Sherlock Holmes Screen Spotlight: Holmes and Freud Team Up in ‘The Seven-Per-Cent Solution’
Herbert Ross’ 1976 film The Seven-Per-Cent Solution is an early pioneer of the darker, psychologically complex approach to legendary detective Sherlock Holmes.
Sherlock Holmes’ cocaine use is mentioned only incidentally in author Arthur Conan Doyle’s original Holmes stories, but it’s the primary focus of Nicholas Meyer’s 1974 novel The Seven-Per-Cent Solution and its 1976 film adaptation, written by Meyer and directed by Herbert Ross. Modern interpreters of Holmes are now more likely to emphasize the brilliant detective’s drug habit, and The Seven-Per-Cent Solution is an early pioneer of that psychologically complex approach.
It helps that one of the most famous figures in the history of psychiatry is also one of the movie’s main characters. Meyer’s novel (the first of five Holmes pastiches that he’s written) posits that in 1891, during the so-called “great hiatus” when Holmes was presumed dead in Conan Doyle’s stories, Holmes’ cocaine addiction became so great that his friend and associate Dr. John Watson had to recruit the renowned Dr. Sigmund Freud to help Holmes recover.
The movie presents whimsical versions of both Holmes (Nicol Williamson) and Freud (Alan Arkin), although Robert Duvall’s Watson is mostly dour, stuck as the sidekick to two different eccentric geniuses. Watson narrates the story in a stiff deadpan, reflecting his role as the narrator of most of Conan Doyle’s Holmes stories, and his concern for his friend comes through in the movie’s early scenes. Once he and Holmes travel to Vienna, though, Watson mostly fades into the background, and there’s some lost potential in exploring the enduring bond between Holmes and Watson.
Meyer and Ross make up for that by creating an entertaining dynamic between Holmes and Freud, who are equally enamored of each other’s abilities. Holmes is at his lowest point when he arrives at Freud’s office, after Watson enlists the help of Holmes’ equally brilliant, reclusive brother Mycroft (Charles Gray) to trick Holmes into taking the trip. Meyer reinvents Holmes’ longtime nemesis Professor James Moriarty (Laurence Olivier) as a harmless mathematics teacher upon whom Holmes has projected all of his paranoid delusions, and Watson and Mycroft exploit those delusions to create a fraudulent trail for Holmes to follow to Vienna.
Yet even in the throes of his addiction, Holmes retains his keen sense of observation and deduction. Ross delivers a mesmerizing single-take scene with Holmes figuring out numerous details of Freud’s life just from the state of the doctor’s office, even though Holmes isn’t familiar with Freud’s international reputation. The first half of The Seven-Per-Cent Solution focuses on Holmes’ grueling recovery, as Freud treats him with hypnosis and Holmes experiences harrowing hallucinations while undergoing withdrawal.
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution is engaging enough as an offbeat drama about an early form of drug rehab that it doesn’t necessarily need a central mystery, but when one arises at the halfway point, the case is just as engaging as Holmes’ internal struggle. Freud, Holmes and Watson discover a kidnapping plot against one of Freud’s other addiction patients, Lola Devereaux (Vanessa Redgrave), and they team up to track down the culprit. That culminates in a thrilling train chase and a train-top fight scene that looks like something out of a Mission: Impossible movie.
Just as Holmes marvels at Freud’s psychological techniques for treating addiction, Freud marvels at Holmes’ crime-solving skills, and the doctor’s own insights prove useful in cracking the case. Arkin gives Freud a sense of eager playfulness, which matches Williamson’s manic intensity as Holmes. While The Seven-Per-Cent Solution received mostly positive reviews and was nominated for two Oscars, it’s a bit disappointing that the movie wasn’t popular enough to spawn more team-up adventures between Holmes and Freud.
The movie did, however, lay the groundwork for darker, brooding takes on Holmes, giving the seemingly infallible investigator more human flaws. It’s a key step in expanding the conception of Holmes beyond Conan Doyle’s canonical version, wrapped up in an entertainingly quirky mystery story.
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Josh Bell is a freelance writer and movie/TV critic based in Las Vegas. He has written about movies, TV, and pop culture for Vulture, IndieWire, Tom’s Guide, Inverse, Crooked Marquee, and more. With comedian Jason Harris, he co-hosts the podcast Awesome Movie Year.