Sherlock Holmes Faces Death

I dearly love all of the Basil Rathbone / Nigel Bruce SHERLOCK HOLMES movies, but this one is one of my favorites. Maybe it's just some fond memories from my youth. A modern comparison can be made between the chess game in this movie and the one in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Even though no one actually died in Potter's game, murder surrounded the Musgrave Ritual -- so which one could be deemed more violent? Both movies arrived at the mysteries' solutions after the completion of the game, so there's another loose comparison.

Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) investigate murders at Musgrave Manor, an estate being used as a convalescent home for soldiers suffering from combat fatigue during WW2. Fourth in Universal's marvelous Sherlock Holmes series is a highly enjoyable murder mystery within a gloomy old mansion. This one's just loaded with atmosphere. Great wind and lightning effects, nice use of shadows, and some cool sets. Good supporting cast includes lovely Hillary Brooke, Dennis Hoey, Halliwell Hobbes, and Milburn Stone of Gunsmoke fame, who at this point was a contract player at Universal. A very good entry in the series.

The opening world turning and the Universal anthem playing and then the foggy cut to Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as the great Sherlock Holmes and his trusty sidekick Watson staring at us telling us that yet another one of their adventures lies before us always sent shivers of joy down my spine and engendered the greatest anticipation when I was young. These films hold up remarkably well considering,well, everything. The stories are not always the best, the scripts sometimes make too many assumptions about what they feel the audience knows or should know. The acting is very decent but like the script and direction - very formulaic and predictable. But somehow all of it works and we have little screen gems to be viewed again and again. Director Roy William Neill does yet again a fine,workmanlike job in this tale of Dr. Watson working in a convalescent home when murder and the the Musgrave Ritual collide. Though based on the short story by Arthur Conan Doyle, the screenwriter takes several liberties here. Firstly, we are in the present time rather than Victorian England. After the first two films in the Rathbone-Bruce series, Universal(when they took the series over from Twentieth Century Fox) changed the venue for cost reasons. They also had Holmes as a fighter against Nazism and such. This sixth film in the series makes a dramatic departure from that and goes back to the mystery roots delved into in the first two films. Wisely done. The story here concerns a ritual and people dying when the clock chimes thirteen bells. The real heart of these films is the performances of Rathbone and Bruce. they are not great. There is no pathos. No great acting scenes. But each man imbues his character with warmth and solidity that breeds confidence in what they are doing. Rathbone seems so earnest at times yet always has a way with words and a clever phrase. Bruce embodies the almost cartoonish buffoon with a heart of gold and loyal to the core. Character actors of great ability surround them. Dennis Hoey is always fun as Inspector Lestrade and his wit fencing with Watson is great fun. This film also has a gem of a performance by Halliwell Hobbes as Brunton the butler. He is comic perfection in his scenes particularly in his drunken one. Look for Gunsmoke's Milburn Stone(Doc) as Capatain Vickery. Like all the later Holmes pictures by Universal during WWII - look for the heavy-handed(No argument here as it being a necessary one)message delivered between Holmes and Watson. This is good stuff.

always enjoyed the atmosphere of this movie. spooky manor, wind and thunder and lightning. pleasure to watch over and over. its in my top 3 of the whole series starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. if any of you enjoy this movie then the other 2 that make up my top 3 would be of interest to you. they are House of Fear and Hound of the Baskervilles. another one that has great atmosphere but doesn't have the stately manor to speak of is the Scarlet Claw. the selections i have mentioned are best viewed at evening with all the lights off. i even go as far as lighting candles to give my own surroundings similar atmosphere.

David

This is a good one. I understand it was the first of this branch of the series: producer, writer, director and Holmes set in wartime Britain.

Here's what's comparatively better than other Rathbone Holmeses: Watson is less moronic and the setup is more deliberately cheesy (a remote country house where you know the culprit is among the residents). Holmes seems to do more actual detecting than usual. The clue in this case isn't a clue about the murders, but about the treasure behind the murders. This allows the writer a chance to escape the usual formula and substitute a better one.

And it is also the most cinematic of all the Rathbone Holmes projects. The key factor in this is a human chess game, which is photographed amazingly well: Holmes on a ladder with an elevated chess board under an arch beyond which you can see the human chess pieces he "directs." Its a brief scene, but clearly the center of the film.

And there are secret passages, goofy military officers the likes of which we wouldn't see until Kubrick.

All in all, the one to prefer, I think.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.