Sherlock Holmes (1922 Restored Silent Mystery Drama film)

Sherlock Holmes (released as Moriarty in the UK) is a 1922 American silent mystery drama film starring John Barrymore as Sherlock Holmes, Roland Young as Dr. John Watson and Gustav von Seyffertitz as Moriarty.

The movie, which features the screen debuts of both William Powell (credited as William H. Powell) and Roland Young, was directed by Albert Parker. It was written by Earle Browne and Marion Fairfax from the 1899 play by William Gillette and Arthur Conan Doyle based upon Doyle's characters and was produced by Goldwyn Pictures Corporation.

The film was considered lost for decades but was rediscovered in the mid-1970s and restored by George Eastman House.

Plot
Cambridge student Prince Alexis (Reginald Denny) is accused of stealing the athletic funds. Friend and fellow student Watson recommends he seek the assistance of classmate Sherlock Holmes. Meanwhile, while honing his observational skills out in the countryside, Holmes falls and is knocked unconscious. A young woman passerby, Alice Faulkner (Carol Dempster), comes to his aid, much to his delight.

Holmes accepts the case, and soon has a suspect, Forman Wells (William H. Powell). Wells eventually confesses he took the money to try to get away from Moriarty (Gustav von Seyffertitz); Wells is actually the son of a crook being groomed by the criminal mastermind for some later scheme. Fascinated, Holmes meets Moriarty face to face, impudently asking to study him, but of course Moriarty refuses to cooperate. Holmes informs Watson he has found his mission in life: to stop Moriarty.

Cast
John Barrymore as Sherlock Holmes
Roland Young as Dr. John Watson
Carol Dempster as Alice Faulkner
Gustav von Seyffertitz as Professor Moriarty
Louis Wolheim as Craigin
Percy Knight as Sid Jones
William H. Powell as Forman Wells
Hedda Hopper as Madge Larrabee
Peggy Bayfield as Rose Faulkner
Margaret Kemp as Therese
Anders Randolf as James Larrabee
Robert Schable as Alf Bassick
Reginald Denny as Prince Alexis
David Torrence as Count von Stalburg
Robert Fischer as Otto, the Prince's valet and Moriarty's secret underling
Lumsden Hare as Dr. Leighton
Jerry Devine as Billy
John Willard[6] as Inspector Gregson
Walter Kingsford as Gunman in apartment (uncredited)

Restoration

John Barrymore and Roland Young
Material held by Eastman House was the basis for a reconstruction produced by Kevin Brownlow and William K. Everson (aided in the early stages by director Albert Parker himself, then in his late 80s), with a second reconstruction (incorporating newly found elements) undertaken by Eastman House itself in 2001. Describing the first reconstruction attempt in 1975, Everson made it clear that reassembling the available material into a viewable form was a far from trivial task: "A few years ago all that existed of this film were rolls and rolls of negative sections, in which every take--not every sequence, but every take--were [sic] jumbled out of order, with only a few flash titles[9] for guidance [...] and a script that in many ways differed from the play, adding to the herculean task of putting it all together."

The 2001 reconstruction was released on DVD by Kino International in 2009, with about 26 minutes of footage still missing. A Kino Blu-ray release followed in December 2011.