BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012.
1 of 1- rlogcabin83
- Homeless Network
Offline - Registered: January 11, 2017
- Posts: 27
Moving from room to room/puzzle solving/death
Maybe I am projecting something here that is not there. But the puzzles that Eurus laid out for them required them to move from room-to-room, and each was painted a different color. Mycroft comments on the recent paint job of red when they come into that one.
Poe: The Masque of the Red Death. He describes these rooms. 1960s Roger Corman film with Vincent Price. Low-budget, but scared the living bejesus out of me when I was a kid. Still can't watch it, really. Moving along into rooms with different colors all with different meanings, but leading always and ultimately to the finality of death. No happy ending here.
Given that Mycroft was watching an old film (still unidentified?.. Faux Noir of the 30s/40s made for this episode?) I wondered if these rooms were also a reference to an old film and story about death. It would not be out of character for these writers.
Last edited by rlogcabin83 (January 16, 2017 8:07 pm)
- Liberty
- Moderator
Online! 
- Registered: June 29, 2014
- Posts: 5,960
Re: Moving from room to room/puzzle solving/death
I wondered about the old film that Mycroft was watching too - I can't work out what it is, and it doesn't look like an original 40s film - I was thinking it was maybe made for the episode too. I was looking for in the cast list to see if there was a clue there, but no luck.
- rlogcabin83
- Homeless Network
Offline
- Registered: January 11, 2017
- Posts: 27
Re: Moving from room to room/puzzle solving/death
I went back and watched that few seconds where Mycroft is watching his film several times. Strange. Mycroft's reaction is one of great enjoyment. Obviously this film is a favorite. He knows the dialog by memory and is grinning to himself as he recites it. And I consider that to be strange because Mycroft....well....does Mycroft enjoy anything? He is much more cold emotionally than even Sherlock.
But the detail of the film is also off. Very off. It is easy enough to say that it is a construct for this episode to simulate a period film noir film -- or maybe we should call it a potboiler detective film such as were shown in serial format in the theaters of the times.
Look carefully at it, and it seems off. It really does not fool anyone into believing it is from that period. The hairstyle of the man is completely and utterly all wrong. Way too long. Way too long for hairstyles today, frankly. Why would they not pay attention to that detail as they made this clip?. The woman's dress is anachronistic as well. It just feels wrong. Their dialogue ventures way into double entendre. Way too much, in fact, for 30s films, even though a few things like that did get past censors of the times. Was this some viewing of a lewd film ...dare we say ....illicit film in the privacy of his home for his own enjoyment? Does he have this human side that no one sees?
What is more...well, perhaps this is his private theater in his home. But who the heck plays movies on a reel-to-reel projector?!? This should be on disc at the very least, even if it is projected.
Strange.
- •
Thread Starter- Liberty
- Moderator
Online!
- Registered: June 29, 2014
- Posts: 5,960
Re: Moving from room to room/puzzle solving/death
I know, it's odd. At first I thought it was a later film - there were quite a few noir films in the 80s and 90s, set in the original period, and they could have been adjusted to be black and white. But the small set, the unknown actors (are they? I didn't recognise them, but I'm not very good at that), and the fact that the dialogue sounds a little like a parody, made me think it was made specially for the film. Maybe they didn't want to pay for the rights of an existing film, if that's how it works. Or maybe they wanted to write the dialogue specifically for Mycroft.
I don't think him watching it reel-to-reel is very odd. It seems to me the kind of thing that Mycroft might do - create the old, cinema experience. However, it is a bit odd if he has commissioned his own film!
