SHOES FOR THE HOUND
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Lately I watched ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ again. The Canadian adaptation for TV with Matt Frewer as Sherlock Holmes and Kenneth Welsh as Dr. Watson (2000). Suddenly something made 'click’ in my head. It’s so obvious, I’m sure someone else has already noticed it long ago. I didn’t until now, though. And now I just can’t unsee it anymore.
Matt Frewer and Kenneth Welsh in the above mentioned scene.
A Hound enclosing the Hounds?
Shoes, feet and footprints seem to be of great importance in Sherlock BBC. At least a dozen pairs of shoes have been tweeted by cast and crew whilst shooting for S4. Back then, I wrote about that topic in The game is afoot where I tried to make a list of all the scenes where shoes, feet or footprints are noticeable involved. As it turns out now, I might have missed a main clue. Because of all the shoes … I missed the importance of the 'missing' shoes. :))))
A 'modern’ case of missing shoes …. The Great Game
SHERLOCK: The boy, Carl Powers, had some kind of fit in the water, but by the time they got him out it was too late. But there was something wrong; something I couldn’t get out of my head. JOHN: What? SHERLOCK: His shoes. JOHN: What about them? SHERLOCK: They weren’t there. I made a fuss; I tried to get the police interested, but nobody seemed to think it was important. He’d left all the rest of his clothes in his locker, but there was no sign of his shoes ... until now.
An 'old' case of missing shoes boots .... The Hound of the Baskervilles
Sir Henry smiled. “I don’t know much of British life yet, for I have spent nearly all my time in the States and in Canada. But I hope that to lose one of your boots is not part of the ordinary routine of life over here.”
“You have lost one of your boots?”
“My dear sir,” cried Dr. Mortimer, “it is only mislaid. You will find it when you return to the hotel. What is the use of troubling Mr. Holmes with trifles of this kind?”
“Well, he asked me for anything outside the ordinary routine.”
“Exactly,” said Holmes, “however foolish the incident may seem. You have lost one of your boots, you say?”
“Well, mislaid it, anyhow. I put them both outside my door last night, and there was only one in the morning. I could get no sense out of the chap who cleans them. The worst of it is that I only bought the pair last night in the Strand, and I have never had them on.” (ACD HOUND)
(Side note: Canada ... might be intersting because of the mention of 'Niagara' in TAB and the tweets from Canada during shooting S4. (X)
Dr. Watson's summary of the inexplicable incidents that preceded the case of the 'Hound':
Setting aside the whole grim story of Sir Charles’s death, we had a line of inexplicable incidents all within the limits of two days, which included the receipt of the printed letter, the black-bearded spy in the hansom, the loss of the new brown boot, the loss of the old black boot, and now the return of the new brown boot. Holmes sat in silence in the cab as we drove back to Baker Street, and I knew from his drawn brows and keen face that his mind, like my own, was busy in endeavouring to frame some scheme into which all these strange and apparently disconnected episodes could be fitted. (ACD HOUND .... this sounds somehow very familiar :))
Dr. Mortimer's report about the death of Sir Charles Baskerville
"Sir Charles lay on his face, his arms out, his fingers dug into the ground, and his features convulsed with some strong emotion to such an extent that I could hardly have sworn to his identity. There was certainly no physical injury of any kind. But one false statement was made by Barrymore at the inquest. He said that there were no traces upon the ground round the body. He did not observe any. But I did—some little distance off, but fresh and clear.”
“Footprints?”
“Footprints.”
“A man’s or a woman’s?”
Dr. Mortimer looked strangely at us for an instant, and his voice sank almost to a whisper as he answered.
“Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!” (ACD HOUND)
A person called Carl Charles dies
First a natural cause of death is assumed
Later it turns out that it had been murder after all
Shoes boots disappear mysteriously
Footprints of a gigantic hound turn up mysteriously
That's ADCs 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'. And almost every adaptation of the classical story on screen starts with a first glimpse or sound of the 'monstrous hound from hell'.
Let's take a look at Sherlock BBC then:
In A STUDY IN PINK John wakes up from a nightmare and a dog barks in the night (X).
