The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes **** (1939, Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Ida Lupino, Alan Marshal, George Zucco) – Classic Movie Review 987

The 1939 mystery thriller film The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes hastily signs up Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce again as Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson for a more than welcome sequel to their hit The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Director Alfred E Werker’s 1939 American mystery adventure thriller film The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes hastily signs up Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce again as Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson for a more than welcome sequel to their huge success in The Hound of the Baskervilles (also 1939).

Written by Edwin Blum and William Drake, this is another sleekly produced, extremely entertaining and highly atmospheric adaptation from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, this time via a 1899 stage play version by William Gillette, just called Sherlock Holmes, though it bears little resemblance to it. The play marked the stage debut of Charles Chaplin (as Billy, played by Terry Kilburn in the film). The title comes from a collection of short stories by Conan Doyle, first published on 14 October 1892.

Rathbone is again superb in his definitive appearance as the best ever Sherlock Holmes, Bruce makes a fine foil as the dithering, ultra-loyal Dr Watson and George Zucco (replacing originally cast Lionel Atwill) provides a worthy nemesis for them as the devilish Professor Moriarty, Holmes’s arch-enemy and super-villain. [Atwill played Dr James Mortimer in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939) and re-appeared with the stars as Professor Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon.]

Perhaps the tale about Moriarty committing murder on his way to stealing the British Crown Jewels from their supposedly safe home in the Tower of London is on the mild side, though the plotting with Moriarty’s devious murders and scattering of red herrings to put Holmes off the scent easily compensates. As part of his plot, he persuades a gaucho flute player to murder a girl.

An oddball highlight of the movie is the enjoyably bizarre scene with the great detective in disguise performing a Cockney song and dance. He also gate-crashes a garden party and sings ‘I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside’, though the song was written in 1907 but the film is set in 1894.

Ida Lupino (as Ann Brandon), Alan Marshal (as Jerrold Hunter), E E Clive (as Inspector Bristol), Henry Stephenson (as Sir Ronald Ramsgate), Mary Gordon (as an essential Mrs Hudson) and Arthur Hohl (as Bassick) are also in the top cast.

The movie has Holmes saying ‘Elementary, my dear Watson’, which never appears in Conan Doyle’s work but remains iconic and was voted number 65 all-time movie quote by the American Film Institute. Clive Brook previously said it in the 1929 The Return of Sherlock Holmes, and so did Arthur Wontner in the films featuring him as Holmes. So, although ‘Elementary, my dear Watson’ may be a mere movie concoction mostly popularised by Basil Rathbone in this film, however Holmes did once say ‘Elementary’ in the 1893 story The Adventure of the Crooked Man.

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939) is notable as the first Holmes film set in the Victorian period of the original stories but this second film was the last Victorian-era appearance for the stars together. After this they starred in 12 Forties-set B-movies films, battling the Nazis and other contemporary villains, starting with Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942). It is the final film in the series made and released by 20th Century Fox, and Universal Pictures made the rest.

The scene where Holmes experiments with flies in a glass while playing the violin is recreated in the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr.

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), 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).

The cast are Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes, Nigel Bruce as Dr Watson, Ida Lupino as Ann Brandon, George Zucco as Professor Moriarty, Alan Marshal as Jerrold Hunter, Terry Kilburn as Billy, Henry Stephenson as Sir Ronald Ramsgate, E E Clive as Inspector Bristol, Arthur Hohl as Bassick, Mary Forbes as Lady Conyngham, Peter Willes as Lloyd Brandon, Mary Gordon as Mrs Hudson, Frank Dawson as Dawes, George Regas as Matteo, William Austin as passer-by, and Holmes Herbert as Justice of the Court.

Scottish actress Mary Gordon (born Mary Gilmour; 16 May 1882 – 23 August 1963) made nearly 300 films between 1925 and 1950, most notably playing the landlady Mrs Hudson in the Sherlock Holmes series of movies.

Terry Kilburn was born in 1926 in West Ham, Essex. His final film role was a small part in Lolita (1962). He was artistic director of Oakland University’s Meadow Brook Theatre in Rochester, Michigan, from 1970 to 1994. Since then he has lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His partner of over 50 years, actor Charles Nolte, died in January 2010.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 987

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