Without A Clue (1988)

Sometimes the person getting all the credit isn't the one doing the real work - and it takes a crisis to reveal who's truly indispensable. Thom Eberhardt's "Without a Clue," written by Larry Strawther and Gary Murphy, turns the Sherlock Holmes legend on its head. Here, the brilliant crime solver is actually Dr. John Watson (Ben Kingsley), who invented "Sherlock Holmes" as a fictional front for his published case stories. But when the public demands to meet the great detective in person, Watson hires Reginald Kincaid (Michael Caine), a boozy, bumbling, out-of-work actor, to play the part. The arrangement works, after a fashion, until Watson grows tired of the buffoon getting all the glory and tries striking out on his own - with disastrous results. Soon the two are forced back together when the printing plates for Britain's five-pound note are stolen from the Royal Mint, part of a plot masterminded by the nefarious Professor Moriarty (Paul Freeman) that could topple the Empire. Jeffrey Jones plays a hapless Inspector Lestrade, with Lysette Anthony as Lesley Giles, Pat Keen as Mrs. Hudson and Peter Cook as publisher Norman Greenhough. Caine and Kingsley are a joy together, and you'll find yourself rooting for the fraud. The game is most definitely afoot.