In THE GREAT GAME Sherlock receives a phone message which leads him to the missing boots shoes of Charles Carl.
In A SCANDAL IN BELGRAVIA Sherlock is summoned to Buckingham Palace. The last deduction he maks about the man who is sent to collect him - dog hairs on his trousers - confirms for Sherlock where he will be taken to.
Three small dogs .... the Corgies of the Queen. 'Here to see the Queen' ... 'Oh, apparently yes.'
(The Corgie-Outtake, some fun facts I stumbled upon while writing this)
While making those deductions, Sherlock's shoes are very prominently displayed on the desk .... on top of his closed laptop .... they are even lit by a lamp.
One of the first things the camera zoomes in on in Buckingham Palace are .... again Sherlock's shoes .... they have been put on a tabel in the middle of the room, on top of his other clothes.
Irene wears her highheels naked. When she puts on Sherlock's coat, she takes off her shoes ... the ones with the blood-red soles.
The Hounds of Baskerville is full of all kinds of dogs (X X). The famous 'footprints of a gigantic hound' are there, just like in the original story. But there are also explosives and chemical devices which are triggered when people step on them with their feet.
ACDs - The Hound of the Baskervilles
A main feature of interest in the original story of the Hound are the boots of Sir Henry Baskerville. They have a dual significance:
Stapleton uses them to train the dog, so it is able to recognize and follow the scent of Sir Henry, Stapleton's second targeted victim, after he had successfully frightened Sir Charles to death .... Henry's and his own uncle.
Because of the mysteriously vanishing and reappearing boots, Holmes is able to conclude right from the start that a real dog - and not a monster from hell - must be involved in the case.
“It is clear enough that the hound has been laid on from some article of Sir Henry’s—the boot which was abstracted in the hotel, in all probability—and so ran this man down."
“It was very essential for Stapleton to get some article of Sir Henry’s attire so that, in case he was driven to use the dog, he might always have the means of setting him upon his track. With characteristic promptness and audacity he set about this at once, and we cannot doubt that the boots or chamber-maid of the hotel was well bribed to help him in his design. By chance, however, the first boot which was procured for him was a new one and, therefore, useless for his purpose. He then had it returned and obtained another—a most instructive incident, since it proved conclusively to my mind that we were dealing with a real hound, as no other supposition could explain this anxiety to obtain an old boot and this indifference to a new one. The more outre and grotesque an incident is the more carefully it deserves to be examined, and the very point which appears to complicate a case is, when duly considered and scientifically handled, the one which is most likely to elucidate it." (ACD HOUND)
Shoes boots and a dog are the two most important elements in the original story to prepare as well as to prevent a murder.
Sherlock BBC, on the other hand, adds a third element to that constellation .... and this happens already in the very first episode.
The additional componente in Sherlock BBC
ASIP - a nightmare and a barking dog mark the beginning of that episode and it ends with the first mention of 'Moriarty'.
TGG - the shoes of Carl Powers have once been taken away and are now brought back by Jim Moriarty. He admits that he is responsible for Charle's Carl's death.
ASIB - Irene is instructed by Jim Moriarty 'how to play the Holmes boys'. Jim threatens 'I'll make you into shoes' when he leaves the pool.
THOB - at Dewer's Hollow Henry Kinght's deepest fear emerges out of the fog and manifests itself as 'monstrous hound from hell'.
THOB - at Dewer's Hollow Sherlock's deepest fear emerges out of the fog and manifests itself as mysterious man who hides behind a gas mask. For a moment his face appears as that of Jim Moriarty .... before it changes in that of Henry's 'uncle Bob'.
When I first watched ASIP - in 2011 - I was surprised that Moriarty, Sherlock's famous archenemy, makes his appearance already in the very first episode. That it is him who orchestrates Sherlock's and John's first joint case. This is a main difference compared to the original stories of ACD.
It is generally accepted that STUDY and the famous meeting of Holmes and Watson takes place in 1881 while Moriarty/Reichenbach (FINA)happens in 1891.
