pleasure from this film. While Without A Clue may, indeed, prove devoid of the aforenoted attributes, it possesses, and those in abundance, the very qualities that I seek—it provides good, clean entertainment. The writing, though uncomplicated, in combination with the delightful performances of the various cast members resulted in 107 minutes of smiles, laughs, and a general feeling of contentment. The characters, as portrayed by Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley, were not unreminiscent of Felix Unger and Oscar Madison in Neil Simon's The Odd Couple. In so saying, I mean that while the personalties of their individual characters could not be more disparate, they, irrespective of their not infrequent verbal sparring matches, genuinely like and care for one another.

A comedy, couched within a mystery, Without A Clue is a gentle, well-written and well-acted, reverential spoof of those beloved Sir Arthur Conan Doyle characters—Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. The English countryside is beautiful, the location shots and wardrobe remain true to the period, and the characters, while exaggerated, are both lovable and believable. I doubt not that Conan Doyle would have approved.

“The critic is a man who prefers the indolence of opinion to the trials of action.”
      —John Mason Brown

 Condition:

Inasmuch as this film was taken from my rather miniscule personal video collection (I recently received the DVD as a birthday gift) and was purchased new by myself, I am able to state, without reservation, that it is in Excellent condition. Although I owned it but a scant three months, my wife and I did view it on two occasions and found it to be utterly enjoyable.

 Without A Clue VHS Video Tape Information:

• Title: Without A Clue
• Actor/Actress: Michael Caine, Ben Kingsley, Jeffrey Jones
• Executive Producer:
• Produced by: Marc Stirdivant
• Directed by: Thom Eberhardt
• Story by: Gary Murphy and Larry Strawther
• Sreenwriters: Gary Murphy and Larry Strawther
• Original Music by: Henry Mancini
• Cinematography by: Alan Hume
• Film Editing by: Peter Tanner
• Casting by: Noel Davis and Jeremy Zimmerman
• Production Design by: Brian Ackland-Snow and Martyn Hebert
• Art Direction by: Terry Ackland-Snow and Robin Tarsnane
• Production by: Incorporated Television Company
• Distributed by: Orion Pictures Corporation
• Runtime: Approximately 107M
• Rating: R
• Language: English
• Color: Deluxe
• Sound Mix: VHS Hi-Fi Stereo/Dolby Stereo
• Closed Captioned: Yes

 Starring:

• Michael Caine as Sherlock Holmes/Reginald Kincaid
• Ben Kingsley as Dr. John Watson
• Jeffrey Jones as Inspector Lestrade
• Lysette Anthony as Impostor Leslie Giles
• Paul Freeman as Professor James Moriarty
• Nigel Davenport as Lord Smithwick
• Pat Keen as Mrs. Hudson
• Peter Cook as Norman Greenhough
• Tim Killick as Sebastian
• Matthew Savage as Wiggins
• John Warner as Peter Giles
• Matthew Sim as Real Leslie Giles
• Harold Innocent as Lord Mayor Gerald Fitzwalter Johnson
• George Sweeney as John Clay

 Special Features:

• VHS Videocassette
• NTSC
• Annotated Factory Case
• VHS Hi-Fi Stereo/Dolby Stereo
• Color

Specifications: 1