Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon
Director:
Roy William Neill
Year: 1942
Rating: 6.0
This should have been titled Sherlock Holmes vs
Moriarty and the Gestapo. This is the fourth overall in the Basil Rathbone
Holmes series and the second in which he has been brought into contemporary
times by Universal. He was needed to fight the Nazis and save his beloved
England. As he did at the end of Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror,
Holmes gives a short patriotic speech that is moving. "This fortress built
by nature for herself, this blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England."
from Richard II. Filmed of course in Hollywood. It almost feels blasphemous
bringing on Moriarty as working with the Nazis - he may have been a master
criminal but also a traitor? It might have been more effective as propaganda
if at the end he realized that he was an Englishman at heart. Of course, since
we thought he was killed in the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, his appearance
is a surprise, but that was Fox. Now Universal gets their chance to knock
him off. But can Moriarty ever really die?
This was the first in the series to be
directed by Roy William Neill, who was to go on and direct the remaining
eleven of them. He had been directing since 1917 with a long resume, but
all B films. These Universal films basically fall into that category coming
in at just a bit more than an hour. He, Rathbone and Bruce became good friends
over these films. He was sadly to pass away soon after his last Holmes film
in 1946. While on a trip to England, Neill had actually told Rathbone and
Bruce that he would try and see if he could get some interest in a
Holmes film in England but his sudden death put an end to that.
As to the film, Holmes has to get a scientist
out of Switzerland where the Gestapo is planning on kidnapping him. In one
of his disguises (Rathbone loved doing them) as an elderly book seller, he
is able to fool the Nazis and escape to England. With Watson patiently waiting
for him. Holmes gives Watson one job. Stay awake and make sure no harm comes
to Tobel. Of course, he immediately falls asleep. Poor Watson. The Gestapo
has handed the assignment over to Moriarty to get the bombsight or the scientist
to Germany. Moriarty is played by one of the best villains of mainly B films
at the time Lionel Atwill. Best because he never overplayed his villainy and
looks like he works for the IRS telling you that money is owed. At about this
same time, he was involved in a sex scandal for showing pornographic films
and his career took a hit till he died in 1946.
This is a decent enough suspense film with
a couple clever bits - draining the blood of Holmes drop by drop, Watson and
Lestrade saving him, his three disguises, the trap door for Moriarty but
these films are really comfort food with Rathbone and Bruce playing off one
another in familiar ways. And a few faces that are to become familiar. Mary
Gordon as Mrs. Hudson is one of them. She had played that character in the
two Fox films and would appear as Mrs. Hudson in ten of the films. Born in
Scotland in 1882, she made her way to America with her young daughter in
1919 to live with her brother and she gave H'keeper as her profession. During
her film career, she appeared in nearly 300 films. Usually as a domestic.
In the cast also is German born Kaaren Verne who had fled Nazi Germany and
later married Peter Lorre. Appearing as Inspector Lestrade for the first of
six appearances is Dennis Hoey who as was often the case for coppers in films,
not very competent. He actually began his career as a singer in theatrical
productions but by this time was typecast because of his large size as a policeman
or a thug.
