Holmes is shown studying the map closely:
When we see him with the map again, back at Baker Street, it has prompted a moment of reverie:
The above is 'the layout of the house where two swindlers are holding a young woman against her will', according to the restored titles of this 1916 Essanay film, thought lost and rediscovered in France in 2014. The film stars William Gillette and is based on his highly successful theatrical adaptation of Holmes stories. I have tried to work out whether there is any actual correspondence between the mapped layout of the house and the studio-constructed interiors we see - without success. Holmes is shown studying the map closely: But when he goes to the house he shows no sign of being familiar with its layout. When we see him with the map again, back at Baker Street, it has prompted a moment of reverie: He is thinking of the woman with whom, he will later confess, he has fallen in love. There are two other maps in the film. In Holmes's rooms at Baker Street there is a globe and Professor Moriarty has a map on the wall in his lair: The globe is just a standard prop of no interest, but the wall map is more promising. Logically this should be a map of London, but I can't fnd a match to the few details we can make out: If it were readable as a map of London it would complement the efforts made to establish a London setting for this Chicago-made film. These include a London-made safe and a set of London-type policemen: The lonely villa in which the woman is sequestered passes well enough as English: But the film's 221b Baker Street is less convincing: Most successful are the locations found to represent London's sordid East End. Holmes has been lured by Moriarty to the 'Stepney Gas Chamber': Identifying Chicago locations from 100 years ago is beyond my powers, but I would be very interested to learn (here) if any Chicago-based enthusiasts have discovered where the exteriors of this film were shot. I know that the studio building is now part of Saint Augustine's College, housing the Essanay Center for Early Film and the Essanay Center for Cultural Performance: Here are the film's other exteriors:
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