“The Doctor’s Case” directed by James Douglas. A.K.A “The one that made me fall in love with Dollar Babies”

In my last review here I wrote about my favorite Dollar Baby: Maciej Barczewski’s “My Pretty Pony“. I also wrote in there about two Dollar Baby Film Festivals that happened on-line and gave me the chance to finally watch great Dollar Babies for the first time. “King on screen 4” and “Stephen King Rules”. “King on screen”, this Spanish film festival,  introduced me to great Dollar Babies that later I also had them screened at my own Dollar Baby Film Festival here in Brazil, ” My Pretty Pony” included. But it was at a Canadian Film Festival called “Stephen King Rules” that made me fall in love with Dollar Babies the way I am today. One movie in particular did the trick and the movie is “The Doctor’s Case“, directed by James Douglas.

But before I explain why this movie is one of the best Dollar Babies ever made, let me talk about the film festival. I was pretty excited to watch this Dollar Baby Film Festival, the second day of the 3 days marathon in particular. And the reason why I was so excited was not only because my Dollar Baby would be on that second day and I would be interviewed after the screening, but also because that was my second (maybe last) chance to watch a Dollar Baby Film Festival. The real reason why I was so damned excited  and looking forward to this second day was because they would screen this movie called “The Doctor’s Case”. Why this movie? Man, it is based upon a Sherlock Holmes short story written by Stephen King!!!!! I was dying to see how they adapted this short story in particular. And I can assure you that it didn’t let me down.

See, when I create expectations about a movie, most of the time it lets me down. When it happens I try to watch it again and after the second time I watch the movie, with lower expectations, then I can really enjoy it. But that was not the case with “the Doctor’s Case”. With this movie I was like a virgin just about to spend the night with a supermodel and the next day I woke up a changed man. It was love at first sight.

I used to think that if some independent filmmaker would ever try to adapt this short story, well, he would have at least a couple of challenges. Why? The story happens in 1889, so at least the production design would have to be perfect so the audience would take it seriously. Or maybe they would have limited camera angles to try to compensate for the lack of an expensive production design. And the locations/scenarios, that would be a challenge too. Without a decent budget it could be a really bad movie. But James Douglas not only had a decent budget, but also knew what he was doing and he surrounded himself with talented people, a great cast and crew, in a way that the final result could only be what I saw for the first time at that on-line film fest : a perfect Stephen King movie! And please, notice that I am calling “The Doctor’s Case” a movie, a Stephen King movie, not a short movie. 1 hour and five minutes, here in Brazil we call it a long feature….

And the audience ends up not only not noticing that they saw it for more than one hour but also looking forward to watching more of that universe, that story and those characters. At least I was like that at the end of the movie.

You see, before this Canadian Film Festival I hadn’t a long background of Sherlock Holmes movies, I only knew Guy Ritchie‘s version of it , the two movies with Robert Downey Jr . Until that year of 2021, I hadn’t watched the version with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. But now that I know these 3 great incarnations of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, I can say with certainty that “The Doctor’s Case” is my second favorite  version of Conan Doyle‘s on the screens (should I say which one is my favorite? Should I be controversial?). Of course, “The Doctor’s Case” was written by my favorite author, but I admire so many aspects of this Canadian version of it, so for me it has the same quality of the 2 Guy Ritchie’s movies and the TV series.

One of the main reasons I love this movie so much is its screenplay, adapted by James Douglas himself. James wrote the most respectful and faithful script adapted from a Stephen King story I have ever seen. He was that kind of screenwriter that almost did not change a single coma of King’s work, but I say this with all due respect to Douglas writing. Because it was not “Control C, Control V” in a way I already had the chance to watch at some lousy Dollar Babies, but I dare to say that Douglas not only really understood every single aspect of this King’s version for Conan Doyle most famous characters, but also Douglas does understand a lot of Conan Doyle too.

King wrote the original short story in a very similar way that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself used to write and that is quite something (well, he is the King). And I dare to say that Douglas wrote and adapted the same way King writes. No, not screenplays written by Stephen King, because I already had the chance to read some of them and let’s just say that the screenplay is not King’s thing. No, at “The Doctor’s Case” there are a lot of small details that reminded me so much of King’s irony or King’s sense of humor, not only things that were in the original short story.

For instance, when that cat pokes the knife that was stuck in the corpse’s back, man, this is Stephen King’s sense of humor. Now I ask you, James Douglas, how the hell did you do that? Was it planned? Was it pure luck and the cat’s curiosity? I have so many questions!!!!!!

But let’s get back to Douglas writing and the movie: Yes, sometimes it does look like “Control C, Control V”, but it needs a good and respectful writer to admit that if he would change something in a dialogue it would not become a better dialogue. It is a respectful and humble choice. But James Douglas showed how good he really is at adapting and writing a screenplay when he created new dialogues using Doctor Watson’s thoughts and feelings, things that King wrote at the original story that weren’t dialogues, Douglas adapted that into new dialogues. And it was perfect!

