The Speckled Band

This story is considered one of the finest Holmes adventures Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote. It was turned into a successful play by necessity. Doyle reworked his prizefighting novel, “Rodney Stone,” into a play and titled it “The House of Temperley.” He took a six month lease on the Adelphi Theater for his play. Boxing was illegal in England and Doyle experienced difficulty getting The Strand to serialize it. Attendance at the play was sparse. As Yogi Berra said: “If people don’t want to come out…how you gonna stop ‘em?”

The play closed after only two months and Doyle was on the hook for payment of the remaining four months. Financial desperation is a great motivator. Doyle has said “The Speckled Band” was his favorite story. So it made a natural choice for a play to try and salvage his lease. He wrote it in less than a week and had rehearsals under way one week after “Temperely” closed.

The casting was strong. H.A. Saintsbury, who had played Holmes over 1,000 times in the Gillette play, would play him again in the new one. Lyn Harding was cast as villain Dr. Grimesby Rylott (he would play the role opposite Raymond Massey’s Holmes in the 1931 movie). Harding produced the play as well.

Doyle and Harding, friendly at the outset, grew more annoyed with each other as Harding tried to develop Rylott into a more obvious villain than Doyle had written. Doyle was the author. Harding the actor and producer. Relations were strained. J.M. Barrie, friendly with both men, watched the escalation and finally told Doyle to let Harding have his way. Harding eclipsed Saintsbury and had regular curtain calls. Doyle sent him a congratulatory message as an apology.

When his six-month lease expired, Doyle moved it to The Strand and had another three month run, although Harding did not appear in this one. Another troupe picked it up and presented it in Boston. The play was performed in 1910 throughout Great Britain, and also in France and Sweden. It had a successful English revival in 1920.

It is unfortunate that Doyle never seriously attempted to write another Holmes play (it’s hard to give much credence to “The Crown Diamond”). It is a good play, had a strong cast, and was a success.