The Scarlet Claw
                                                                                                                     
Director: Roy William Neill
Year: 1944
Rating: 7.5
This could almost be titled Sherlock Holmes Meets the Wolfman. Though this is often compared to The Hound of the Baskervilles for its eerie setting, this struck me more as a Universal Horror. A monster out in the woods terrifying the inhabitants of a small village at night, but as an ordinary person during the day. The swirling fog and the pub where they all gather adds to this similarity. Much of this atmosphere can be credited to the cinematography of George Robinson who was behind the camera for a number of Universal horror films - The Invisible Ray, Dracula's Daughter, Son of Frankenstein, Tower of London, The Mummy's Tomb and Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman. As usual, this was directed by Roy William Neill. Neill had also directed Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman, but at this point his Holmes films were so popular that Universal only allowed him to direct and produce those for the rest of his career.



This is a fine Holmes film; suspenseful, a capable adversary and the identity of the killer kept well under wraps until the end. For reasons not really explained, Holmes and Watson are in French Canada attending a meeting on the Occult, with Holmes pish-poshing the whole idea. Interesting in that Doyle was a strong believer in the occult and spiritualism. At this meeting, Lord Penrose (Pail Cavanaugh) is notified that his wife has been murdered in his home village of La Morte Rouge aka The Red Death. Why anyone would want to name a village that eludes me - an Edgar Allan Poe fan perhaps. At the same time, Holmes receives a letter from the dead woman asking for his help. "For the first time, we have been retained by a corpse".



Other murders of course are to follow, one quite shocking, throats clawed out. The village is in terror as witnesses have seen a ghostly illuminated figure running through the woods and a baffled Holmes realizes the killer is a master of disguise and could be anyone among the people drinking in the pub. Watson is his usual useless self, falling into a bog twice, being insulted when referred to as Holmes's assistant and only saving Holmes by falling down the stairs. No references to WWII in this one. By 1944 perhaps Universal thought the public had enough of the war, but in the end Holmes quotes Churchill "Canada, the linchpin of the English speaking world, whose relations of friendly intimacy with the United States on the one hand and their unswerving fidelity to the British Commonwealth and the Motherland on the other. Canada, the link that joins together these great branches of the human family". Not so much anymore of course.