The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Director: Alfred Werker
Year: 1939
Rating: 7.0
It doesn't take
long for the Rathbone Sherlock Holmes film series to bring out the Big Kahuna.
Why wait. Professor Moriarty, the Napoleon of Crime. The character of Moriarty
has taken on a life of its own - having his own books, a Manga and appearing
in numerous films and TV shows. Quite impressive considering that he only
appears in two of the Doyle short stories and dies in one of them. But Moriarty
has come to be associated with upper class intellectual villainy. The only
man the equal of Sherlock Holmes. He had already been in five previous Holmes
films and was to appear in three in this series. This is the second in the
film series that was produced by Fox. The Hound of the Baskervilles had been
a big hit, but this one was not appreciated by the studio head Zanuck who
felt it lacked suspense and it ended up being distributed as both an A and
B film depending on the location. But I think they get most of it right with
a complicated plot that almost defeats Holmes. Lots of London fog and horse
carriages as in the first, it is set in Victorian times. Bruce has a couple
nice comic moments and Rathbone does a song and dance in disguise. It is
not based on any Doyle story.
Rathbone and Nigel Bruce are of course back
and it is their comradery as odd as it may be that was a big selling point
of the films. At one point, Holmes says to his friend, Watson you are an
incorrigible bungler but follows this up with a pat on the shoulder of an
utterly dejected Watson, putting a smile on his face. Moriarty is on trial
for his life and as played by George Zucco with his glasses, suit and neatly
trimmed whiskers looks more like a senior librarian than a mastermind of
crime. But that he is and as soon as the jury rules not guilty, he is on
to his next venture. But first there is Holmes. As he tells one of his minions,
"Always Holmes until the end". Nice seeing that Zucco who played so many
villains, got to play Moriarty.
Moriarty sets out on his plan to distract
Holmes from his real crime. He threatens to kill a man whose sister runs
to Holmes for protection. At the same time, the warden for the Tower of London
asks for his help in transferring a ruby. Holmes focuses on the murder case
and sends Watson to protect the jewel. The sister is played by Ida Lupino
in one of her top Hollywood roles to that point. Brought up in England in
an acting family; she had memorized the leading female roles for all of Shakespeare's
plays by ten; she was happy not to have to play a tramp, prostitute or a
conniving female that she was normally cast as. The film did reasonably well
though not Hound numbers and Fox sat on a decision as to whether to make
another. Meanwhile, Rathbone and Bruce became radio stars. Playing
Holmes and Watson. Some of the shows are up on YouTube.
