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List Price: $14.98Amazon.com's Price: $12.99 You Save: $1.99 (13%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9780788604645
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
ISBN: 0788604643
Label: Mpi Home Video
Manufacturer: Mpi Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Mpi Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: March 25, 2003
Running Time: 105 minutes
Sales Rank: 32861
Studio: Mpi Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: May 06, 1993
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
Based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's story 'The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton,' this two-hour 1991 adaptation for the most part sticks close to the details of the original. Holmes (Jeremy Brett) takes on the reputed king of all blackmailers, Milverton (Robert Hardy), who has made a fortune extorting money from the famous and the blueblooded and who routinely ruins others' lives when not pleased. Unable to talk Milverton into turning over letters belonging to Lady Eva Brackenwell, Holmes decides to steal them, going undercover as a plumber and even romancing Milverton's housemaid, Agatha (Sophie Thompson), to gain better access in the house. (The ethical Watson, played by Edward Hardwicke, is upset to hear of Holmes's deception of an innocent woman.) The story builds to a surprisingly violent finale, but the real hook is Brett's performance as the disguised detective and the startling suggestion that Holmes's close contact with Agatha truly moved the bachelor sleuth. --Tom Keogh
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Disappointed
I love Jeremy Brett and I love the Sherlock Holmes stories. I really love many of Jeremy's performances as Holmes. But not all and sadly not this one. It's not really the acting, it's the screenplay. Granada was in its artsy phase I guess and took quite a few liberties. I'll admit I was intrigued by "the kiss" between Holmes and the maid, but the way it was staged was just awkward and totally out of character for Holmes. All in all I think the early Granada episodes such as those from "The Adventures ... Read More
Rating:  - Does this come with a Libretto?
It's curiously lyrical. It wasn't Directed so much as it was Conducted. Especially the final confrontation between The Veiled Woman and Milverton with its counterpoint/overlay of dialogue "duet."
Cinematography is wonderful - like a series of paintings. The interesting angles and use of reflections are Director Peter Hammond at the height of his technique. Who else would have thought of doing the ending as an Opera? (Ironically, he appears to have ended his career with this series.)
Rating: - Holmes the human -- almost.
THE MASTER BLACKMAILER is arguably the best of the five feature-length Sherlock Holmes films made by Grenada TV. It lacks the convolutions of THE LAST VAMPYRE, the occasional sluggishness of the THE SIGN OF FOUR, the weird mystical elements of the THE ELIGIBLE BACHELOR, and the overly experimental cinemetography that undermined the otherwise excellent HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES. The story shoves Holmes out of his comfort zone of cold deductive reasoning and poses with brutal frankness the old Nietzscheian ... Read More
Rating: - not as good as "sign or Hound of the baskerville" however
If you're a Brett fan you have only so many choices. The master blackmailer, filmed late in his career, still holds up. It's a nice story with Holmes flirting, in disguise, with the scullary maid. And outwitting the master Blackmailer.
It's better then The Eligible Bachelor and The Last Vampyre but the best two hour productions are The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Sign of Four.
Rating: - A Very Dramatic and Suspenseful Film
For years this was the only Sherlock Holmes mystery in the Jeremy Brett collection that I had never seen. I put off buying it because of the many mediocre reviews I had read. This month I decided to purchase it and finish off my collection. In brief, I was pleasantly surprised. I found it to be a very suspenseful and interesting film. Holmes must bring down a "professional" blackmailer (Charles Milverton), who has destroyed many lives through his tactics. There is much debate over whether Holmes falls ... Read More
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