Sherlock Holmes in New York opens with Sherlock Holmes (Roger Moore) disguised as Colonel Moran in order to infiltrate Moriarty’s secret hideout in London.   He tells Moriarty that he’s just rounded up all of his gang and, though he can’t prove Moriarty’s involvement, his latest crime has now been foiled.   Moriarty threatens Holmes with a scheme, the crime of the past century and all centuries to come – a crime that will happen under Holmes’ very nose, and one that he’ll be powerless to stop.  The humiliation to Holmes will signal his final defeat.

For the next few days, Holmes hears nothing until an intercepted message from Irene Adler draws him to New York, where she is performing on stage.  When she doesn’t show up on opening night, Holmes and Watson set off to investigate.  They find Adler at home, anxious, and Holmes deduces that she has a son that’s been kidnapped.  A message arrives at Adler’s home telling Holmes that, if he wants the boy to be returned alive, he’s to refuse to help the police and not to explain why he won’t help.  This baffles Watson because they haven’t been asked to help the police with anything but, at that moment, they’re intercepted by Inspector Lafferty of the NYPD.  Holmes and Watson are taken to the city’s bank vault, a vault that, for political and economical and safety reasons, houses 365,000 bars of gold bullion belonging to the various countries of the world.  The gold has been stolen.  When the countries discover this, it’ll signal the start of a catastrophic war – which is Moriarty’s scheme.

True to the message, Holmes refuses to help.  Instead he sets his sights on finding the boy.  He’s being watched by Moriarty’s henchmen at every step, so what follows is an elaborate ploy of disguises and moved locations to first retrieve the boy and then to hunt Moriarty before he finds out that the boy has been rescued.

Holmes tracks down Moriarty in his secret hideaway (furnished very like his London one).  A fight ensues in which Moriarty springs trap after trap on Holmes, but Holmes prevails.  As Watson and the police turn up, Holmes is put in jeopardy by Moriarty in order to secure his own freedom.  As Moriarty scurries away, Holmes reflects that there will yet be another coming together between the two of them.  He then takes the Lafferty back to the vault and, leaving him baffled, the gold has been returned.

Roger Moore plays Sherlock Holmes, Patrick Macnee is Dr Watson, John Huston is Moriarty, and Charlotte Rampling is Irene Adler.

Positioned early in his James Bond career, Roger Moore doesn’t quite capture what it is to be Sherlock Holmes.  He’s clearly enjoying himself (far too much, if truth be told) in the disguises but, otherwise, you could be watching Lord Brett Sinclair rather than Sherlock Holmes.  Patrick Macnee’s Dr Watson is quite bland but inoffensive.  There’s none of the “Nigel Bruce bumbling”, but they’ve neglected to replace the bumbling with anything else.  All he really does is to ask Holmes what’s going on all the time.  Macnee would later be Dr Watson to Christopher Lee’s Sherlock.  John Huston’s has fun chewing the scenery as Moriarty, but he’s hardly the “Napoleon of crime”, and Charlotte Rampling is quite bland as Irene Adler.

The production is quite good, with Moriarty’s lair being particularly well furnished.  The story hints that Adler’s son is also Holmes’ son, but this isn’t flatly confirmed nor denied, so you can read whatever you like into the Holmes/Adler “relationship”.

In truth, Sherlock Holmes in New York has little going for it beyond the actors who are in it.  I like Roger Moore and Patrick Macnee, so I enjoyed the 90 minute film for what it was, but there’s precious little that’s recognisable to a Sherlock Holmes fan.  There’s very little real detective work, the solution to the stolen gold is simplistic, and it’s really nothing more than a “good vs evil” battle of Holmes against Moriarty – traditional “good vs evil” characters, rather than the Conan Doyle characters.  There’s even the obligatory “car chase” (with horse drawn carriages, no less).

Watch it for those reasons only, but don’t watch it looking for the definitive portrayal of Sherlock Holmes.