One can only assume that the producers of Granada's overall fantastic series had become emboldened by its success and reputation, and had decided to show off by the time they came to make this and some of the other feature length stories. Justified though they may be for presuming that they had possibly made the definitive films of Conan Doyle's work, they clearly didn't recognise that Brett is mainly responsible for bringing the mythology so vividly to life. That can be the only explanation for totally illogical sequencing, disorienting camera-work and the altogether odd atmosphere. If they were trying to reflect Holmes state of mind at the time then they went way over the top. How the viewer is expected to accept that Holmes could solve this case while being as confused as they are in trying to figure out just what is happening on screen and in what sequence we are seeing it. Would have been better if this had resolved itself or been shown to be contextually relevant. But by the end it becomes apparent it was just for its own sake.The final scene between Holmes and Lestrade in The Six Napoleons evokes more pathos, conveys more emotion and reveals more surprises while at the same time delivering the familiar more satisfyingly than in the entire duration of this film.Nevertheless, Brett and Hardwicke are great. Always.

One of the things that supposedly led Jeremy Brett to take on the mantle of Holmes was the fact that Granada wanted to do something that no other film or television producer had done before, namely, do the Doyle stories as they were written. And for the most part, they did. It seems that towards the end of Brett's life, when he was at his weakest, they gave him the weirdest, melodramatic and nonsensical adaptations to showcase his talents. Even if I didn't know the story The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor, "The Eligible Bachelor" would've had me confused, since it is just all over the place. We start out with the upcoming nuptials of Hattie Doran and Lord Robert St. Simon (along the lines of the original story). Then we veer into a very strange subplot with Sherlock Holmes being unable to sleep because he's having a recurring nightmare (which he sketches). Throw in an old estate with jungle animals, a maimed veiled lady (possibly borrowed from The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger)a murderous husband, a wife driven mad and all other sorts of wackiness that not only was never in the original story, but which just makes the whole piece unwieldy and a mess. I've appreciated other episodes where the writers were able to dramatize some elements of "backstory" but in this case, they just added in all sorts of things that made for an over-the-top piece of melodrama that probably has Conan Doyle spinning.

I first saw "the adventures of sherlock holmes", those short episodes were intense, and well "dramatized" as they always listed at the beginning of each episode as "dramatized by someone".The same sherlock seemed a little crazy in this show, he seemed like a different person even though it was the same actor. He lost his coolness in this show.It was badly directed, because the storyline did not flow smoothly like those TV episodes in "the adventures of sherlock holmes". I actually was reading a book while it was played on TV. I didn't want to miss anything, but it is not worthy of my complete attention, either.

*Spoilers* Based loosely off of "The Nobel Bachelor" and "The Veiled Lodger", The Eligible Bachelor comes off as an extremely weird movie. At some points it is uncomfortable watching it. The screenplay, mixing together two quite unlikely stories, is, for the most part, clever and entertaining, but there were several things that were unnecessary. The dream sequence was dumb and came off as some random thing they wanted to put in the film. Holmes needed to stop whining about Moriarty being dead. Lord St. Simon leaving his second wife to rot in a pit did not seem to fit well with the rest of the film. Maybe if we hadn't had those obnoxious nightmares, her situation would have been more shocking. The acting is good. The confrontation between Hettie and St. Simon in the condemned castle is powerful, and the violence is especially grisly. Paris Jefferson and Simon Williams are the standout performances. About a 6.5 out 10.