It's not until the end of the movie that one realizes how many red herrings and factors unrelated to the real mystery are applied to the story. There's all that business about the chinchilla trinket and references to South America creating an expectation that those are important clues to solving a murder, and it's all for naught. Which is kind of cool because it all adds to the suspense relating to Professor Moriarty's (George Zucco) crime of the century.
Moriarty's ruse was actually rather clever, a way to distract Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) from the Tower of London's Crown Jewels which the evil genius intended to steal. The sleight of hand with the Star of Delhi was a nifty touch too, but the way it was played was rather awkward. I thought Sir Ronald Ramsgate (Henry Stephenson) blew it big time when he declined the additional security that could have been provided by the authorities delivering the Star sapphire. But then we wouldn't have had that thrilling finale.
Besides the great London fog atmosphere and Holmes' obsession for finding just the right note to drive his flies crazy, Ida Lupino is stunning in one of her earliest screen roles. You don't get a sense of her beauty in noir films she made a decade later like "High Sierra" or "Road House", so seeing her here as the vulnerable young woman attempting to prevent her brother's murder is a real treat. Not to mention Basil Rathbone's disguise as a gaucho entertainer, that was a real hoot too.
Moriarty's ruse was actually rather clever, a way to distract Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) from the Tower of London's Crown Jewels which the evil genius intended to steal. The sleight of hand with the Star of Delhi was a nifty touch too, but the way it was played was rather awkward. I thought Sir Ronald Ramsgate (Henry Stephenson) blew it big time when he declined the additional security that could have been provided by the authorities delivering the Star sapphire. But then we wouldn't have had that thrilling finale.
Besides the great London fog atmosphere and Holmes' obsession for finding just the right note to drive his flies crazy, Ida Lupino is stunning in one of her earliest screen roles. You don't get a sense of her beauty in noir films she made a decade later like "High Sierra" or "Road House", so seeing her here as the vulnerable young woman attempting to prevent her brother's murder is a real treat. Not to mention Basil Rathbone's disguise as a gaucho entertainer, that was a real hoot too.