(by hte-trasme on 23 November 2009)

Though it is the first of the Sherlock Holmes stories, "A Study in Scarlet" is rarely adapted for production due to structural issues that make this difficult. Th BBC took on the challenge during its 1968 series of broadcasts with Peter Cushing as Holmes, and placed the story in between other Holmes mysteries in in the series rather than at the beginning. As such, the material dealing with the first meeting of Holmes and Watson can be discarded, although, oddly enough and perhaps as a remnant, Watson is still doubtful that Holmes can really make sweeping deductions from small details, and Holmes seems a little surprised that Watson is making notes on the case.
As "A Study in Scarlet" was a novel-length piece of writing with long sections set in Utah without Holmes, and this is a forty-eight minute program, cuts were necessary. The way they were done is workable and clever, with an opening sequence involving the victims that gives away a hint of backstory followed by the Holmes investigation, but it tends to turn the mystery, until the last few minutes arrives, into simple a puzzle without much human interest. Unusually for a 1968-era BBC production, scenes are very quick -- accommodating all the material that must be fit in -- and they left me wishing the pace could be more deliberate.
When the end does arrive, though, it is very impressive, with Larry Cross giving an excellent and very sympathetic performance as Jefferson Hope, and a well-conceived and effective final shot. Unfortunately among the other actors performances tend towards the wooden, and the American accents are very variable. Nigel Stock is a fine actor but an unnecessarily dim-witted Watson (for instance, hiding his gun behind an awkwardly upheld newspaper), and not even a charmingly and amusingly dim-witted one in the Nigel Bruce mold. Peter Cushing is very competent as an impatient, twitchy Sherlock Holmes, but some reason he doesn't come off as anything more than adequate and slightly superficial in this role for me. I liked what I have seen of his BBC predecessor Douglas Wilmer better.
In all, a competent and workmanlike adaptation that doesn't really come alive until after the murderer is discovered.