The Copper Beeches (1912), starring Georges Treville as Sherlock Holmes, is a silent short.  Treville apparently played Holmes in eight adventures, all but one of which are lost.  The last of these adventures, The Copper Beeches, can be found on www.archive.org.  These short films were apparently the first that were officially authorised, and produced under the supervision of Conan Doyle himself.

THE COPPER BEECHES

It was always going to be a difficult job to transfer Sherlock Holmes to a silent movie medium, because Sherlock Holmes is very much an audio adventure.  It’s narrated by Dr Watson, and the majority of each adventure is told to Holmes by that adventure’s victim in flashback or recounting events.  At the time of these early adventures, they had little choice but to do their best.

The Copper Beeches is presented in two 11-minute parts (probably what they once called a “two reeler”).

The production is offered very little when it comes to dialogue or descriptive inserts, which makes it quite difficult to get a true understanding of the story (unless you’ve already read the book).  To compensate, the acting is melodramatic with everyone making grand gestures, wide sweeping arm motions, and screen-stealing stances.  With this, you get a sense of what’s going on, just not an understanding of why things are happening.

THE COPPER BEECHES

The first 11-minute part doesn’t feature Sherlock Holmes at all.  In order to adapt the story to the silent screen, the story is told reverse-way on.  Instead of the governess recounting her experiences to Holmes, we see what goes on at the house.  This leaves very little detecting work for Holmes to do, and all they really give him to do is to discover a torn up note with his magnifying glass, and sticking it back together so that he can outwit the villain at the end.

There is no Dr Watson in this version of the story. As a curiosity piece from 100 years ago, it’s well worth a watch – but, if you don’t already know the story, you may come away more baffled than before you started watching it.