The Valley of Fear (film)

The Valley of Fear is a British silent adventure film of 1916 directed by Alexander Butler and starring Harry Arthur Saintsbury, Daisy Burrell and Booth Conway. The film is an adaptation of the 1915 novel, The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle featuring Sherlock Holmes. This is now considered a lost film.

Production
After the success of A Study in Scarlet in 1914, producer G. B. Samuelson decided to make another feature-length adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. French company Eclair owned the cinematic rights to Conan Doyle's stories up to 1912 which left only one full length story available, The Valley of Fear

While James Bragington was considered a virtual doppelgänger of Sherlock Holmes in A Study in Scarlet, the role in The Valley of Fear required more from an actor so H.A. Saintsbury was cast instead. Saintsbury had played the role onstage more than any other actor, over 1,000 times in both William Gillette's Sherlock Holmes as well as Conan Doyle's The Speckled Band. Arthur Cullin was cast as Watson, a role he would repeat seven years later in 1923's The Sign of the Four opposite Eille Norwood as Holmes.

Cast

 * Harry Arthur Saintsbury - Sherlock Holmes
 * Daisy Burrell - Ettie Shafter
 * Booth Conway - Professor Moriarty
 * Jack McCauley - McGinty
 * Cecil Mannering - John McMurdo
 * Arthur M. Cullin - Doctor Watson
 * Lionel d'Aragon - Captain Marvin
 * Bernard Vaughan - Shafter
 * Jack Clare - Ted Baldwin