The Dancing Men - Part 5 of 6 (Sherlock Holmes)

[petertheallblack]

He`s a yank .He`ll be named after Abraham Lincon.

[petertheallblack]

He`s a yank .He`ll be names after Abraham Lincon.

[maddyreid18]

Is it just me, or does Holmes look particularly thin in this episode? As though he's lost weight?

[HarryplusHermione]

:S I had to watch five times to understand what Abe was saying. x_x'

[twosixteen]

6:08 Bad. Ass.

[Lyrictheac]

Sigh. There are times I wish I had been born a Brit just so I wouldn't be given a black name by characters like Abe Slaney. :P

[TwistedHarbinger]

"Looks like you got the drop on me- but what the hell is going on." Oh you Americans you.

[hadassah179]

For some reason there's something about him in the eyes, hair, and especially the nose that reminds me of Abraham Lincoln.

[ipodkrzy]

I don't agree he read the book. I mean, he's a smart man. He got the info by simply observing and talking with holmes. Holmes is smiling because W talks as if he knew it all the time.

[firetrucksnfishcakes]

4:27, Holmes adorable smile as he listens to Watson tell the inspector how they decifered the message, which also tells Holmes that Dr. Watson did in fact read his little decifering book... :)

[Imverycute2]

Gee, I didn't know Chicagoans sounded like Canadians. ;)

[sitithesecond]

@FlippinBooks: at 9.46 Abe's accent is pure Canadian.

[sitithesecond]

Apparently he doesn't think Elsie has any right to determine her own life. Weird!

[Andreus]

@sitithesecond Well, in Victorian times...

[sitithesecond]

@Andreus OK, I know ...

[sitithesecond]

Don't think they were Italian Americans. Slaney and Patrick (Elsie's surname) aren't Italian names. Plenty of other crooks operating in gangs in Chicago at that time. And not all crooks are invariably Italian :-).

[FlameG102]

Oh lol. looks like Watson's been reading Holmes' little book. XD

[lollipopfop]

What a dumass woman. A dangerous criminal is on the way, and she doesn't alert the police. She deserves what happened. If she knows this guy well, then she must know it would be dangerous for her husband to treat Abe like that.

[notAbba]

Recognizing that some ethnic groups are far more criminal than other is hardly a predjudice.

[lollipopfop]

@notAbba we don't know that in any way. Economic advantages are probably a better way to gage likely criminal activity. We have no idea if there is any race related bias for crime. I rather doubt it.

[FlippinBooks]

LOL Abe Slaney's accent is impossible to place. Is he an Englishman pretending to be an Irish-American or what?

Oh well, I still love this episode.

[Raeyven76]

@FlippinBooks Eugene Lipinski (Abe Slaney) was born in England, raised in Canada, then spent time living and working in both countries. So he isn't completely ignorant of North American accents.

[tyzhen]

I have a question:

As revolvers do not extract automatically the spent cartridge cases (like let` s say the repeating rifles or the automatic pistols), but do it only if the shooter manually uses the case ejecting rod, it means that Abe Slaney has acted in this way: -shoots Mr Cubitt

- then, instead of running as fast as possible, he stops to get rid of the spent case ?!?!

- now he is already free to run away, having left a trace for his presence

Don`t you think it`s pretty strange????

[KingofStarfox]

That's the kind of minute detail which a writer may neglect to think of--even an excellent one like Conan Doyle!

[tyzhen]

Sure. I just wanted to share with the rest this strange detail, but later I noticed that many other viewers have noticed it, too.

Besides this, maybe at the time when Conan Doyle wrote his stories the readers` standarts had not yet risen to what is todays` reader/ viewer`s curiosity, criticism,etc. about such details.

[TheKulu42]

Yes. Readers are far more critical now. But that's what makes the Canon fun.

[000266617]

Nope. We'll call in Sherlock Holmes and he will have a logial answer to tyzhen's mystery and any mystery posted here.

[Shangas]

I admit I didn't understand that as well. Had he used an automatic pistol, the cartridge-case would've been ejected at once. But as you say, he would've used a revolver, given the time of the story. I see no practical reason why he'd want to remove that with an ejector-rod first, before fleeing. I guess Mr. Doyle forgot a 'trifling detail'.

[tyzhen]

In his stories, by the way, this is far not the only odd moment: I was surprised when I found a site in Internet dealing with similar misses in Doyle`s works.

It turns out that in almost each of his stories there are at least two or three things , that provoke reasonable questions and doubts in the reader (today a viewer, too).

It is interesting that many of these odd moments do not simply reveal lack of knowledge about facts; but also many social and racial prejudices of the author.

[TheKulu42]

You're right. I believe Conan Doyle once admitted that he didn't worry too much about details when plotting a story. Of course, we can always assume that Watson made a mistake or that his "agent' made a mistake when transcribing the story.

[lollipopfop]

I love hw unprejudiced these stories are. So very able to see all men as brothers under the skin.

[tyzhen]

In later stories the Germans are already not brothers :( , but spies, schemers, etc.

The climate of pre-WW 1 and wartime anti-German sentiments influenced Conan Doyle, too.

[yellow4summer]

hey anish79.. you are an indian? cause i've an indian friend with sane name.

[BushMac1]

Abe's accent is aweful!

[Averagebum2]

It's typical American, isn't it?

[asquiredanaher]

The 'typical' American which Conan Doyle admired and greatly respected.

You knew that of course because you have read the books.

[Averagebum2]

I was wondering why BushMac said it was awful.

[morgan5154]

I think that Holmes emotions are depicted better in the early episodes, although I realize that Brett could have difficulty in the later episodes because of his health.

[LordHamlet99]

Thanks again for taking the trouble to post this episode, which gives such great pleasure to all.

[darrinthebold]

love the way mr. watson uses 'us'.

[000266617]

She's in some type of mafia organized crime family.

[jlim2397]

Joe Pesci should play Abe Slaney lol

[Shangas]

The Mafia was Italian, not American.

[tyzhen]

Actually in USA were and still are different branches of what is generally called "mafia". First were Italian, Irish, Jewish. Later came the Latin-American clains, Chinese Triads, Japanese Yakuza, after 1989 -Russians and Ukrainians. Afro-Americans also have similar structures.

That`s why the word "mafia" seems to me misleading: it hides the whole range of etnic groups that have their own organized crime within USA; and instead of this implies only one ethnic base of the phenomenon.

[Shangas]

What I'm trying to SAY is that to most people, the word "Mafia" generally conjours up images of the Italian Cosa Nostra, and as such, I think it's wrong or misleading to apply the name or title 'Mafia' to any and all groups of organised criminals. You might as well say the Indian Mafia or the French Mafia for that matter.

[lollipopfop]

@Shangas True. But you aren't going to be able to assume that an Italian American is in fact a Mafioso. Its VERY unlikely.

[000266617]

Both actually. Mafiosi operated in American cities, but Italy can be said to be the main office. Italian and Italian American.

[saruman84]

This is one of my favorite episodes.