Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that can help answer the question.
Query: What was the first film adaptation of Sherlock Holmes?
In 1931 Raymond Massey played Sherlock Holmes in his screen debut, The Speckled Band,[17] while Arthur Wontner played Holmes in five British films from 1931 to 1937.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (released theatrically as Sherlock Holmes in the United Kingdom) is a 1939 mystery-adventure film released by Twentieth Century Fox. It is a pastiche featuring the characters of the Sherlock Holmes series of books written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The film is an adaptation of the 1899 play "Sherlock Holmes" by William Gillette, though there is little resemblance in the plots.
In 1916, a silent film of the play also entitled "Sherlock Holmes" featured William Gillette in the role of Holmes and has been called "the most elaborate of the early movies". It is one of the earliest American film adaptations of the Holmes character. Long thought to be a lost film, a print of the film was found in the Cinémathèque Française's collection in October 2014. It was restored and screened in 2015. 
Costello was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Irish immigrants Ellen (née Fitzgerald; born 1853) and Thomas Costello (born 1852). He made his film debut in 1908, but was long believed to have debuted in "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; or, Held for Ransom" (1905), supposedly playing the lead in what is regarded as the first serious film to feature the character of Sherlock Holmes, since it was preceded only by the 30-second comedy film "Sherlock Holmes Baffled" (1900). However, Holmesian scholar Leslie S. Klinger has written that the identification of Costello in the role is flawed. Klinger states that the first identification of Costello with the role was in Michael Pointer's "Public Life of Sherlock Holmes" published in 1975 but Pointer later realized his error and wrote to Klinger stating
Sherlock Holmes in the Great Murder Mystery is a 1908 American silent film directed by an unknown director. The film was released on 27 November 1908 and is an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841), which is considered the first detective story, though the plot was altered to include Arthur Conan Doyle's detective Sherlock Holmes instead of Poe's C. Auguste Dupin. Dr. Watson makes his film debut here, though the actors playing Holmes and Watson are unknown, as the rest of the cast. It is considered a lost film.
Patrick Macnee was cast as Sherlock Holmes. Previously, Macnee had portrayed Watson three times: once to Roger Moore's Sherlock Holmes in a 1976 TV movie, "Sherlock Holmes in New York" and twice with Christopher Lee ("Incident at Victoria Falls" and "Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady"). This film made Macnee only the fourth actor to have played both Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, joining Reginald Owen (Watson in the 1932 film "Sherlock Holmes", and then Holmes in 1933's "A Study in Scarlet"), Jeremy Brett (Watson on stage in "The Crucifer of Blood" and Holmes on television in "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes") and Carleton Hobbs (who played both roles in British radio adaptations).
Three Sherlock Holmes adaptations have appeared in American newspapers. The first, titled Sherlock Holmes, ran from 1930 to 1931. Sherlock Holmes was drawn by Leo O'Mealia (who later drew covers for Action Comics) and distributed by the Bell Syndicate.[3] A short-lived half-page Sherlock Holmes comic strip appeared daily and Sunday in the 1950s, written by radio scriptwriter Edith Meiser and drawn by Frank Giacoia.[4] The third adaptation "Mr. Holmes of Baker Street" by Bill Barry appeared in 1976-1977. This adaptation of the famous detective was not very popular down south, but experienced a series of faithful followers in northern states.
The Hound of the Baskervilles
(German: Der Hund von Baskerville) is a 1929 German silent mystery film directed by Richard Oswald and starring Carlyle Blackwell, Alexander Murski, Livio Pavanelli. The film is an adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes novel "The Hound of the Baskervilles" by Arthur Conan Doyle. It was the last Sherlock Holmes adaptation in the silent film era.
Sherlock Holmes is a 1916 American silent film starring William Gillette as Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. The film, which was directed by Arthur Berthelet, was produced by Essanay Studios in Chicago. It was adapted from the 1899 stage play of the same name, which was based on the stories, "A Scandal in Bohemia," "The Final Problem," and "A Study in Scarlet" by Arthur Conan Doyle.
John Barrymore played the role in a 1922 movie entitled Sherlock Holmes, with Roland Young as Watson and William Powell in his first screen appearance. This Goldwyn film is the first Holmes movie made with high production values and a major star.
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson () is a 1979 Soviet film adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's novels about Sherlock Holmes. Directed by Igor Maslennikov it is the first of a 5-part TV film series (divided into 11-episodes) "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson". The film is divided into two episodes – "The Acquaintance" (, based on "The Adventure of the Speckled Band") and "Bloody Inscription" (, based on "A Study in Scarlet").