According to William Baring-Gould the case of the HOUND occurs in 1888 (X). Seven years between STUDY and HOUND. Three years BEFORE Moriarty.
Ernest Bloomfeld Zeisler (X) moves HOUND even to 1900. That makes nineteen years between STUDY and HOUND. Nine years AFTER Moriarty.
( @devoursjohnlock posted a very interesting meta about the strange timeline of HOUND ... Dating the Hound Story )
Regardless of the confusing timeline of HOUND, the most intersting questions in connection with Sherlock BBC are:
Why is Jim Moriarty introduced that early in Sherlock BBC?
Why is Jim connected to the missing boots shoes of someone called Charles Carl?
Why is Jim so closely connected to the HOUND?
Jim Moriarty and the HOUND
In HLV it gets clear that Jim is locked in a padded cell inside Sherlock's Mind Palace. But Jim doesn't only wear a straitjacket. He is also chained to the wall. And the chain that holds him isn't fixated at Jim's waist, nor at his hands or at his feet ......
Nooo .... Jim wears an iron collar and the heavy iron chain is connected to that collar as well as to the jacket. Most of the time in this scene Jim is on all fours. Or he would be if his arms weren't held back by the straitjacket.
An iron 'collar' and an iron 'leash'? Just the way a monstrous hound from hell could be held captive in ones fantasy?
"I should have him on a leash – in fact, I might" .... smiles Irene (Mrs.Sex) in ASIB. Then, in HLV, it is Jim (Mr.Sex) who is chained to a wall in a cell inside Sherlock's Mind Palace like a vicious dog on a leash. Since when is 'Mr.Sex' locked in that cell? Is he still in it by the end of S4? Was he able to break free? Is he dead or still alive?
"I'll make you into shoes" .... threatens Jim at the pool. The most logical assumption is that he talks to Irene (Mrs.Sex) in that scene. What does that choice of words really mean then? If 'sex' is made into shoes ... and in the original story a dog is trained to follow the scent of shoes .... to find its target. The dog frightens that target to death, because the dog appears to be a hound from hell in the eyes of said target?
SHERLOCK: Look at me. I’m afraid, John. Afraid. (THOB)
'The roads we walk have demons beneath ... and yours have been waiting for a very long time'
This is what Mycroft (the brain) tells Sherlock in TFP. Demons, monster, hounds, ghosts, horror .... is this the core of the story? Is the whole story a horror story? The story of the 'demon hound' that lurks inside Sherlock's repressed memory? Is this story not about a Baskerville but rather a Holmes Hound?
In canon, the Stapleton case, he hound case, is a family case .... the case of the Baskerville family. Because Stapleton is a Baskerville. 'There were three brothers of whom Sir Charles was the elder. The second brother, who died young, is the father of Henry. The third brother, Roger, was the black sheep of the family' ... and Roger is the father of the man who later changes his name to Stapleton.
In Sherlock BBC, Stapleton is a woman, a high ranking doctor at Baskerville, the mother of little Kirsty. Little Kirsty had a rabbit called Bluebell. And just like Sherlock's dog Redbeard, Bluebell had to be put down as well. Because Bluebell the rabbit glowed in the dark, just like the Hound of the Baskervilles does in canon. While Kirsty's father isn't mentoned at all, Sherlock's father is there but nonetheless can be called a completely blank sheet. There isn't even a name for him. Fathers seem to be of importance in this story.
"Such is the tale of the coming of the hound which is said to have plagued the family so sorely ever since. ..... Nor can it be denied that many of the family have been unhappy in their deaths, which have been sudden, bloody and mysterious.' (ACD HOUND)
According to the historical document that contains the tale of the Baskerville Hound, more than one generation of that family has been affected by this curse.
Sir Henry is the target of Stapleton, who is a Baskerville himself, the son of Roger, who is Henry's late uncle. Stapleton is responsible for the death of his uncle Charles.
Henry Knight from THOB is the target of a man whom he calls 'Uncle Bob' and who is responsible for the death of Henry's father.
