The Seven-Percent Solution

Nicholas Meyer based his screenplay for the "retro" Sherlock Holmes adventure The Seven Percent Solution on his own best-selling novel. As any Baker Street Irregular will tell you, the title refers to the dosage of cocaine taken by Sherlock Holmes (Nicol Williamson). The Great Detective's friend and ...more

Drugs hook Sherlock Holmes in this 1976 Herbert Ross film that reveals the human side of the super sleuth, and throws in a real-life psychiatric legend for good measure. Under the influence of his "seven percent solution," the cocaine mixture he concocts to ease his mental anguish, Holmes goes a bit bonkers and makes a bloody nuisance of himself. Nicol Williamson brilliantly plays the vulnerable Holmes, a role that many critics believe should have won him an Oscar. Williamson receives strong ...more