The restoration of this film began in 1970, when the George Eastman House discovered several cans of negative of the film, consisting of incomplete, out-of-order clips. Film historian Kevin Brownlow screened a print of these clips for the film's director, Albert Parker, and with the information Parker gave him began a decades-long process of reassembling the film from the bits and pieces that survived.
Reportedly, John Barrymore, the film's star, was responsible for getting William Powell into films. When MGM wanted to replace Barrymore in "Romeo and Juliet" in 1936, the actor showed his loyalty to the fading star by refusing the role.
This is one of a few silent Holmes films that have survived, including his first appearance on screen (an Edison short called Sherlock Holmes Baffled (1900)), the 1912 Danish short "The Copper Beeches" and a number of the series produced in Britain in the 1920s and starring Eille Norwood as Holmes.
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