But Sherlock perceives the face behind the mask of 'uncle Bob' as that of Jim Moriarty.
Sherlock is the target of Jim Moriarty from the first episode onwards.
Jim Moriarty killed Carl Charles and took away his shoes boots.
Jim Moriarty is locked up inside Sherlock's mind palace, with an iron collar round his neck and he is chained to the wall by an iron leash like a monstrous hound.
Jim Moriarty calls himself 'Mr.Sex' and breaks into Tower Hill to play with the 'Crown Jewels'.
Like his female counterpart Irene (Mrs.Sex) - Jim Moriarty (Mr.Sex) is gay.
If Jim and the Hound are one and the same, then Jim is the curse that haunts Sherlock Holmes. Jim (Mr. Gay Sex) is then ...
'The 'Hound of the Holmes'
And over the course of more than hundred years, many generations adaptations of Holmes' have been haunted by that Hound just as the Baskervilles have been haunted by theirs. For the Baskervilles the curse is finally laid to rest when Sir Henry finds the courage to face the Hound. When he realises that the Hound doesn't exist ... and never existed. That it had always been a deception and a lie. That the 'hound' is just an ordinary 'dog'. I guess, Sherlock will have to do the same. And I hope this time the dog in question survives. :)
ACDs Baskerville Hound, adapted not only as modern version but at the same time modified into the 'Hound of the Holmes', would fit perfectly on two lvels, I think:
the personell level of Sherlock's family history, his character growth and evolution from a great to a good man - covering his fear and aversion of all emotions, of romance and of his own sexuality.
the social/historical level, following the history of the original stories and the many adaptations from past to present - covering the aversion of society towards a romantic relationship between Holmes and Watson. @sagestreet wrote a wonderful meta series about homosexuality and homophobia in Sherlock BBC ... Follow the Dog. )
Finally a few interesting things regarding the Canadian adaptation that led to this post:
1 - When Sherlock describes in THOB, what he had seen at Dewer's Hollow, he uses this words:
SHERLOCK: It was immense, had burning red eyes and it was glowing, John. Its whole body was glowing.
In the original story the dog glowes because it's fur has been treated with phosphor. But there is no mention of 'burning red eyes'. I watched several different classical HOUND adaptations by now and as far as I can tell, there is only one of them, where the dog has indeed - and very prominently - red eyes.
It's the one from Canada with Matt Frewer as Sherlock Holmes. Even the dogs POV is coloured red.
And this is one of the canines that stare at Henry Knight when he turns on his TV in THOB.
2 - Befor Mr. Stapleton and his wife move to Dartmoor, they lived in Yorkshire where they had established a school ... St. Oliver's Private School for boys. But then something happened.
“I had a school,” said Stapleton. “It was in the north country. ..... A serious epidemic broke out in the school and three of the boys died. (ACD HOUN)
In the Canadian adaptation only two boys die, but someone found it a good idea to add a reason for this 'serious epidemic'.
'Two students indeed died at their school … from botulism.'
Food poisening ... because Mr. Stapleton only bought the cheapest meat for the school. Botulism, that's exactly how Carl Powers died in TGG. I wrote about this in Under the Microscope . And let's not forget St.Aldate's Boarding School in TRF and two children who are poisoned by food as well.
3 - And a last thought .... though farfetched it may be .... I assume the Canadian dog that played the HOUND in the movie ... probably wore red contact lenses. I mean ... there are contact lenses for Jim Moriarty in Sherlock BBC ......
4 - Matt Frewer on his take of Sherlock Holmes: "I decided Holmes has these literal brainstorms. He can hardly keep up with his own ideas. His brain is working quickly but he's always this calm reserve and demeanour. So that's exactly how I decided to play him." x (This sounds a lot like 'I'm still catching up with my brain. It's terribly fast' :)))
Now I leave you to your own deductions. :))))
The boot and red-eyed hound pics are from the Canadian Baskerville adaptation (which I enjoy very much) The luminous dog pics are from the Granada adaptation.
Mai, 2018
Thanks @callie-ariane for the scripts. Related post: The game is afoot
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