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The "Black Baronet"
theowinthrop20 May 2006
I cannot comment on this episode as it is, although I would have liked to have seen it. Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes was always good news (even though he claimed he got sick of hearing people gush about his running role). And Martyn Green, from what I have seen of his Ko-Ko in the 1939 MIKADO was a good performer (although one would have wanted to see Nigel Bruce, but he died in 1951).

But I can mention the source of this story. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote four novels about Sherlock Holmes (A STUDY IN SCARLET, THE SIGN OF FOUR, THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, and THE VALLEY OF FEAR) and fifty six short stories about Sherlock Holmes. The fifty six short stories were in five collections: THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES; THE MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES; THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, HIS LAST BOW; and THE CASEBOOK OF SHERLOCK HOLMES. Conan Doyle also wrote two small pieces about Holmes, and two non-Holmes stories (THE MAN WITH THE WATCHES and THE LOST SPECIAL) which have a character that can be Holmes in the background. There was also a dramatization of the short story THE SPECKLED BAND, a short one - act play THE CROWN DIAMOND, an unpublished early play about Dr. Watson that was the basis for A STUDY IN SCARLET, and a shared writing credit for the stage success SHERLOCK HOLMES with William Gillette. But he did not write a story called "THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLACK BARONET".

In 1945 Adrian Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur's son, decided to see if he could "expand the franchise". He got together with John Dickson Carr, who had written a biography of his father, and they concocted twelve "new adventures" of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, based on the stories that are mentioned in passing by Holmes and Watson in the sixty "canonical" tales of Holmes. For example, the untold Darlington Substitution Scandal became "THE ADVENTURE OF THE WAX GAMBLERS". "THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLACK BARONET" was another of the new stories. The series was published as THE EXPLOITS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES. Although Dickson Carr was a capable mystery novelist on his own, the book was not a success, and the experiment was not repeated.
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