Sherlock Holmes (Michael Caine) and Dr. Watson (Ben Kingsley) wind up another case for Scotland Yard. Holmes’ hubris gets the better of him and he proclaims the case solved. Watson is furious. Unbeknownst to the world Watson is the real brains behind the duo and Holmes is a hack actor named Reginald Kincaid. Watson invented the Sherlock Holmes character for a series of stories that were published in The Strand Magazine. At the time Watson was positioning for a prestigious job and felt that a doctor writing mystery stories wouldn’t look professional. Watson hired Kincaid as a cover. He never got the job but ended up stuck with Kincaid. The only ones aware of the duplicity are his housekeeper Mrs. Hudson (Pat Keen) and a group of street urchins called “The Baker Street Irregulars”. The leader of the Irregulars is Wiggins (Matthew Savage).
Fed up with Holmes’ drinking and arrogance he fires him. Watson then comes clean to the publisher of the Strand Magazine, Norman Greenhough (Peter Cook) and decides to write stories based on a crime solving doctor. Greenhough rejects the idea. The people love Sherlock Holmes and that’s the stories they want to read.
Not long after that Watson is approached by Lord Smithwick (Nigel Davenport) and Inspector Lestrade (Jeffrey Jones). Smithwick wants to hire Holmes to find stolen plates for printing five pound banknotes. According to Smithwick someone replaced the real plates with counterfeit plates. In addition the printing supervisor, Peter Giles (John Warner) is also missing. This means someone is printing fake money but using real plates to do so. Should anyone find out about the switch it could collapse the British economy.
Watson is forced to reunite with Holmes to investigate the missing plates. Watson figures out that Professor Moriarty (Paul Freeman) is behind the theft as well as a fire at a paper warehouse to cover the theft of paper used to print currency. Not getting any help from Scotland Yard, Watson hires The Baker Street Irregulars to be his eyes and ears on the streets of London. Moriarty is well aware of who the brains of the outfit really is and attempts on Watson’s life almost work. But Moriarty is no match for a doctor, a drunkard, a housekeeper and a bunch of orphans.
“Sherlock Holmes: Without a Clue” was released in 1988 and was directed by Thom Eberhardt. It is British comedy based on the Arthur Conan Doyle characters from his Sherlock Holmes stories. In this version the crime solving is being done by Dr. Watson and the Sherlock Holmes character is a drunken ex-actor and a nit wit. The movie stars Michael Caine as Sherlock Holmes and Ben Kingsley as Dr. John Watson.
I’ve seen a lot of really good reviews for this film and I’m not sure why. I thought it was OK and the story was done well. There are some really good actors here and they know their craft, but I did not find it “most excellent”, “Hilarious” or “side-splittingly funny”. It was OK.
The dog that attacks Holmes is called "The Duke" in the film. His real name is “Prince The Wonder Dog”. The ending credits include the following statement: “With apologies to the late Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.