Two literary frames of recent usefulness:

• What would Sherlock Holmes do?
• What would Billy Wilder do?

Both are literary creations aimed at the widest possible audience – Holmes a fictional character created by Arthur Conan Doyle, Wilder a fictional character created by Billy Wilder.

Holmes’ value is epistemic, Wilder’s (like my old standby “What would John McPhee do?”) involves narrative structure, arc.

Wilder made a very bad but also very good movie about Holmes (even Wilder’s worst movies reward – the guy always did the work, which can be at its most interesting when the seams show – ditto Conan Doyle – the two frames are not unrelated).

See also Lubitsch, Ernst.