Literary adaptation
Works of literature have been adapted for film from the dawn of the industry. Some of the earliest examples come from the work of Georges Méliès, who pioneered many film techniques. In 1899, he released two adaptations — "Cinderella" based on the Brothers Grimm story of the same name and "King John", the first known film to be based on the works of Shakespeare. The 1900 film "Sherlock Holmes Baffled", directed by Arthur Marvin featured Arthur Conan Doyle's detective character Sherlock Holmes intruding upon a pseudo-supernatural burglary. The film, considered the first detective movie, ran for only 30 seconds and was originally intended to be shown in hand-cranked Mutoscope machines.
Sherlock Holmes (1954 TV series)
In 2005, Mill Creek Entertainment released "Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Series", a three-disc DVD set featuring all 39 episodes of the series. Also in 2005, Elstree Hill Entertainment released all 39 episodes as "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" on ten discs. In 2010, Mill Creek released "Sherlock Holmes: Greatest Mysteries", a five-disc DVD set featuring all 39 episodes plus eight unrelated Holmes films: " The Sign of Four" (1932), "A Study in Scarlet" (1933), "The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes" (1935), "Silver Blaze", also known as "Murder at the Baskervilles" (1937), "Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon" (1943), "The Woman in Green" (1945), "Terror by Night" (1946), and "Dressed to Kill" (1946). On March 9, 2010, Allegro/Pop Flix released "Classic TV Sherlock Holmes Collection", a four-disc DVD set featuring all 39 episodes of the series. As of 2012, the series has been released on DVD by Mill Creek yet again, this time under the title of "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes". The Mill Creek DVD releases feature short introductions by Christopher Lee, taken from the 1985 documentary "The Many Faces of Sherlock Holmes".
In 2014 Tropics Entertainment released all 39 episodes on ten disc DVD set.
In 2017 it was released as a single disc Blu-ray release in Germany with original English language.