Trivia / The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother

• The Cast Showoff:
  • Madeline Kahn singing opera; Dom DeLuise is a case of Irony as She Is Cast.
  • Gene Wilder was an accomplished college fencer and gets to show off his swordfighting skill in this film.
• Development Gag: Sgt Orville Sacker is a reference to Conan Doyle's early drafts of A Study in Scarlet, in which the viewpoint character was Dr Ormond Sacker, before Conan Doyle realised The Watson needed a solid, "ordinary" name.
• Production Posse: With the exception of Leo McKern, Wilder had worked with every one of the top-billed actors at least once before. He'd previously worked with Dom De Luise in Blazing Saddles, with Marty Feldman in Young Frankenstein, with and with Madeline Kahn in both of those films. And he'd worked with Roy Kinnear in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, where they'd shared a good deal of comedic chemistry with one another.
  • McKern and Kinnear had both appeared in The Beatles' film Help! a decade earlier.
• Real-Life Relative: Aubrey Morris (Coach Driver) and Wolfe Morris (Frenchman) were brothers in real-life.
• What Could Have Been: Gene Wilder asked Mel Brooks to direct. Brooks declined, stating that he would find it difficult to direct a screenplay that wasn't his own conception. Brooks did say, however, that Wilder should go off and make this film, could call upon him day or night, and after making this movie, he better "come back home as soon as you're done!" He did have a cameo as the voice of departing assassin after choosing the "lady" door over the "tiger" door, only to discover they're both tiger doors.

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