"The Hound of the Baskervilles" marks the first of the fourteen "Sherlock Holmes" films starring Rathbone and Bruce as Holmes and Watson, respectively. It is also notable as the earliest known "Sherlock Holmes" film to be set in the Victorian period of the original stories; all known previous "Holmes" films, up to and including the 1930s British film series starring Arthur Wontner as Holmes, had been updated to a setting contemporaneous with the films' release. It is also the only film in the series to be a strict adaptation of its source material, while subsequent installments would feature original titles and incorporate various elements of different stories.
The 1939 film "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", the second film to star Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson, is credited as an adaptation of the play, though they bear little resemblance.
The book has rarely been adapted in full, but notable instances were an episode broadcast on 23 September 1968 in the second season of the BBC television series "Sherlock Holmes", with Peter Cushing in the lead role and Nigel Stock as Dr. Watson, which put more detail into the story, including the actor who claims the ring; the second episode of the 1979 Soviet TV adaptation, "Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson" (the first episode combines the story of their meeting with "The Adventure of the Speckled Band"; the second episode adapts the actual Jefferson Hope case.); a 1983 animated version produced by Burbank Films Australia, with Peter O'Toole voicing Holmes; "A Study in Scarlet" was the first episode of the BBC's complete Sherlock Holmes on Radio 4 in 1989, dramatised by Bert Coules and starring Clive Merrison as Holmes, Michael Williams as Watson, Donald Gee as Inspector Lestrade, and John Moffatt as Inspector Gregson; and a 2007 episode of the American radio series "The Classic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes".
The 1991-92 series Sherlock Holmes the Golden Years consisted of two TV films, in which Sherlock Holmes (played by Christopher Lee) and Dr. Watson (played by Patrick Macnee) are older adults who continue investigating cases. The two films were Incident at Victoria Falls and Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady.
Clive Brook played Sherlock Holmes three times: The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1929), as part of an anthology film, Paramount on Parade (1930), and Sherlock Holmes (1932).
Sherlock Holmes (alternatively Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes) is a British series of Sherlock Holmes adaptations for television produced by BBC between 1965 and 1968. This was the second screen adaption of Sherlock Holmes for BBC Television.
"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.
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.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes is a 1929 American Pre-Code mystery film directed by Basil Dean and written by Arthur Conan Doyle, Basil Dean and Garrett Fort. The film shares its title with the third volume of the Sherlock Holmes stories, "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" by Arthur Conan Doyle. The film stars Clive Brook, H. Reeves-Smith, Betty Lawford, Charles Hay and Phillips Holmes. The film was released October 29, 1929, by Paramount Pictures. A copy is held at the Library of Congress."The Return of Sherlock Holmes" was the first sound film to feature Sherlock Holmes. A silent version of the film was also produced to accommodate theaters which did not feature sound.
Sherlock Holmes and the Valley of Fear is a 1983 Australian animated television film produced by Tom Stacey and George Stephenson. It is an adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel "The Valley of Fear" (1914), the fourth and final Sherlock Holmes novel featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson.
William Gillette's 1899 stage play "Sherlock Holmes" is based on several stories, among them "The Final Problem." Films released in 1916 (starring Gillette as Holmes) and 1922 (starring John Barrymore), both titled "Sherlock Holmes", were based on the play, as well as a 1938 "Mercury Theatre on the Air" radio adaptation titled "The Immortal Sherlock Holmes", starring Orson Welles as Holmes, although in none of these retellings does Holmes die (and indeed in the two film versions he marries).
Jeremy Brett starred as Holmes in a Granada Television adaptation screened from 1984 to 1994, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, with David Burke and subsequently Edward Hardwicke as Watson. All but 18 of the Conan Doyle stories were filmed before the death of Jeremy Brett from a heart attack in 1995. Between 1984 and 1994, 36 episodes and five films were produced over six series. Brett and Hardwicke reprised their roles as Holmes and Watson in 1988-89 in a West End stage play, The Secret of Sherlock Holmes, written by Jeremy Paul.
Three years later, the first American adaptation of Holmes and Watson, Sherlock Holmes was produced by Sheldon Reynolds in 1954, and starred Ronald Howard as Holmes and Howard Marion-Crawford as Doctor Watson produced in Paris, France.
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; or, Held for Ransom is a 1905 American silent film directed by J. Stuart Blackton for Vitagraph Studios. It was the second film based on Arthur Conan Doyle's "Sherlock Holmes" stories, following the 1900 Mutoscope trick film "Sherlock Holmes Baffled", and is usually regarded as the first attempt to film a "serious" Holmes adaptation. The scenario was by Theodore Liebler based on elements of Conan Doyle's novel "The Sign of the Four".