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The Valley of Fear is a British silent adventure film of 1916 directed by Alexander Butler and starring Harry Arthur Saintsbury, Daisy Burrell and Booth Conway. The film is an adaptation of the 1915 novel, The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle featuring Sherlock Holmes. This is now considered a lost film.

Production

After the success of A Study in Scarlet in 1914, producer G. B. Samuelson decided to make another feature-length adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. French company Eclair owned the cinematic rights to Conan Doyle's stories up to 1912 which left only one full length story available, The Valley of Fear

While James Bragington was considered a virtual doppelgänger of Sherlock Holmes in A Study in Scarlet, the role in The Valley of Fear required more from an actor so H.A. Saintsbury was cast instead. Saintsbury had played the role onstage more than any other actor, over 1,000 times in both William Gillette's Sherlock Holmes as well as Conan Doyle's The Speckled Band. Arthur Cullin was cast as Watson, a role he would repeat seven years later in 1923's The Sign of the Four opposite Eille Norwood as Holmes.

Cast

• Harry Arthur Saintsbury - Sherlock Holmes
• Daisy Burrell - Ettie Shafter
• Booth Conway - Professor Moriarty
• Jack McCauley - McGinty
• Cecil Mannering - John McMurdo
• Arthur M. Cullin - Doctor Watson
• Lionel d'Aragon - Captain Marvin
• Bernard Vaughan - Shafter
• Jack Clare - Ted Baldwin

See also

• List of lost films

References

1. BFI Database entry
2. "The Valley of Fear". silentera.com. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
3. ^ Boström, Mattias (2018). From Holmes to Sherlock. Mysterious Press. p. 155. ISBN 978-0-8021-2789-1.
4. Eyles, Allen (1986). Sherlock Holmes: A Centenary Celebration. Harper & Row. pp. 57–58. ISBN 0-06-015620-1.
5. Barnes, Alan (2011). Sherlock Holmes on Screen. Titan Books. p. 295. ISBN 9780857687760.

External links

• The Valley of Fear at IMDb
• The Valley of Fear at SilentEra

• 1916 films
• 1916 adventure films
• 1916 lost films
• British adventure films
• British black-and-white films
• British detective films
• British silent feature films
• 1910s English-language films
• Films based on mystery novels
• Films directed by Alexander Butler
• Films set in England
• Lost adventure films
• Lost British films
• Sherlock Holmes films based on works by Arthur Conan Doyle
• Silent adventure films
• 1910s British films
• Silent mystery films
• Silent British thriller films
• English-language adventure films