You see, my “method” to write this review is simple: I read the short story again, read all that we have from the short movie here at SKSM and watch the movie. And some of the Dollar Babies I have never watched before, the ones that the filmmakers send to us to get a review. But most of them I have already watched, some of them I spent hours and hours translating into Portuguese to screen at the Brazilian Film Festival and this time, when I was reading the short story, I noticed how faithful James Douglas was to the screenplay,  but in a good way. He was not that kind of insecure writer, no, he just respected the original source because he knew that not only he would have his chance to show his creativity by adding new things to the story, but also the things he did not change he could create something new by interpreting King’s words. How? By directing, by his actors and everything else. But before I move on to other things that I have to say about this movie, let me finish to talk about the screenplay by talking about things James Douglas did change or add to this story.

Let’s start with what he changed, which was one of the character’s gender: in the original short story, Lord Hull (the corpse) had 3 sons. Now, for the movie, Lord Hull’s youngest is a daughter. And that was brilliant!!! Tabitha Hull (yeah, I saw what you did here, James, nice homage) has no lines, but by changing the character’s gender it became even easier to hate Lord Hull and understand the “questionable choice” King made at the final. You see, when we write about a despicable character and we kill him, if we don’t want the audience/reader to care too about his death, well, we make him the most despicable character we can imagine and if we want the audience to think that the mother f*cker really deserved or even if we want they to root for the killer, well, the victim needs to be a really disgusting fellow. And Lord Hull already was this disgusting guy at King’s version, but when James Douglas changed the gender of Lord Hull’s youngest son to now a young daughter and showed us that Lord Hull also used to abuse this daughter of his, man…

The audience not only loved to watch that cat poking that knife on Lord Hull’s back, but also the audience really thought that the mother f*cker deserved it. And that helps the audience to agree with Stephen King and Watson’s choice for the Doctor’s Case. James Douglas, well done!

Another thing James Douglas wrote/added to this screenplay that made the story become even better was showing us an older Watson, the narrator of the story. In Stephen King’s version, Watson is telling this story that happened 50 years ago, in 1889. James Douglas did the math and showed us the obvious: Watson is telling this story during World War II and that is when James Douglas allowed himself to really create something new.

Before Watson starts to tell this story, we meet Captain Norton, a female nurse who runs this house at Crouch End that serves as a shelter during the bombings. And she also has to deal with a stubborn old man who insists on being called Doctor. When she really pays attention to this Doctor, we realize that he is THE Doctor Watson and he has a story to tell, one that happened in that same house 50 years before. These new scenes, during a “lockdown”, at World War II was James Douglas showing us how great he can be as a storyteller. With it he had chance to give layers to the story and also created a scene after the credits that opened a door so they could continue telling stories about Sherlock Holmes, but this time without having the restrictions of a Dollar Baby contract and also we can feel at this scenes the great respect/love Douglas has to Conan Doyle’s characters. It was pretty clear to me at the final scene that Douglas does know a lot about the Sherlock Holmes universe. Man, I wish James Douglas could write and direct more Sherlock Holmes stories with that cast.

But for now let’s focus on what Douglas did, wrote and directed. And the incredible cast he had.

Great actors can save a movie, if they have to. A great performance of the cast can save a bad screenplay, although a great screenplay can’t save a movie from bad actors. But James Douglas not only wrote a great screenplay, but he also had great actors! I could say so many compliments to every single actor in this movie, even the ones that had no lines, but the soul of this story is not Sherlock Holmes, Lestrade or the suspects, but Dr. Watson and James Douglas had not one, but two great actors for the role. Michael Coleman is the younger version of Dr. Watson,  the one from 1889, the one we see most at the movie and he was a perfect British doctor, with his great and smooth performance Michael showed us different faces of the same Watson: the goofy one, the friendly, the friend, the professional, the moody one, and the most important version of the good doctor for this story: a very surprised and speechless Watson. Because when Watson understands what happened at that crime scene (before Holmes), at the first moment Watson can’t express himself. He is just amazed with a feeling that he had never experienced before, something Holmes was used to: the understanding of how the crime was committed and, later, when Watson truly understands the whole thing, once again we can see a great performance of Michael Coleman, when he shows us a Watson disgusted with the true,  when he understands how low human beings can be. Michael Coleman,  I can only say “thank you, man”. You gave an acting class with your performance.

The same can be said for William B. Davis, he also gave us a perfect Watson. You might know this Canadian actor from his most famous role: he was “The Cigarette Smoking Man” on the amazing TV show called “The X-Files“. This is his work which I was most familiar with before I started to study William’s works for SKSM and I got to confess something: although I love “The X-files” and “The Cigarette Smoking Man“, the first time I watched “The Doctor’s Case” I did not recognized William from the TV show and that happened not because he is a little older from the last time we all saw him at smoking that cigarettes, but because he is so good in “The Doctor’s Case” that I just focused on Dr. Watson. I believed in his Doctor Watson and when an actor does this to me, when he makes me truly believe and forget that I already knew him from a prevision role, this is when I remember how magical the film industry  can be. I love “The Cigarette Smoking Man”, it is a great character and I did not have the chance to watch most of William B. Davis previous works, but I can assure you that his acting as Doctor Watson has a little magic that only great actors can show us. The only thing I can say to Mr. Davis is that I know that there are still some magic actors like you, Sir. I truly know they are out there. I believe that. I want to believe!!!! Thank you, Mr. Davis, you made me believe!

