![]() Sherlock HolmesNicholas Rowe John WatsonAlan Cox ElizabethSophie Ward RatheAnthony Higgins Mrs. At Loews Astor Plaza, Broadway at 44th Street Loews Orpheum, Third Avenue at 86th Street Loews 34th Street Showplace, west of Second Avenue, and other theaters. Elementary YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES, directed by Barry Levinson screenplay by Chris Columbus director of photography, Stephen Goldblatt edited by Stu Linder music by Bruce Broughton presented by Steven Spielberg produced by Mark Johnson released by Paramount Pictures. ''Young Sherlock Holmes,'' which has been rated PG-13 (''Parental Guidance Suggested'' for those younger than 13), contains some scenes that could scare the wits out of very young children, while delighting those just a few years older. Also very special are the special effects by which the blowgun victims' hallucinations are realized, including one sequence in which the benign figure of a saint comes out of a stained-glass window to attack a good, decent man of the church. Stephen Goldblatt's photography and Norman Reynolds's production design evoke the time and place, not necessarily as they were but as they should have been. Most prominent in the supporting cast are Anthony Higgins (of ''The Draughtsman's Contract'') as Holmes's fencing instructor (''Never replace discipline with emotion''), and Freddie Jones, as an old fellow who possesses the key to the mystery. Cox is very funny and severe as Watson, and Miss Ward, an Amy Irving look-alike and the daughter of Simon Ward in real life, is a lovely Elizabeth. Rowe, a new British actor, is excellent as Holmes, a tall young fellow whose slightly pinched expression reflects the soul not of a vacuous twit but of someone on the brink of genius. This fellow, Waxflatter (Nigel Stock), lives on the school premises with his pretty niece, Elizabeth (Sophie Ward), who turns out to have been Holmes's first great love and - is it revealing too much to add? - his last. The story is a charming, neo-Doyle conceit in which Holmes and Watson, friends at an upper-class London public school, set out to resolve the unexplained deaths of a group of aging, well-to-do gentlemen, including a retired professor who's even more eccentric than Holmes was ever to become. ![]() In whatever manner and degree they collaborated, the result is not only the best movie to feature an Egyptian blowgun in several years, but also one of the few really stylish and entertaining American movies of 1985. Spielberg on ''Gremlins'' and ''Goonies'') and Barry Levinson (''Diner''), the film's director and a new recruit to the Spielberg hit-factory. Spielberg's principal collaborators are Chris Columbus, who wrote the original screenplay (and was earlier associated with Mr. However, it also possesses an uncharacteristic, almost leisurely narrative pace and a spectacularly handsome period production that serve the memory of the Conan Doyle originals. ''Young Sherlock Holmes,'' a Steven Spielberg ''presentation,'' is full of references that attach it to other Spielberg films, especially the two Indiana Jones adventures.
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