A Study in Scarlet *** (1933, Reginald Owen, Warburton Gamble, Anna May Wong, June Clyde, Alan Dinehart, John Warburton) – Classic Movie Review 1281

Reginald Owen as Sherlock Holmes.

Director Edwin L Marin’s 1933 detective mystery thriller film A Study in Scarlet stars Reginald Owen and Warburton Gamble as master detective Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, who investigate a case of robbery and multiple murder by a crime mob in London. Owen played Dr Watson in the film Sherlock Holmes the previous year and Gamble more closely resembles Doyle’s description of Holmes, fuelling speculation that the actors switched roles.

Written by Robert Florey and star Owen, this fanciful Hollywood embellishment on the Baker Street saga bears only a passing resemblance to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous story in his 1887 detective novel A Study in Scarlet. The big clue here is the screenplay is ‘suggested by’ Conan Doyle’s book A Study in Scarlet, the first in the Holmes series. Florey provided the screenplay and Owen is credited for continuity (whatever that means) and dialogue.

If Florey’s plot bears no relation to the novel, at least Holmes, Watson, Mrs Hudson (Tempe Pigott), Inspector Lestrade (Alan Mowbray) and other Conan Doyle’s characters (such as Jabez Wilson played by J M Kerrigan) appear. Fascinatingly, the new plot contains an element of striking similarity to one used later in Agatha Christie’s 1939 novel And Then There Were None.

It includes a scene where Holmes is shown a card with the hint: ‘Six little Indians… bee stung one and then there were five.’ The rhyme here refers to ‘Ten Little Fat Boys’. Robert Florey said he ‘doubted that Christie had seen A Study in Scarlet but he regarded it as a compliment if it had helped inspire her.’

Never mind, the film is still very enjoyable hokum, however, with Owen surprisingly convivial as the deerstalking detective, although he is nowhere near as dashing as Basil Rathbone’s later iconic embodiment. In star support, Anna May Wong and Alan Mowbray score hits as Madame Pyke and Inspector Lestrade. Alas Wong only appears on screen for less than ten minutes.

Alan Dinehart also stars as London lawyer Thaddeus Merrydew, leader of a secret society, who collects the assets of deceased members and divides them among the remaining members. Society members start dropping like flies. Holmes is consulted by dead member James Murphy’s widow (Doris Lloyd), upset at being left penniless by her husband. When Captain Pyke (Wyndham Standing) is shot, Holmes investigates his mysterious Chinese widow (Anna May Wong) as well as the shady Merrydew.

It is made by KBS Productions and released on 14 May 1933 by Sono Art-World Wide Pictures and Fox Film Corporation. It runs 71 minutes.

Owen played Dr Watson in the film Sherlock Holmes the previous year, making him the only actor to play both Holmes and Watson in cinema feature films and one of only four actors to play both Holmes and Watson. Jeremy Brett played Holmes on British TV and Watson on stage in the US, Carleton Hobbs played both roles in British radio adaptations, while Patrick Macnee played both roles in US TV movies.

It was previously made as a silent by director George Pearson in Britain in 1914 and starring James Bragington and James Paul. This early silent version of Conan Doyle’s story is a missing, believed lost movie.

A Study in Terror was made in Britain in 1965 by director James Hill and starring John Neville and Donald Houston in a tale about the great detective setting out to unmask Jack the Ripper, mixing an Ellery Queen novel with the Conan Doyle characters.

In the novel, Holmes describes the story’s murder investigation to Watson as his study in scarlet: ‘There’s the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it.’

The 1887 first edition in cover.

Only 11 complete copies of Beeton’s Christmas Annual for 1887, the magazine in which the story first appeared, are known to exist.

Were the most famous detective duo in literature an instant sensation? No they were not. The story and its main characters attracted little public interest when they first appeared.

The cast are Reginald Owen as Sherlock Holmes, Anna May Wong as Mrs Pyke, June Clyde as Eileen Forrester, Alan Dinehart as Thaddeus Merrydew, John Warburton as John Stanford, Alan Mowbray as Lestrade, Warburton Gamble as Dr Watson, J M Kerrigan as Jabez Wilson, Wyndham Standing as Captain Pyke, Billy Bevan as Will Swallow, Leila Bennett as Daffy Dolly, Halliwell Hobbes as Malcolm Dearing, Doris Lloyd as Mrs Murphy, Hobart Cavanaugh as Thompson, Olaf Hytten as Merrydew’s Butler, Tetsu Komai as Ah Yet, Tempe Pigott as Mrs Hudson, and Cecil Reynolds as William Baker.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1281

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