This was the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce Sherlock Holmes movies swan song. It's another excellent adventure in this great Holmes series that featured 14 films in all. After the excellent murder mystery on a train in the previous adventure Terror By Night, our hero's are back where they belong. In London on 221 B Baker Street solving complicated crimes against another assortment of cleaver criminals. This time Holmes and Watson, well actually Holmes with a little help from the blunder Watson, look into cheap music boxes that people are getting killed for that contain some secret code from the tune that plays in the box. The whole plot of figuring out what the tune is trying to say and the criminals engaging in a cat and mouse chase with Holmes for the boxes is deliciously cleaver and a pure Holmes mystery. The biggest surprise in this films though, is Patricia Morrison's role as Hilda Courtney. Her role is excellently written and she is a female Sherlock Holmes who is as cleaver and cunning. She dons disguises, to fool people, just like Holmes, and even fools him. She toys with people, flirts with them, and sees every detail just like Holmes. She even uses a cigarette bud as a way to lure Holmes into a trap. The master himself also falls for it. She's just too damn cleaver. Even Holmes throughout the film, complements her on her skills of cleverness and see's her more than a worthy adversary. If Holmes was attracted to woman sexually, such as that you don't see in the movies or stories, Hilda Courtney would of made a perfect mate for Holmes. She's also a very attractive woman who deceives people with her looks. She also makes a fool out of Watson. But then again who doesn't. I thought this was an excellent film and a nice, but sad way to go out in style. These Sherlock Holmes films are too good, and I wish they made more with Rathbone/Bruce. Don't miss this film, you won't be disappointed. *** out of ****
Review of Dressed to Kill
