cut that came in  at three hours and 20 minutes. The film was originally structured as  a series of very specifically structured linked episodes, each with  a particular title and theme. The opening sequence was to feature  Watsons grandson in London claiming his inherited dispatch box from  Cox & Co. and there was also a flashback to Holmes Oxford days to  explain his distrust of women. All were shot, but deleted from the  final print. So what happened? Well, it appears that United Artists  suffered a number of major film flops in 1969 that pretty much  scuppered the road show format for Wilders massive project. Studio  execs ordered the film to be cut to fill a regular theatrical  running time, whittling it down to a 125