Will the Real Irene Adler Please Stand Up?

Will the Real Irene Adler Please Stand Up?

 

Over the past century, many distinguished actors have brought very different approaches to their portrayals of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson.  Yet as divergent as these takes on the iconic characters have been, the depictions of Irene Adler in popular culture are even more sharp in contrast.

 

Fans differ on how to interpret Irene Adler in “A Scandal in Bohemia.”  Is she a blackmailing villainess?  A proto-feminist heroine?  The real victim of the story?  A lucky antiheroine?  How should her actions and final decision be viewed, and depending on how we assess her character, what does that say about Sherlock Holmes?

 

Various characters have brought radically different approaches to Irene Adler over the years.  On the radio, Peggy Weber (I’m uncertain as to the spelling of her name, as it’s only said over the airwaves and could be “Webber”) played Adler in the 1940’s Rathbone/Bruce radio series.  The biggest changes to her character include pronouncing her name eye-REE-nay instead of EYE-reen, and giving her a grown daughter who comes to Holmes for help in “The Second Generation,” an original sequel.

 

On stage, in Inga Swenson’s Tony-nominated performance in Baker Street, Adler became an ally in Holmes and Watson’s battle against Professor Moriarty, and there’s a hint of a potential romantic relationship with Holmes.  

 

In the movie Sherlock Holmes and its sequel, with Robert Downey, Jr. in the title role, Rachel McAdams plays Adler as a spirited and unrepentant adventuress and criminal, and it’s implied that the relationship between her and Sherlock has been romantic and physical.  

 

On television, Gayle Hunnicutt played a boisterous version of Adler, who knows how to handle a gun and a horse, in the Jeremy Brett Granada series.  The Soviet series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson indicated in flashbacks that Larisa Solovyova’s Adler may have shaped Holmes to make him strongly anti-romance.  In the TV movie Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady, set years after “A Scandal in Bohemia,” Morgan Fairchild’s widowed Adler treats Holmes as an old friend, and expresses a desire to have a child with him.  The TV movie Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars casts Anna Chancellor as an Adler who treats Holmes as an enemy to be destroyed.  

 

More recently, Elementary painted Adler (Natalie Dormer) as an artist who was the love of Holmes’ life, and her sudden death sent Holmes into a downward spiral of addiction.  (Oblique spoilers follow!) Elementary adds a dark twist to her character, combining her with another major character from the Canon.  In Sherlock, Lara Pulver’s take on Adler is the sharpest divergence yet from the original tales, as she’s a gay dominatrix blackmailing the Royal Family, but she’s sexually attracted to Sherlock, who winds up completely triumphing over her at the end.

 

Adler’s a popular character in pastiches.  In Nicholas Meyer’s The Canary Trainer, she’s an ally in Holmes’ fight against the Phantom of the Opera.  In The Last Confession of Sherlock Holmes, by Kieran Lyne, she becomes Holmes’ friend.  In other authors’ hands, she’s the heroine of her own series.

 

This is not a complete list of Adler’s appearances in adaptations and pastiches.  I’m simply listing examples that I’ve seen or read or heard.

 

So what is the real Irene Adler like?  That’s a question I try to answer in my research, and address in my upcoming book Sherlock and Irene, available for pre-order from MX Publishing.

 

 

 

–Chris Chan

Chris Chan’s first book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” will be released on August 27^th from MX Publishing, and is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website.