Stream On: Loose canon—the Basil Rathbone ‘Sherlock Holmes’ movies
Conan Doyle’s stories were never about frock coats and gaslight; they're about brilliant detection, dreadful villains and blood-curdling crimes
Basil Rathbone (1892-1967) rightly appears at the top of most “best Sherlock Holmes” lists, in spite of the fact that only one of his portrayals, the first, was canonical, that is, a close adaptation of an Arthur Conan Doyle novel. Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, as Holmes’ sidekick Dr. John Watson, together made fourteen of the best “Sherlock Holmes” movies, canonical or not.
/Amazon /Streaming /Trailer /1939 /NR /🍅91%
In 1893 Conan Doyle killed his fictional detective Sherlock Holmes off, in the story “The Final Problem.” He felt that the Holmes stories were distracting him from more serious efforts, notably historical romances and nonfiction. But after becoming financially desperate he relented, writing the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1902, which became one of the most famous stories ever written—and in 1939, the first “modern” Holmes Hollywood movie, which would be followed by thirteen more “Holmes” films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.
Richard Greene, who played Henry Baskerville, received top billing, as the studio was unsure about how a movie about Sherlock Holmes would be received; the film posters called it “Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles.” Nigel Bruce was cast as Holmes’ partner and biographer Dr. Henry Watson and his portrayal marked a departure from the novel: Bruce played him as a dimwitted but lovable comic foil, while the Watson of the novels was a better than competent physician—but the chemistry with Rathbone’s Holmes worked brilliantly.
Rathbone was perfect as a turn-key Holmes—for a start he looked like Sidney Paget’s illustrations for Conan Doyle’s original books and stories (which had been first serialized in The Strand magazine) and his air of patrician dignity and native intelligence sealed the deal. Holmes’ powers of deduction allowed him to practically predict what would happen from moment to moment—gothic moments that include legends come to life, disguises, foggy moors and red herrings. As with the books, Rathbone’s movies could create nostalgia for something never actually experienced.
THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
/Amazon /Streaming /Trailer /1939 /NR /🍅100%
In 1899 Conan Doyle began writing a play about the character he had killed off in 1893. American theatrical producer Charles Frohman thought it unfit for production and convinced Conan Doyle to hire actor William Gillette to play Holmes—and rewrite the play.
When The Hound of the Baskervilles proved so successful for Hollywood, producer Darryl Zanuck pressed Rathbone and Bruce into service immediately on a second film, ostensibly using Gillette’s play as source material, with a screenplay by Ernest Pascal, who wrote the Hound treatment.
Essentially fan fiction, it plays like a “best of” Holmes, as his nemesis Professor Moriarty, the “very Genius of Evil,” attempts to distract Holmes as he plans the theft of the Crown Jewels. As the film opens, Moriarty has just been acquitted of murder by a reluctant jury when Holmes rushes in with new evidence. Too late; Moriarty cannot be tried twice for the same crime. Holmes and Moriarty, both gentlemen to the last, share a Hansom cab and a dialogue in which they lay their cards on the table, Holmes promising to bring about Moriarty’s downfall, and Moriarty averring that he is about to pull off the “crime of the century” under Holmes’ nose.
As the cab pulls up to Holmes’ apartment at 221 B Baker Street, he says, “Well, here we are at my lodgings. I’m so sorry I can’t ask you in. Goodnight, Professor Moriarty.”
In his lair, Moriarty prepares “two toys,” crimes for Holmes to play with, the second “so full of bizarre complications that he’ll forget all about the first toy,” which will contain the germ of a great crime that will “stir the Empire, that children will read about in their history books.”
The Adventures was received more positively than The Hound; The Hound seems to be the most popular Holmes novel, but Holmes is actually not present for a lot of it, nor does he especially showcase his great powers of deduction that The Adventures are full of, along with his eccentricities.
These two films were produced by 20th Century Fox after which Universal Pictures acquired the rights from the Doyle estate and produced a further twelve films, below:
THE UNIVERSAL FILMS
/The collection at Amazon /The Voice of Terror trailer /1942-1946
Although the 20th Century Fox films had large budgets, high production values and were set in the Victorian era, Universal Pictures updated the series to have Holmes fighting the Nazis, and produced them as B pictures with lower budgets, made possible with contemporaneous wardrobes and sets. Both Rathbone and Bruce continued their roles when the series changed studios, as did Mary Gordon, who played Holmes’ landlady Mrs. Hudson.
Following the entry of the United States into the Second World War, the first three Universal movies featured explicit anti-Nazi themes: Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942), Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1943), and Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943). Universal noted at the beginning of each film that Holmes remained “ageless” as they updated him to face 20th century villains—the Nazis.
These movies often paralleled real-life events. In Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror, Holmes battles a Nazi radio program, similar to the real-life “Germany Calling” broadcasts of the British traitor Lord Haw-Haw. In Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon, the British and Germans fight to secure the “Tobel bombsight,” analogous to the real-life Norden Bombsight.
Six additional films were made during World War II: Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943), The Spider Woman (1944), The Scarlet Claw (1944), The Pearl of Death (1944), The House of Fear (1945), and The Woman in Green (1945). These movies have no explicit war references and are “standard” Holmes mysteries.
The Pearl of Death was an attempt by Universal to launch a new “monster” called “The Creeper”—Universal was best known for their “monster” films.
Following the war, three more films were made: Pursuit to Algiers (1945), Terror by Night (1946), and Dressed to Kill (1946). (Pursuit to Algiers is apparently not streaming, but is available on DVD and Archive.org)
Steven Moffat, who created with Mark Gatiss the 2010 BBC-TV series Sherlock, another updated set of Holmes stories, has said about it, “Everything that matters about Holmes and Watson is the same. Conan Doyle’s original stories were never about frock coats and gaslight; they're about brilliant detection, dreadful villains and blood-curdling crimes—and frankly, the hell with the crinoline.” That applies to the Universal Holmes adventures, too—I for one would never have discovered Conan Doyle’s original stories (read or download them here) had I not seen these great films on TV as a wee lad.
Pete Hummers is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to earn fees by linking Amazon.com and affiliate sites. This adds nothing to Amazon's prices.