April 28 - The Sign of Four

Today’s movie is a mystery with a scene that happens on April 28. I hope you will enjoy this film and watch it tonight.

THE SIGN OF FOUR                    

       

Miss Mary Morstan comes to see the celebrated private detective Sherlock Holmes. She tells him that her father, an officer in the Indian Army, who had traveled home to England, vanished ten years ago. Four years after that she started to receive expensive pearls through the mail. Then today she had recieved a card telling her to be at a certain place to get justice and she asks Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to go with her. Holmes learns that Miss Morstan started to receive the pearls within one week of the death of Major Sholto, who was in the same regiment as her father, but denied that Capt. Morstan had come to see him. They are taken to meet Thaddeus Sholto, one of the twin sons of Major Sholto. Thaddeus says his father returned from India eleven years ago with a great fortune. On April 29, 1882 [22:51 to 23:43 and 25:08 to 26:39] when Major Sholto was dying he confessed that he killed Morstan and told the twins to send Mary Morstan the pearls, as Morstan had been entitled to half the treasure. The brothers had only found the hidden location of the main body of the treasure the day before.  Holmes, Watson, Miss Morstan and Thaddeaus find Bartholomew Sholto dead, a paper with “The Sign of Four ‘ on it and the treasure gone. Holmes finds that a one-legged man and someone with a tiny footprint, who shot the dead man with a poisoned thorn, carried out the murder and theft of the treasure. Holmes uses a tracker dog to follow the murderers, who accidentally stepped in creosote, to a boat. Holmes uses the Baker Street Irregulars to find the boat and gives chase. The small companion is killed and the one legged man caught. The one legged man, whose name is Jonathan Small tells his story. During the Great Indian Mutiny he ended up in charge of a gate of the fortress city of Agra with three Sikhs. They take him into a plot to steal a large treasure from a rebel Raja. However, their murder of the custodian of the treasure was discovered and the four were sent to the prison colony in the Andaman islands. Then Captain Mostan arrived there. The four, Sholto and Morstan agree to divide the treasure in return for the four’s freedom. However Sholto stole the treasure and returned to England. Morstan was as upset as the four and returned home, but was killed by Sholto. With the help of a very small statured Andaman islander, Small escaped. It is revealed that Small tossed the treasure in the Thames. Small is arrested for murder.    

One of Holmes’s more baffling cases. Told clearly and succinctly, without giving too much away. All in all a good mystery story.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Doubleday & Co., New York, 1988) at page 97 gives this as Sholto’s death date 

Producer – June Wyndham Davies                             

Director - Peter Hammond

Screenplay – John Hawkesworth            

Running Time – 1 hour 43 minutes

Released – October 27, 1988

Starring –

Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes

Edward Hardwicke as Dr. Watson

Robin Hunter as Major Sholto

John Thaw as Jonathan Small

Jenny Seagrove as Mary Morstan

Copyright by Ivan Walters 2014.