The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (film)

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The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Directed by Alfred L. Werker
Written by Arthur Conan Doyle (characters)
William Gillette (play Sherlock Holmes)
Edwin Blum & William Drake (screenplay)
Starring Basil Rathbone
Nigel Bruce
Ida Lupino
George Zucco
Alan Marshal
Distributed by Twentieth Century Fox
Release date(s) September 1, 1939
Running time 85 min.
Country U.S.A.
Language English
Preceded by The Hound of the Baskervilles
Followed by Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939) is a film featuring the characters of the Sherlock Holmes series of books as created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was the second film to feature Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Doctor Watson, and the final one they would make for Twentieth Century Fox. George Zucco appeared as Holmes's nemesis Professor Moriarty. In Britain, the film was originally released under the shorter title Sherlock Holmes.

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[edit] Background

The film's plot was based on the stage play by William Gillette. The play famously featured a very young Charlie Chaplin in one of his very first acting roles during its first London production. He played the character of Billy, who in this movie is played by Terry Kilburn.

[edit] Plot

The film begins with Moriarty and Holmes verbally sparring on the steps outside the Old Bailey where Moriarty has just been acquitted on a charge of murder due to lack of evidence. Holmes remarks, "You've a magnificent brain, Moriarty. I admire it. I admire it so much I'd like to present it, pickled in alcohol, to the London Medical Society". "It would make an impressive exhibit" sneers Moriarty.

Later Holmes and Watson are visited at 221b Baker Street by Ann Brandon (Ida Lupino). She tells him that her brother Lloyd has received a strange note - a drawing of a man with an albatross hanging around his neck - identical to one received by her father just before his brutal murder ten years before. Holmes deduces that the note is a warning and rushes to find Lloyd Brandon. However he is too late, as Lloyd has been murdered by being strangled and having his skull crushed.

Holmes investigates and attends a garden party, disguised as a music-hall entertainer, where he correctly believes an attempt will be made on Ann's life. Hearing her cries from a nearby park he captures her assailant, who turns out to be Gabriel Mateo, out for revenge on the Brandons for the murder of his father, by Ann's father in a dispute over ownership of their South American mine. His murder weapon was a bolas. Mateo also reveals that it was Moriarty who urged him to seek revenge. Holmes realises that Moriarty is using the case as a distraction from his real crime, a crime that will stir the British Empire - an attempt to steal the Crown Jewels. Holmes rushes to the Tower of London to prevent the crime, and during a struggle Moriarty falls, presumably to his death.[1]

[edit] Influence

The quote "Elementary, my dear Watson" was made popular by this film. Although it was spoken in a poor 1929 talkie The Return of Sherlock Holmes, starring Clive Brook, it was never featured in a canonical Arthur Conan Doyle story, although once Holmes said, in "The Adventure of the Crooked Man", "Elementary". The quote "Elementary, my dear Watson" was ranked No. 65 in the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes poll.

In the scene where Holmes gatecrashes the garden party dressed as a music hall performer, he sings "Oh I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside". This is an anachronism, since the film is set in 1894, but the song was written in 1907.

[edit] Cast

[edit] References

  1. ^ Davies, David Stuart, Holmes of the Movies (New English Library, 1976) ISBN 450 03358 9

[edit] External links