Sherlock Holmes strives to destroy the band of Nazi saboteurs whose actions are extolled by THE VOICE OF TERROR.
After a hiatus of three years, and a change of studios from Fox to Universal, Basil Rathbone & Nigel Bruce returned to portray the beloved characters they had embodied twice before on the screen. And there was one other significant change--the stories were now set during World War Two and served as morale boosters as well as cinematic entertainment.
This leap ahead of nearly 50 years does no violence to Holmes & Watson, although purists might lament the absence of late Victorian ambiance. Indeed, if Shakespeare can be performed in modern dress and become the basis for Broadway musicals, then the inhabitants of 221B Baker Street are served no injustice by this updating. The film offers this explanation as its preamble: `Sherlock Holmes, the immortal character of fiction created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is ageless, invincible and unchanging. In solving significant problems of the present day he remains - as ever - the supreme master of deductive reasoning.'
Here, in a plot very loosely based on Conan Doyle's short story His Last Bow,' Rathbone & Bruce play their roles as comfortably as one might wear an old pair of well-worn slippers. Rathbone, triumphantly cerebral, and Bruce, comfortingly common, are simply perfect for their roles, actually seeming to become Holmes & Watson, rather than just enacting them. In the tiny exchange, where Watson stops Holmes from leaving their flat wearing his famed deerstalker rather than modern headgear, the actors give a wink and a nod to the original conceptions of their celebrated characters.
Kindly Reginald Denny and angry Henry Daniell give their usual stalwart performances as high government officials struggling with the Nazi depredations. Evelyn Ankers adds a bit of spice as the Limehouse lassie who has her own motives for helping Holmes. Thomas Gomez gives a compelling portrayal as a Nazi agent with strange delusions of grandeur.
Movie mavens will recognize an uncredited & lovable Mary Gordon as Mrs. Hudson, Holmes landlady, who has also been time transported along with her tenants. That's Edgar Barrier, excellent as the Voice of Terror.
This was the third in the Sherlock Holmes film series, following THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1939), and preceding SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE SECRET WEAPON (1942).
After a hiatus of three years, and a change of studios from Fox to Universal, Basil Rathbone & Nigel Bruce returned to portray the beloved characters they had embodied twice before on the screen. And there was one other significant change--the stories were now set during World War Two and served as morale boosters as well as cinematic entertainment.
This leap ahead of nearly 50 years does no violence to Holmes & Watson, although purists might lament the absence of late Victorian ambiance. Indeed, if Shakespeare can be performed in modern dress and become the basis for Broadway musicals, then the inhabitants of 221B Baker Street are served no injustice by this updating. The film offers this explanation as its preamble: `Sherlock Holmes, the immortal character of fiction created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is ageless, invincible and unchanging. In solving significant problems of the present day he remains - as ever - the supreme master of deductive reasoning.'
Here, in a plot very loosely based on Conan Doyle's short story His Last Bow,' Rathbone & Bruce play their roles as comfortably as one might wear an old pair of well-worn slippers. Rathbone, triumphantly cerebral, and Bruce, comfortingly common, are simply perfect for their roles, actually seeming to become Holmes & Watson, rather than just enacting them. In the tiny exchange, where Watson stops Holmes from leaving their flat wearing his famed deerstalker rather than modern headgear, the actors give a wink and a nod to the original conceptions of their celebrated characters.
Kindly Reginald Denny and angry Henry Daniell give their usual stalwart performances as high government officials struggling with the Nazi depredations. Evelyn Ankers adds a bit of spice as the Limehouse lassie who has her own motives for helping Holmes. Thomas Gomez gives a compelling portrayal as a Nazi agent with strange delusions of grandeur.
Movie mavens will recognize an uncredited & lovable Mary Gordon as Mrs. Hudson, Holmes landlady, who has also been time transported along with her tenants. That's Edgar Barrier, excellent as the Voice of Terror.
This was the third in the Sherlock Holmes film series, following THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1939), and preceding SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE SECRET WEAPON (1942).