Sherlock Holmes (Stoll film series)

From 1921 to 1923, Stoll Pictures produced three series of silent black-and-white films based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories.

[1][2] Sir Oswald Stoll, an Australian-born Irish theatre manager ran music halls and West End stages until World War I when he segued into film production.

Beginning in 1919, Stoll opened a series of cinemas and purchased a disused aircraft factory to create the then-largest film studio in Britain.

[1] In 1920, Stoll purchased the rights to produce films based on the Sherlock Holmes tales written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

The films were directed by Maurice Elvey and then 59-year-old actor Eille Norwood[3] was chosen to portray Sherlock Holmes, with Hubert Willis cast as Dr Watson.

[6] The initial series of fifteen shorts entitled The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was so successful, that Stoll moved to film a feature-length adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles also in 1921.

As part of the 2024 London Film Festival three restored episodes (A Scandal in Bohemia, The Golden Pince-Nez and The Final Problem) were shown as a special presentation at Alexandra Palace with an accompanying live performance of new scores composed by Joanna MacGregor, Neil Brand and Joseph Havlat.