YOUNG SHERLOCK, BEFORE THE CAP AND PIPE

Professor Moriarty knows he has his hands on a hot, highly profitable new
product. "Five times more powerful than morphine, 10 times more addictive,"
he says. "People will kill for it. They'll steal the food from their
children's mouths for a single injection."

Moriarty (Vincent D'Onofrio, in fine form) is quite the prophet in "Case of
Evil," a USA movie that has its premiere tonight. This is a dark urban tale
of a new, particularly dangerous drug and of a serial killer who plans to
control the market. It takes place in 19th-century London, and the drug is
heroin. Everybody else in London, apparently, is just nodding out at the
corner opium den.

If Moriarty is around, of course, Sherlock Holmes can't be far behind. And
there he is, very young (28), already very clever (after one look at a
murder victim, he announces that the killer is "an extremely short
one-armed man with medical training"), very popular with women and terribly
good-looking. It's not clear whether Holmes's boyish smugness is a result
of his deducing skills or his remarkable physical beauty. This is also
before he took up wearing that odd hat and smoking a pipe.

Holmes (James D'Arcy) is hired by a prosperous local drug lord (Struan
Rodger) to find the man who's killing all the dealers in London. Holmes
starts by observing the most recent victim's autopsy, which is being
performed by a Dr. Watson (Roger Morlidge), who is not happy about having
an audience. (The way Arthur Conan Doyle wrote it, Holmes and his future
sleuthing partner, Watson, met when both were hunting for lodgings.)

Holmes and Watson are soon on the case, which leads to a puzzling
conclusion that the murders are being committed by a dead man. There is, as
there must be in every private-eye story, a classy dame — or so she seems.
In this case it's an actress, Rebecca Doyle (Gabrielle Anwar), posing as a
lady.

"Case of Evil" is a competent, well-plotted mystery, and it's awfully
pretty, thanks to the production designer (Chris Roope) and the director of
photography (Lukas Strebel). London looks gloriously dreary, and close-ups
of everyday objects (an ornate inkpot, a grandfather clock that's a work of
art) serve as a reminder of how elegantly the well-to-do lived at this
time. Or so we believe, many viewers having been educated primarily by
Merchant-Ivory and imported British television.

The film has its tongue in its cheek a good bit of the time. At least the
director, Graham Theakston, makes it seem tongue in cheek, going for just
the right level of knowingness. When Dr. Watson is told that his newest
autopsy subject is the victim of a road accident, he says, "We'll be seeing
a a lot more of these, what with the congestion and reckless driving that
we're seeing today, although, once the underground railway is completed,
there will be no need for anyone to ever drive in London again."

Watson also predicts that cigarettes will soon be made illegal because
unlike opium and cocaine, tobacco has no actual medical benefits. Holmes's
drug of choice, as Doyle readers know, was a 7 percent solution of cocaine.

CASE OF EVIL

USA, tonight at 8, Eastern and Pacific times; 7 Central time.

Directed by Graham Theakston; written and co-produced by Piers Ashworth;
Gub Neal, Justin Thomson-Glover, Brad Wyman, Bruno Hoefler and Kathy
Morgan, executive producers; Tim Bradley, producer; Andy Pryor and Claudiu
Bolchis, casting directors; Lukas Strebel, director of photography; Chris
Roope, production designer; Pamela Power, editor; Ana Ioneci, costume
designer; Tim Stevenson and Dan Toader, art directors; Adriana Iurascu, set
decorator; original music by Mike Moran; based on characters created by Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle.