23 Paces to Baker Street

This blog and the book that inspired it use "Baker Street" in the title for a simple, obvious reason: Those two words instantly suggest Sherlock Holmes.

221B Baker Street is one of the most famous addresses in the world, either right behind or right ahead of No. 10 Downing Street and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. When I first saw Cay Van Ash's book Ten Years Beyond Baker Street much more than ten years, ago I knew right away it had to do with Sherlock Holmes.

So when Dana Richards recently gave me a poster (not the one above) for an old film called 23 Paces to Baker Street, I wondered how I could have missed a Holmes movie starring Van Johnson and Vera Miles - A-list actors in their day. The name of the flick seemed vaguely familiar to me, but no more than that. The mystery was quickly solved. "It has nothing to do with Sherlock Holmes," Dana said.

But Wikipedia calls the movie "Hitchcockian," and the IMDB plot summary sounds intriguing. Although the Baker Street of the title isn't our Baker Street, 23 Paces nonetheless seems like it would be worth tracking down and watching.