[[quoteright:305:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/10af3305_3f28_4636_acd5_9a49d8e44fc0.jpeg]]

->''"Why don't we all drink some very sexy wine?"''
-->--'''Sigerson Holmes'''

This 1975 comedy film is the directorial debut of Creator/GeneWilder, who also wrote the screenplay and stars in the title role.

Many fans will recall that Franchise/SherlockHolmes did in fact have an older brother, Mycroft, who by all accounts was indeed smarter than Sherlock, yet [[BrilliantButLazy too lazy]] to accomplish what Sherlock had. This film follows his ''younger'' brother Sigerson's DayInTheLimelight.

London, 1891: Jenny Hill (Creator/MadelineKahn), an opera singer and bride-to-be of the new Minister of Defense, is blackmailed into stealing the [[MacGuffin "Redcliff Document"]], which details Britain's defense plans. The blackmailer, Eduardo Gambetti (Creator/{{Dom DeLuise}}), intends to sell the document to Professor Moriarty (Creator/LeoMcKern), who plans in turn to sell it to the highest bidder. Because Holmes and Watson are off on holiday, Sgt. Orville Sacker (Creator/MartyFeldman) of Scotland Yard seeks out the services of Sherlock's younger brother, Sigerson, also a detective. Sigerson (Wilder) is insanely jealous of his older brother's success, and leaps at the opportunity to prove his own self-proclaimed superior intellect.

The rest of the movie runs mostly on RuleOfFunny.
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!!This film includes examples of the following tropes:

