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.
Douglas Wilmer
He is mainly associated with the role of Sherlock Holmes, which he first played in the BBC's 1964 production of "The Speckled Band". Together with co-star Nigel Stock, who played Doctor Watson, Wilmer was brought back for a further twelve episodes of the "Sherlock Holmes" series. In 1973, Wilmer played author Jacques Futrelle's Holmesian detective Professor Van Dusen in "The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes" for ITV. In 1975, he once again appeared as Holmes (albeit in a supporting role) in Gene Wilder's "The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother", with Thorley Walters as Dr. Watson. Wilmer also played Sir Denis Nayland Smith in two of Harry Alan Towers' Fu Manchu films, "The Brides of Fu Manchu" (1966) and "The Vengeance of Fu Manchu" (1967).