Sherlock Holmes in New York (1976)

“He had come to New York …”

– The Adventure of The Red Circle (REDC)

Roger Moore donned the deerstalker for his portrayal of the great detective in Sherlock Holmes In New York for the NBC Monday Night at the Movies that was shown on October 18, 1976. Moore took time off from filming his James Bond films (his most recent was The Man With The Golden Gun, which starred another Sherlockian actor, Christopher Lee, as the villain) to shoot this film for 20th Century Fox. In addition to Moore, Patrick Macnee was cast as Dr. Watson, Charlotte Rampling as Irene Adler and John Huston as Professor Moriarty.

In addition to the movie plot involving a heist of gold bars, three of the film stars have other numismatic connections.

To read about Roger Moore and his many decorations, click HERE.

To read about Charlotte Rampling, who also was decorated multiple times, click HERE.

John Huston was also decorated and was featured on an art medal, which you can read about HERE.

We are sharing the YouTube link to the movie Sherlock Holmes in New York below. Just below the video, is a pretty thorough summary of the movie’s plot (which contain spoilers) from IMDB and some images from scenes involving the robbery of the bank vaults.

The great detective Sherlock Holmes and his trusted companion Dr. John Watson travel to New York City to investigate a recent threat made by Professor Moriarty.

During their investigation, Holmes and Watson are reunited with their old acquaintance Irene Adler, now a popular music-hall singer, who reveals that Moriarty has kidnapped her son. Moriarty has also left a note for Holmes informing him that he will be approached by the police soon for aid in a crime, and should he not refuse- Moriarty also informing him that he should provide no reason for his refusal- the boy will die.

Holmes is subsequently contacted by the NYPD regarding the recent apparent theft at the New York bank, with the entire vault of gold bars having vanished seemingly overnight. To protect the child, Holmes refuses the case, but he and Watson later manage to track down and rescue the boy, thus removing Moriarty’s blackmail card.

Investigating the vaults, and quickly ruling as impossible the actual removal of many tonnes of gold via a narrow tunnel in the time available, Holmes swiftly determines what has taken place; based on the speed of the lift’s descent, it should take them 45 seconds to reach the vaults, but they stopped after only 42 seconds. From this, Holmes deduces that Moriarty had an empty, duplicate vault built a few meters above the real one, subsequently planting wooden boards to stop the lift reaching the real vault. While everyone puzzled over how the bars were stolen from the false vault, Moriarty would actually be stealing them from the real one below. In a final confrontation in New York’s underground, Moriarty escapes.

The case is solved. As Holmes and Adler say their goodbyes, Adler comments that her son has a keen intellect and a certain knack for solving puzzles, implying that Holmes may be his father. The two nevertheless part ways with Adler giving Holmes a picture of her son to keep.