While I was definitely thrilled to at long last see "The Hound of the Baskervilles", I had no idea how much fun I had in store of me regarding this second and last Sherlock Holmes film produced by studio 2oth Century Fox. "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" may be overplotted for some, but there's a significant reason that so much story is at play in this movie..the diabolical Professor Moriarty and cerebral sleuth will be at another battle of great minds with a labyrinthine scenario set up which will end in fine fashion atop the Tower of London.
Again, we have a fantastic cast and dizzyingly complex plot concerning Moriarty's setting up one scheme to disguise another. Ida Lupino, who is simply lovely, has an early part as Ann Brandon, worried for her life after the murders of both her father and brother. Her fiancé is the dashing Jerrold Hunter(Terry Kilburn), who was suppose to keep her brother safe from potential harm. He becomes a suspect when her brother is found on the street strangled(..the killer bashed him over the skull post-mortem as a minor diversion from the original crime)and Brandon receives a drawing(..like he did), sketched by Moriarty himself to keep Holmes preoccupied, threatening her life at a specific date. Meanwhile, a certain jewel is to be stored in a treasure vault in the Tower of London, and Holmes is asked to see that it arrives there safely. Dualing tasks keep Holmes and Watson quite busy, which is all according to Moriarty's orchestrated plan to create the "perfect crime that will forever haunt Holmes".
The chance to see George Zucco as Holmes' greatest adversary is a horror buff's dream, or at least it was mine, and you couldn't ask for a more perfect actor to play him(..except maybe Atwill who later takes this role in "The Secret Weapon"). Zucco has a sneering, smarmy, superiority complex, a belief in his abilities to thwart Holmes, developing complicated scenarios to trap and defeat the celebrated detective. Rathbone and Watson, again, add such wonderment to the proceedings, complimenting the challenging story as it unfolds. I can't express the enjoyment I have seeing Holmes unwind the coils, often analyzing and clinically unweaving the mysteries set before him, getting to the bottom of nefarious criminals' deeds, discovering how to stop them or to call them out into the open. The suspense is well mounted, particularly when Lupino awaits certain doom, the use of a flute ominous in it's "death tune", and a chase through a thick forest where a killer could be close behind. How Holmes is able to solve the cases and halt Moriarty is why I love the Rathbone/Bruce series. The jewel trick, masterminded by Moriarty to get into the cell containing the Queen's crown, is a thing of beauty..too bad he underestimated his arch rival's uncanny abilities to deduce, connecting the dots right in time.
Again, we have a fantastic cast and dizzyingly complex plot concerning Moriarty's setting up one scheme to disguise another. Ida Lupino, who is simply lovely, has an early part as Ann Brandon, worried for her life after the murders of both her father and brother. Her fiancé is the dashing Jerrold Hunter(Terry Kilburn), who was suppose to keep her brother safe from potential harm. He becomes a suspect when her brother is found on the street strangled(..the killer bashed him over the skull post-mortem as a minor diversion from the original crime)and Brandon receives a drawing(..like he did), sketched by Moriarty himself to keep Holmes preoccupied, threatening her life at a specific date. Meanwhile, a certain jewel is to be stored in a treasure vault in the Tower of London, and Holmes is asked to see that it arrives there safely. Dualing tasks keep Holmes and Watson quite busy, which is all according to Moriarty's orchestrated plan to create the "perfect crime that will forever haunt Holmes".
The chance to see George Zucco as Holmes' greatest adversary is a horror buff's dream, or at least it was mine, and you couldn't ask for a more perfect actor to play him(..except maybe Atwill who later takes this role in "The Secret Weapon"). Zucco has a sneering, smarmy, superiority complex, a belief in his abilities to thwart Holmes, developing complicated scenarios to trap and defeat the celebrated detective. Rathbone and Watson, again, add such wonderment to the proceedings, complimenting the challenging story as it unfolds. I can't express the enjoyment I have seeing Holmes unwind the coils, often analyzing and clinically unweaving the mysteries set before him, getting to the bottom of nefarious criminals' deeds, discovering how to stop them or to call them out into the open. The suspense is well mounted, particularly when Lupino awaits certain doom, the use of a flute ominous in it's "death tune", and a chase through a thick forest where a killer could be close behind. How Holmes is able to solve the cases and halt Moriarty is why I love the Rathbone/Bruce series. The jewel trick, masterminded by Moriarty to get into the cell containing the Queen's crown, is a thing of beauty..too bad he underestimated his arch rival's uncanny abilities to deduce, connecting the dots right in time.