Runtime: A brisk 68 minutes
Directed by: Roy William Neill
Starring: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Hillary Brooke, Henry Daniell, Paul Cavangah
From: Universal
Viewing a classic mystery film was a nice change of pace; the brisk 68-minute runtime was also a plus for last night. Last summer I viewed 1939’s The Hound of the Baskervilles-starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson-back when the series began at 20th Century Fox. In the 40’s, they moved to Universal where the setting moved from the 19th century to the 1940’s.
I was curious; the reason why I chose this when many of those films can be found for free on YouTube: the cool title + the plot revolving around the distinctive detail of young women murdered… and one digit was severed on each occasion. Is Moriarity involved… despite him (or someone allegedly to be him) having been hung at the gallows? In case it wasn’t evident, aside from two small details taken from two Holmes stories that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote, this was an entirely original tale.
From reviews my mutuals wrote, those Universal movies all seemed rather similar & rote. As I can’t verify this myself, the film will be rated on its own merits. It was rather enjoyable, due in part to Rathbone and Bruce as the lead duo. So it the macabre detail where severed fingers are carried around in pockets. It was a fun mystery and while there’s the bizarre statement from Watson someone 14 stone “shouldn’t own birds” because they are too heavily to properly feed them without possible accidental death (?!?!) overall there was no regrets in seeing more Sherlock on screen, not to mention Rathbone & Bruce. That fatphobic moment wasn’t ideal but at least Watson was properly humiliated in a hilarious scene I dare not spoil.
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