Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon *** (1942, Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Lionel Atwill, Dennis Hoey, Kaaren Verne) – Classic Movie Review 988

The 1942 spy thriller film Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon is Holmes’s second updated B-movie adventure. Basil Rathbone pretends to be a Nazi spy, adopts various disguises and has to crack a code to save the day.

Director Roy William Neill’s 1942 mystery spy thriller film Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon is Sherlock Holmes’s second, non-Victorian contemporary (that is updated to 1942) B-movie adventure (after Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror).

It is the fourth in Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce’s series of 14 Sherlock Holmes films, and the second from Universal Pictures, who produced all 12 updated films. Basil Rathbone pretends to be a Nazi spy and adopts different disguises.

The new screen story by screenwriters Edward T Lowe, W Scott Darling, Edward L Hartmann is credited as being based on The Dancing Men (the third story in the 1903 The Return of Sherlock Holmes collection) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, though almost the only element it uses from it is the dancing men code.

Instead it a wartime spy film and centres on an aerial bombing device and Holmes’s quest to stop vital British War Office plans from falling into the hands of the Nazis by protecting the Swiss inventor of an advanced bomb sight being seized by the Germans. Unfortunately, of course, Holmes’s evil nemesis Professor Moriarty (Lionel Atwill) has joined the Nazis. Holmes and Dr Watson have to crack a code to save the day.

This is an exciting yarn, and a well oiled and fast moving film, revolving rightly around Sherlock’s cat-and-mouse rivalry with arch foe Moriarty. The admirable Basil Rathbone is on his best, freshest and feistiest form here and, of course, there’s the usual amusing, quality comic relief from Nigel Bruce as Dr Watson and Dennis Hoey as the banana-skin-heeled Scotland Yard copper, Inspector Lestrade.

Though why we have to have comic relief is another question. There’s none in the properly serious work of Conan Doyle.

Mary Gordon plays the housekeeper Mrs Hudson, Kaaren Verne is Charlotte Eberli, Holmes Herbert is Sir Reginald Bailey, and William Post Jr is Dr Franz Tobel.

It is Hoey’s first appearance of six in the series as Lestrade. [Spoiler alert] It is the second film in the series where Moriarty dies, after being thrown off the top of the Tower of London in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939).

With much relish, Holmes enjoys three of his trademark disguises: an old German bookseller, the lascar sailor Ram Singh, and the Swiss scientist Professor Hoffner. His bookseller disguise comes from the 1903 Conan Doyle story The Adventure of the Empty House and is spoofed parodied in The Pink Panther (1963).

Atwill played Dr James Mortimer in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939) and was due to re-appear with the stars as Professor Moriarty in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939) but was replaced by George Zucco.

It is one of four films in the series in the public domain because it was published in the US between 1929 and 1963, and the copyright was not renewed.

It is followed by Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943).

The cast are Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes, Nigel Bruce as Doctor Watson, Lionel Atwill as Professor Moriarty, Kaaren Verne as Charlotte Eberli, William Post Jr as Dr Franz Tobel, Dennis Hoey as Inspector Lestrade, Holmes Herbert as Sir Reginald Bailey, Mary Gordon as Mrs Hudson, and Henry Victor as Dr Frederick Hoffner.

Original American cinema release poster.

Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon is directed by Roy William Neill, runs 68 minutes (restored version), is made by Universal Pictures, is distributed by Universal Pictures, is written by W Scott Darling, Edward T Lowe Jr and Edmund L Hartmann (screenplay), based on The Adventure of the Dancing Men by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is shot by Lester White, is produced by Howard Benedict, and is scored by Frank Skinner.

Release dates: December 25, 1942 (Los Angeles) and February 12, 1943 (United States).

Budget: $200,000.

Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1942, Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce).

The films of Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Doctor Watson: The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939), The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939), Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942), Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1942), Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943), Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943), The Spider Woman (1943), The Scarlet Claw (1944), The Pearl of Death (1944), The House of Fear (1945), The Woman in Green (1945), Pursuit to Algiers (1945), Terror by Night (1946), and Dressed to Kill (1946).

German-born actress Kaaren Verne (6 April 1918 – 23 December 1967),

Kaaren Verne (6 April 1918 – 23 December 1967) was born in Berlin as Ingeborg Greta Katerina Marie-Rose Klinckerfuss. She fled the Nazis in 1938. She married Peter Lorre (25 May 1945 – 1950; divorced).

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 988

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