The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It

TV Movie
1977
56m

IMDb RATING

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John Cleese, Connie Booth, and Arthur Lowe in The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It (1977)

The grandson of the world's first and foremost consulting detective and his bumbling, bionic sidekick attempt to catch the only living descendant of Professor Moriarty.The grandson of the world's first and foremost consulting detective and his bumbling, bionic sidekick attempt to catch the only living descendant of Professor Moriarty.The grandson of the world's first and foremost consulting detective and his bumbling, bionic sidekick attempt to catch the only living descendant of Professor Moriarty.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.2/10

743

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

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Trivia
Although the word "Civilization" has been spelled with a 'Z' for this article by the article's creator, the film is British-made in Britain, and the main Title Card of the film spells the word correctly with a 'S', as "Civilisation".

Goofs
The shot dead Australian cop laying over the table, can clearly be seen breathing at a rapid pace.

Quotes
Dr. William Watson, M.D.: [Explaining the inadvertent demise of the Police Commissioner by stabbing] He's taken a turn for the worse, I'm afraid. He's terribly ill. In fact he's so desperately ill, he's dead.

Connections
References Hawaii Five-O (1968)

User reviews22

Review

Featured review

8/10

Somewhere between Monty Python and Douglas Fairbanks (sic!)

This 1-hour English mystery film spoof has a lot of brilliant moments, but also a lot of average moments. The latter are probably due to the small budget of a production for regional television.

The overall plot is zany but coherent, even though it serves primarily as a means to hold various funny scenes together. I am not sure why some reviewers seem to find it confusing.

The plot starts when someone kills Henry Kissinger, sorry, Gropinger, through the simple expedient of stealing his diary, leading him to address an Arabic crowd with "Shalom! Mazeltov!" The last surviving relative of Sherlock Holmes' classical adversary Professor Moriarty claims responsibility for the crime and announces the intent to end civilization as we know it.

This naturally leads to representatives of the police forces of the 5 continents (Europe, Asia, Africa, America, Australia) to meet in London, decide not to do anything, and mostly get killed off one by one during their meetings. And to the last relative of Sherlock Holmes being called in. Played by John Cleese, today's Mr Holmes has his office in 221B Baker Street. He works together with the senile but bionically enhanced last relative of Dr Watson, played by Arthur Lowe. Their housekeeper Mrs Hudson is played by John Cleese's then wife Connie Booth, also of Monty Python fame.

Due to the incompetence of Holmes and Watson, the perfectly disguised Moriarty manages to kill all the most famous TV detectives as well as James Bond. But who is Moriarty really? And will Holmes and Watson manage to save civilization as we know it (= US hegemony?), after all?

The humour is generally even more over the top than in Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969). It includes some immensely quotable lines. In some ways it reminds me of Douglas Fairbanks' short silent Sherlock Holmes parody The Mystery of the Leaping Fish (1916), which managed to be even more extreme in a similar direction.

If it weren't for various deficiencies due to an evidently hurried production, I would probably rate this film a 9 or 10. As it is, I think it deserves a rating somewhere between 7 and 8 if you like British humour (as I do).