Pencil This In: The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes At The Portage Theater

By Chuck Sudo in Arts & Entertainment on Feb 8, 2012 5:30PM

Billy Wilder's 1970 film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes tells two separate stories involving the legendary detective. In one story, Holmes is approached by a Russian ballerina who wants to conceive a child with him in the hopes the baby inherits her body and his intellect. The second story is a murder investigation that plays off of the myth of the Loch Ness Monster.

in his review of the film, roger Ebert said it was "disappointingly lacking in bite and sophistication" and that "before the movie is 20 minutes old, Wilder has settled for simply telling a Sherlock Holmes adventure." But Robert Stephens turns in a bravura performance as a coke-addled, possibly gay Sherlock. The film screens tonight at the Portage Theater as part of the Northwest Chicago Film Society's current season. (4050 N. Milwaukee Ave., 7:30 p.m., $5)

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