The Russian version was very good and I really recommend it for all SH fans who enjoy classical Sherlock Holmes adaptations.
Personally, I also like two film versions of SH adventures starring Ian Richardson – “The Sign of Four” and “The Hound of Baskervilles”.
“The Sign of Four” is on Youtube in its entirety:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez7-90Yi1ow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jsv84Teu4u4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE6raeFb1mk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAg1mITZpno
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEdRHVOT1kA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlK8ATonjCg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2-wpWgSOrI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVYSe86qvYg
Ian Richardson is delightful here and in his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes you can clearly recognize some elements that are also present in BBC version: SH steepling his fingers when thinking, SH being delighted when having a case (to such an extent that he is actually giggling over the dead body of a murdered man while in the presence of the deceased man´s brother) and so on. The story is in some points divergent from the canon, but mostly in a good way – the only weak moments come at the end where the authors added some silly escape of Mary Morstan from an Andamane native and an atrocious fight between Sherlock and dwarfish Tonga (who was acted by some Englishman in blackface). Watson is also a bit silly, because he was obviously based on Nigel Bruce´s Watson from Rathbone SH movies. Still, it is a very enjoyable adaptation of TSoF, both scary and funny and full of adventurous SH spirit.
And here is “The Hound of Baskervilles” with the same actor in the main role:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvP0RW9GVLM
Unfortunately, it´s only available on Youtube in Czech language. Yet THoB is a famous ACD story, so even if you do not understand that language, you can still enjoy an atmospheric quality of the movie – it is one of the scariest, most eerie adaptation of THoB, with a delightfully devilish Hugo Baskerville and his villainous offspring Stapleton. The story has some divergences from the canon but those divergences didn´t hurt the story at all (aside from one moment of very strange Sherlock´s teleportation).
Due to some copyright issues, Ian Richardson only starred as SH in those two movies (what a pity!) Still, he was later cast as Dr. Joseph Bell, the real life model on which a Sherlock Holmes was based, in a very good BBC TV series “Murder Rooms”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqi7uNz23s0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_Rooms:_The_Dark_Beginnings_of_Sherlock_Holmes
Dr. Bell´s “Watson” in this TV series was Arthur Conan Doyle himself, of course, so it is doubly interesting for all Sherlockians.
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I cannot live without brainwork. What else is there to live for? Stand at the window there. Was there ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world? See how the yellow fog swirls down the street and drifts across the dun-coloured houses. What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material? What is the use of having powers, Doctor, when one has no field upon which to exert them?