Sherlock Holmes Baffled
"Sherlock Holmes Baffled" marks the first in an observable trend of early film-makers to show the character as a figure of fun; in this case the somewhat louchely dressed Holmes is left "baffled" by a burglar, in contrast with the detective prowess displayed by his literary namesake. William K. Everson in his book "The Detective in Film" noted that "Sherlock Holmes Baffled", in common with all other silent detective films "labored under the difficulty of not being able to conduct prolonged interrogations or oral deductions ... the stress was on mystery or physical action rather than on literary-derived sleuthings." It was only in 1916 that William Gillette's "Sherlock Holmes" attempted a serious adaptation of Conan Doyle's character. Michael Pointer has suggested that the appearance and costume of the anonymous actor in "Sherlock Holmes Baffled" is an imitation of Gillette's stage portrayal of Holmes. Gillette's play "Sherlock Holmes" had made its Broadway debut at the Garrick Theater on November 6, 1899.
Patrick Macnee
Macnee appeared in "Magnum, P.I." (1984) as a retired, but delusional, British agent, who believed he was Sherlock Holmes, in a season four episode titled "Holmes Is Where the Heart Is". He played both Holmes and Dr. Watson on several occasions. He played Watson three times: once alongside Roger Moore's Sherlock Holmes in a TV film, "Sherlock Holmes in New York" (1976), and twice with Christopher Lee, first in "Incident at Victoria Falls" (1991), and then in "Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady" (1992). He played Holmes in another TV film, "The Hound of London" (1993), along with the 1996 TV film "". He is thus one of only a very small number of actors to have portrayed both Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson on screen.