* ActorAllusion:
** Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are both played by actors who had played the roles in other productions; Douglas Wilmer had played Sherlock in the first series of Creator/TheBBC's ''Sherlock Holmes'' from 1964-65 (with Creator/NigelStock as Watson), while Thorley Walters had played Watson in the 1962 film ''Film/{{Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace}}'' (with Creator/ChristopherLee as Sherlock).
** Creator/RoyKinnear is cast as an abused and browbeaten villain who Creator/GeneWilder constantly outwits, similar to his role in ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory''.
* AllPartOfTheShow: Sigerson, Sacker and Moriarty's assistant during the opera.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Sigerson uses the "repeatedly ask a question" version on Jenny Hill twice.
* AuctionOfEvil: Moriarty's mini-auction between Russia and France for the Redcliff Document.
* BigDamnHeroes: Subverted. [[spoiler: Sherlock helps Sigerson save Jenny Hill from an assassin at the last minute, but stays in the shadows in order to let his brother win one all on his own]].
* BluffTheEavesdropper: Sherlock and Watson are in a room when Holmes silently informs Watson that there's someone listening at the keyhole. They then have a conversation intended to fool the eavesdropper that they're leaving the country.
* BottomlessMagazines: Averted when Moriarty confronts Sigerson.
* BreakingTheFourthWall. In TheCameo below, Albert Finney turns and talks to the audience, wondering if the opera was really "rotten, or just wonderfully brave".
%%* BrickJoke: "The Kangaroo Hop".
* TheCameo:
** Creator/AlbertFinney as an opera patron who criticizes Gambetti's performance.
** Creator/MelBrooks dubs the voice of the henchman who's fed to a tiger.
* ChekhovsSkill: Sigerson is practicing fencing when we first meet him.
* ClothingDamage: Both Holmes and Sacker lose the seats of their pants and undershorts to a DeathTrap.
* CloudCuckooLander: Even in a madcap comedy, Gambetti and Moriarty stand out with their impulsiveness and their range of verbal and physical tics. In one scene, they do business, fight, pour water over each other, get undressed, and climb into bed together to take a nap.
* {{Confessional}}: Parodied by Moriarty's coin operated robot version.
* CountingBullets: Happens when Moriarty is about to shoot him with a Webley's #2.
* CurtainCamouflage: Sigerson and Sacker hide behind Gambetti's curtains while breaking into his office. He detects them when they somehow manage to walk right through his window and become hopelessly stuck on the frame.
* DualWielding: Moriarty's henchmen and Sigerson duel with whips atop moving carriages.
* {{Flynning}}: The sword fight between Sigerson Holmes and Professor Moriarty.
* FreudianExcuse: Sorta... Moriarty claims he has a hereditary condition that causes him to do something "absolutely rotten" every 24 minutes.
%%* GroinAttack: Multiple examples.
* InstantSedation: The pills Sacker puts in the wine during the opera scene.
* LargeHam: Everyone indulges in it, but Moriarty is the largest of them all.
* MadMathematician: Moriarty is supposedly a professor of mathematics... yet he doesn't seem to be able to perform long division with decimals. 2+2=4 is the only correct math problem on a board behind him in one scene. The rest are either incorrect or have a question mark under the answer.
* MsFanservice: A lot of characters spend a lot of time either groping Madeline Kahn's boobs, or talking about groping her boobs, Wilder himself writing and directing the longest one of all.
* MythologyGag: The name Sigerson originated in the Holmes canon as a cover identity used by Sherlock while traveling abroad in the three-year time gap between "The Final Problem" and "The Empty House".
* NakedPeopleAreFunny: After escaping Gambetti's DeathTrap, both Sigerson and Sacker are left bare-assed.
* TheNapoleon: Leo [=McKern=] was only 5'7", so there was a gag where he would stand on a box, or all of his minions had to crouch in order to be shorter than him. The only one exempt from having to do so is his primary minion, Finney, played by the even shorter Roy Kinnear, who was 5'5".
* NonSequiturThud: After a GroinAttack with a [[ItMakesSenseInContext giant shoe]] -- "Oh taxi!" ''[thud]'' Also counts as a VisualPun since he's quite literally given the boot.
* NoodleIncident: The Case of the Three Testicles.
* OldFashionedRowboatDate: Sigerson Holmes and Jenny Hill go for an outing in a rowboat. Since this is a comedy, Sergeant Sacker comes along as the rower and his accidental mistakes with the oars repeatedly cause Sigerson to be splashed in the face with water.
* OneDoseFitsAll: The pills Sacker puts in the wine during the opera scene. When the various actors drink the wine, they instantly collapse.
* PerformerGuise: Sigerson and Sgt. Sacker don costumes and perform in a play in order to retrieve the Redcliff Document.
* PhotographicMemory: Sgt. Sacker has ''phono''graphic memory -- he can exactly repeat anything he has ever heard. At one point he begins to skip like a record.
* PrettyInMink: Jenny wears a white fox muff on the rowboat date.
* PushedInFrontOfTheAudience: The "getting on stage is the only way for them to get close to a MacGuffin" version occurs. Sigerson Holmes and his {{Sidekick}} Sergeant Sacker go onstage as actors during an opera to recover the Redcliff Document.
* RightHandCat: Moriarty has a cluster of small snakes.
* SherlockScan: Parodied. Sigerson twice makes a deduction about who is about to walk through his door based on the sound of their footsteps on the stairs outside the door. He's completely wrong, and someone else entirely walks in.
* ShoutOut:
** The scene where Moriarty tricked his henchman Bruno to his death was a reference to Frank Stockton's short story "The Lady or the Tiger?"
** Moriarty's being forced to do something evil every 24 minutes was a tribute to Creator/GilbertAndSullivan's ''Theatre/{{Ruddigore}}'', which had a man cursed to perform an evil act every day or die.
* TheShowMustGoOn: Sigerson Holmes and Professor Moriarty (and their minions) engage in a secret contest behind the scenes of an opera performance to get some important papers. Their shenanigans include dropping sleeping pills into the cups the actors are drinking from, firing guns and breaking into song: the actors try desperately to keep the opera going despite the interruptions.
* ShownTheirWork:
** The songs Jenny sings are actual music hall songs.
** The movie itself is absolutely packed with subtle gags only dedicated Sherlockians would get.
** "Sigerson" is an alias Sherlock Holmes uses when he's presumed dead after "The Final Problem" but before his return in "The Empty House".
* SmallNameBigEgo: Sigerson isn't quite the genius he proclaims himself to be.
** Neither is Moriarty, which is a big part of the humor since both the hero and villain are little more than blusterers.
* SwordCane: Sigerson uses one while fighting the {{mooks}} during the carriage battle.
* StylisticSuck: Gambetti's English translations of Italian operas.
* VocalDissonance: A running gag has what sounds like a woman knocking on the door to Sigerson's office and calling him, and when he tells "her" to come in, it turns out to be his manservant Hunkston.
* TheVoiceless: Colonel Moran (listed simply as "Moriarty's gunman" in the credits) makes an appearance in several scenes, with his notorious air-rifle, but never says a word.
* WholeCostumeReference: Sigerson regularly wears a velvet costume with a cape and hat, almost identical to one worn by a young Creator/OscarWilde.
* YouHaveFailedMe: Moriarty feeds one of his {{Mooks}} to a tiger for failing to tail Holmes and Sacker (and because he [[ForTheEvulz needs to do something evil]] every 24 minutes).
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