This movie is based on the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle novel The Valley of Fear, and the name appears as a title reference in the movie itself. For the movie, Mr. Douglas' wives were combined into one character; in the novel, he married another woman, Ivy, after Effie died of scarlet fever.
Some of the video boxes for the US video release incorrectly claim that the Ian Fleming playing Dr. Watson was the Ian Fleming who was the creator/writer of the James Bond novels. Although both men have the same name - a not particularly uncommon one in England - the actor playing Dr. Watson was not the same man as the James Bond author, and was in fact not even related to him. This Ian Fleming had a 40-year career as an actor and played in over 100 British films.
This is the only Holmes film that features both Professor Moriarty and Colonel Moran, Holmes's top nemeses.
That is, until Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011).
That is, until Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011).
While waiting for Motiarty, Balden says, "Dammit, I've been waiting for an hour!" Somehow this utterance slipped past the American censors and is quite audible in the version played on TCM.
When Holmes is first seen at his retirement house in the country, he is holding a "smoker" - a tool used by beekeepers to keep the bees calm while their hives are inspected or their honey harvested. The novel upon which this film is based explains that Holmes took up beekeeping as a hobby in his retirement.