The final film of the Universal series of "Sherlock Holmes" films with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce was DRESSED TO KILL. It is not one of the best films, but in this series even a below par film is better than many other similar "B" film mysteries. Rathbone and Bruce play the Detective and Dr. Watson with all the ease (and in Rathbone's case, personal contempt) of dealing with a pair of old friends. The familiar face of Dennis Hoey as Inspector Lestrade is missing. Interestingly, the authors of the series included another one of the Doyle story Inspectors (Stanley Hopkins - here Carl Harboard) as the link with the Yard. Hopkins, for those who are not in the know, appeared in four of the short stories after 1905. He's not the only link to the made up story here.
Mrs. Hilda Courtney was a former actress, and she is the villain in this film (abetted by Colonel Cavanaugh and Hamid - Frederick Worlock and Henry Cording). Worlock had appeared in TERROR BY NIGHT as the math professor who gives Nigel Bruce a hard time when the latter makes the error of trying to question him while not being a policeman. He was also Philip Musgrave in SHERLOCK HOLMES FACES DEATH. Cording appeared as the owner of the pottery factory which made the busts of Napoleon in THE PEARL OF DEATH, and earlier was the sea captain (and member of the "Good Comrades") in THE HOUSE OF FEAR. Mrs. Courtney was portrayed by Patricia Medina.
Ms Medina is one of the tragic waste stories of Hollywood. Terribly attractive, sexy, and with a wonderful voice and stage presence, she is remembered for her originating the role of Kate in KISS ME KATE by Cole Porter (which she did not do in the movie version - Kathryn Grayson did - but fortunately did on television, which version survives). While she had a fine stage career Hollywood ignored her. And as a result this film may be considered her best remembered film performance. She is properly sexy and dangerous here.
Mrs. Courtney is not a character from the Holmes stories, but she is a type of substitute clone (not quite though) for Irene Adler in A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA (the first Holmes short story, and the only one where Holmes does not quite win). Due to Adler's success, Holmes frequently thinks of her as "The Woman" (which is mentioned in this film). Adler in the original was blackmailing the King of Bohemia, but here Mrs. Courtney has eyes on a bigger deal. It seems that her gang has possible access to a set of plates for the printing of perfect duplicate five pound notes. If they get the complete set it can rock the British economy.
Somehow I suspect the plot line here was based on some knowledge by the script writers of a Nazi scheme called "Operation Reinhart". The scheme was created by the evil Reinhart Heydrich, creator of the "Final Solution" and victim of an assassination style execution in Czechoslovakia in 1942 that led to widespread reprisals (see HANGMEN ALSO DIE or HITLER'S MADMAN). He planned to get perfect replicas of British currency printed in Germany in the millions, and than flood the British Isles with them to ruin England's economy (this was told in the comic series PRIVATE SCHULTZ with Ian Richardson back in the 1980s). The scheme never got anywhere - except the perfect bank forgeries were created.
The plates turn out to be hidden in music boxes (similar to the Borgia Pearl in THE SIX NAPOLEONS and the film version called THE PEARL OF DEATH). Gradually it becomes a battle that Mrs. Courtney keeps winning against Holmes in trying to find the missing plates. In the course of the story an obscure poison almost does in Holmes and Watson (as in the story THE ADVENTURE OF THE DEVIL FOOT ROOT). It again is due to a comment that Bruce's Watson says that Holmes finally solves the case. I will only add that Watson (and Bruce) being Scotish is a bright man at base, even if he eats oats, a food that is eaten by men in Scotland and horses in England.
Mrs. Hilda Courtney was a former actress, and she is the villain in this film (abetted by Colonel Cavanaugh and Hamid - Frederick Worlock and Henry Cording). Worlock had appeared in TERROR BY NIGHT as the math professor who gives Nigel Bruce a hard time when the latter makes the error of trying to question him while not being a policeman. He was also Philip Musgrave in SHERLOCK HOLMES FACES DEATH. Cording appeared as the owner of the pottery factory which made the busts of Napoleon in THE PEARL OF DEATH, and earlier was the sea captain (and member of the "Good Comrades") in THE HOUSE OF FEAR. Mrs. Courtney was portrayed by Patricia Medina.
Ms Medina is one of the tragic waste stories of Hollywood. Terribly attractive, sexy, and with a wonderful voice and stage presence, she is remembered for her originating the role of Kate in KISS ME KATE by Cole Porter (which she did not do in the movie version - Kathryn Grayson did - but fortunately did on television, which version survives). While she had a fine stage career Hollywood ignored her. And as a result this film may be considered her best remembered film performance. She is properly sexy and dangerous here.
Mrs. Courtney is not a character from the Holmes stories, but she is a type of substitute clone (not quite though) for Irene Adler in A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA (the first Holmes short story, and the only one where Holmes does not quite win). Due to Adler's success, Holmes frequently thinks of her as "The Woman" (which is mentioned in this film). Adler in the original was blackmailing the King of Bohemia, but here Mrs. Courtney has eyes on a bigger deal. It seems that her gang has possible access to a set of plates for the printing of perfect duplicate five pound notes. If they get the complete set it can rock the British economy.
Somehow I suspect the plot line here was based on some knowledge by the script writers of a Nazi scheme called "Operation Reinhart". The scheme was created by the evil Reinhart Heydrich, creator of the "Final Solution" and victim of an assassination style execution in Czechoslovakia in 1942 that led to widespread reprisals (see HANGMEN ALSO DIE or HITLER'S MADMAN). He planned to get perfect replicas of British currency printed in Germany in the millions, and than flood the British Isles with them to ruin England's economy (this was told in the comic series PRIVATE SCHULTZ with Ian Richardson back in the 1980s). The scheme never got anywhere - except the perfect bank forgeries were created.
The plates turn out to be hidden in music boxes (similar to the Borgia Pearl in THE SIX NAPOLEONS and the film version called THE PEARL OF DEATH). Gradually it becomes a battle that Mrs. Courtney keeps winning against Holmes in trying to find the missing plates. In the course of the story an obscure poison almost does in Holmes and Watson (as in the story THE ADVENTURE OF THE DEVIL FOOT ROOT). It again is due to a comment that Bruce's Watson says that Holmes finally solves the case. I will only add that Watson (and Bruce) being Scotish is a bright man at base, even if he eats oats, a food that is eaten by men in Scotland and horses in England.