What else can I say about my second favorite Dollar Baby? There are so many great things in this movie, many other amazing things that made me believe… This is one of those movies that makes me just enjoy the ride, without thinking about anything else. I forget my cell phone, my problems and just enjoy the ride. Sometimes movies (the good ones) make me this way, sometimes I go to a “state of grace”, which is when I forget that I did study to make movies and I do know “The Rules” to make a movie. But the same way some movies make me go this place, they also get me out of it at some points, usually it happens because they did something amazing that made me think “man, how did they do this?” or ” man, I wish I had done this, they are damned good!” and “The Doctor’s Case” made me think this way a lot of times. I could spend hours and hours talking about how magical this movie is for me, but I will finish this review talking about two things that really impressed me: the production design and the locations.

Michelle Lieffertz had two roles for this movie: one as an actress (she plays Lady Rebeca Hull) and also she is responsible for the production design of “The Doctor’s Case”. As an actress I saw just a little of what she can do, her character has no lines and just a few scenes, but I can assure you that her job as a production designer is one the best I have ever seen in a Dollar Baby. It probably was a challenge for her in some aspects, but be sure that she did a hell of a job. There are so many little details, so many props, the wardrobe, the costumes, man… The only thing I can say about it is (once again) that I would love to watch a sequel directed by Douglas, with the same cast and crew too. I would love to see what Barker Street Cinema would do with even more money and more time. I am sure that the production design would be even more beautiful and the new movie would hit the screens of the whole world. Michelle, I would love to watch more of your acting , but I would kill for the chance to watch more of you as a production designer.

And the locations!!!!! They shooted at this restored 19th-century gold rush town called Barkerville, in Canada. We don’t see much of the streets in this movie, but when we do James Douglas amazes us and once again makes us believe. And they had a damned Carriage, pulled by horses!!!! And, the final touch: a Victioan castle/mansion! This was an amazing location, a place called Craigdarroch Castle. Please, do yourself a favor and search for it at Google. I will wait. Did you see it? And if the outside is beautiful, imagine how it is inside the castle and James Douglas also shooted most of the movie inside this castle.

Is it easier now to understand why I am so in love with this movie and the reason why it made me fall in love with Dollar Babies too? Can you guys understand that now? Of course, one of the reasons is because my favorite author (Long Live the King!) wrote it. But watching a Dollar Baby so good like this made me think that King wrote so many great short stories and there used to have this thing called “The Dollar Baby Program”. This project gave the opportunity to show the world not only great stories from King that none of the studios wanted to make it a long feature yet, but the project also gave young/independent/crazy filmmakers the chance to show how good they can be if they have a great story to tell and during that weekend I was able to watch so many great Dollar Babies.

So many talented filmmakers and amazing short movies. And after “The Doctor’s Case” surprised me, I started wondering: how many Dollar Babies are there? I only knew about the ones SKSM had posted something about. But how many others are out there? Bernd and Óscar find new Dollar Babies almost every week and since I joined the team and started to write reviews a new world opened for me and this new passion/obsession of mine called Dollar Babies.

So far I only had the chance to watch 60 or 70 Dollar Babies, counting the ones I saw because of the Film Festival and now the ones the filmmakers send us to get a review. But this only made me ask again, how many Dollar Babies are there? And how many among them are hidden pearls like “The Doctor’s Case” and “My Pretty Pony”? That is why I will keep the Brazilian Dollar Baby Film Festival and that is why I joined the SKSM team when they invited me.

I want to see more, I want to fall in love even more. I know there are so many great movies like “The Doctor’s Case” out there and yes, it is unfair that all you guys can’t watch it. But I can assure you that SKSM team will keep digging them out and we will share with you guys what we can share. Sometimes it will be just interviews, some others the filmmaker’s essay about the movie, and sometimes (the best times) we will share the Dollar Babies that are on-line and I can assure you that every single hidden pearl that I have the chance to watch, I will come here and share with you guys my thoughts about it. I know for sure that there are many hidden pearls still waiting to be found and shared. (the list of the ones I have already watched and want to write about is huge and it is growing every day).The “Pearls” are out there. I want to believe!

One last thing I was forgeting about “Doctor’s case”: The dollar baby’s grade? We from SKSM team give “Doctor’s case” five fingers from the dead guy’s hand. I was planning to give another five fingers for the first time, but the other hand from the dead guy is still missing. I did try to call Mr. Holmes to solve this puzzle, but he said that I should call the good doctor since I liked his case so much.

Maybe I will.

See you next time,  Constant Readers.

Leonardo Granado.