Arthur Wontner does the honors as Sherlock Holmes in this 1935 film, while the non-Bond Ian Fleming portrays a dapper Dr. John Watson. This was my first experience of their pairing, and they play off each other well, though the running gag of Watson's nudging Holmes to be introduced to every new character wears thin after a while. Somehow, I think Holmes was sharp enough to get around to it eventually.
The story is told in large part via flashback, taking us to America and a secret organization known as the Scowlers, a band of murderers and blackmailers in an area of Pennsylvania. It relies on the recollections of Ettie Douglas (Jane Carr) recounting the story of her husband John, who went undercover as a member of the Freemen Scowlers, infiltrating their number for the local police. In doing so, Douglas earned the wrath of Scowler goon Balding (Ben Welden), who in present time has hired the evil Professor Moriarty to kill Douglas. Moriarty, here portrayed by Lyn Harding, is presented as somewhat of a magician, eerily appearing and disappearing in a compact room to Balding's amazement.
Holmes' unique powers of deduction include a scene where he turns his attention to Watson's shaving routine. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that he leads Watson down a path to decoding a numerical message pointing to a murder at Birlstone Castle. Since the murder already took place, it's up to Holmes to uncover the perpetrator.
A lot of attention is centered on the rate of burning candles and a missing dumbbell (not a human) to solve the crime, and it's uncanny that Holmes knows enough to trawl the moat with an umbrella handle (?) outside a castle window to find a clue. A better one would have been checking the dead body, since the actual victim (Balding) had a different build and was shorter than Douglas. I'm sure Holmes took that into account, it just wasn't mentioned.
Though the story was interesting enough, and is recommended for Holmes fans, I was dismayed by the apparent death of Professor Moriarty. Granted, this film was released in 1935, but I viewed it after seeing 1943's "Sherlock Holmes and The Secret Weapon", and 1945's "The Woman in Green". In all three films, Moriarty meets his apparent demise by falling from a height. I would have appreciated some originality, at least in the latter two.
The story is told in large part via flashback, taking us to America and a secret organization known as the Scowlers, a band of murderers and blackmailers in an area of Pennsylvania. It relies on the recollections of Ettie Douglas (Jane Carr) recounting the story of her husband John, who went undercover as a member of the Freemen Scowlers, infiltrating their number for the local police. In doing so, Douglas earned the wrath of Scowler goon Balding (Ben Welden), who in present time has hired the evil Professor Moriarty to kill Douglas. Moriarty, here portrayed by Lyn Harding, is presented as somewhat of a magician, eerily appearing and disappearing in a compact room to Balding's amazement.
Holmes' unique powers of deduction include a scene where he turns his attention to Watson's shaving routine. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that he leads Watson down a path to decoding a numerical message pointing to a murder at Birlstone Castle. Since the murder already took place, it's up to Holmes to uncover the perpetrator.
A lot of attention is centered on the rate of burning candles and a missing dumbbell (not a human) to solve the crime, and it's uncanny that Holmes knows enough to trawl the moat with an umbrella handle (?) outside a castle window to find a clue. A better one would have been checking the dead body, since the actual victim (Balding) had a different build and was shorter than Douglas. I'm sure Holmes took that into account, it just wasn't mentioned.
Though the story was interesting enough, and is recommended for Holmes fans, I was dismayed by the apparent death of Professor Moriarty. Granted, this film was released in 1935, but I viewed it after seeing 1943's "Sherlock Holmes and The Secret Weapon", and 1945's "The Woman in Green". In all three films, Moriarty meets his apparent demise by falling from a height. I would have appreciated some originality, at least in the latter two.