Rathbone-Bruce Sherlock Holmes films
Encyclopedia
Basil Rathbone
and Nigel Bruce
played Arthur Conan Doyle
's characters Sherlock Holmes
and Doctor Watson respectively in fourteen black-and-white
films released between 1939 and 1946.
in 1939 was originally intended as a one-off production. However, as the release met with critical success in the US, the studio followed it up the same year with The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
, which established what was to become a popular trend of combining elements from several Sherlock Holmes stories to create new tales. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was ostensibly based on William Gillette
's 1899 play, but was actually quite different.
The Hound and The Adventures were the first Sherlock Holmes films to be set in the proper Victorian era
– all previous Holmes films had been set at the time of the respective films' release, up to and including the 1930s British series featuring Arthur Wontner
.
) and others have suggested that the poor critical reception for The Hound in Great Britain may have been a factor. The subsequent 12 films later produced by Universal Studios
are unrelated to the first two Fox pictures (except in the casting of Rathbone and Bruce, as well as Mary Gordon
as housekeeper Mrs. Hudson), although the films are often regarded as a single series.
Universal Studios purchased the rights to some of the short stories from the Conan Doyle estate in early 1942 and planned a new series of films, including both original scripts and (loose) adaptations of the canon
. Rathbone and Bruce (who had continued playing Holmes and Watson in radio broadcasts after the films were discontinued by Fox) were the obvious choice for the leading roles.
Following the entry of the United States into the Second World War, the first three Universal movies featured explicit anti-Nazi themes: Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror
, Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon
, and Sherlock Holmes in Washington
. Universal noted at the beginning of each film that Holmes remained "ageless" as they updated him to face 20th century villains — in this case, the Nazis.
These movies often paralleled real-life events. For example, in Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror, Holmes battles a Nazi radio program, similar to the real-life "Germany Calling" broadcasts of the British traitor Lord Haw-Haw
. In Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon, the British and Germans fight to secure the "Tobel bombsight", analogous to the real-life Norden Bombsight
.
Starting with 1942's Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon, all of the remaining films were directed by Roy William Neill
.
Six additional films were made during World War II: Sherlock Holmes Faces Death
, The Spider Woman, The Scarlet Claw
, The Pearl of Death
, The House of Fear
, and The Woman in Green
(made after the end of European hostilities but prior to the Japanese surrender). These movies have no explicit war references and are "standard" Holmes mysteries. Sherlock Holmes Faces Death is set in a convalescent home for shell-shock victims, but the plot is not war-related. At the end of The Spider Woman appears a shooting gallery whose moving targets are effigies of Hitler
, Mussolini
and Hirohito
, but the plot is not war-related either. Holmes quotes Churchill
regarding the vital role of Canada in Anglo-American relations at the end of The Scarlet Claw
, which is similar to the final scene of Sherlock Holmes in Washington, but there is no direct reference to the war and no explicit anti-Nazi propaganda.
The Pearl of Death was an attempt by Universal to launch a new "monster" called "The Creeper", portrayed by Rondo Hatton
. Hatton went on to reprise the role in House of Horrors
and The Brute Man
, both released in 1946.
Following the war, three more films were made: Pursuit to Algiers
, Terror by Night
, and Dressed to Kill
.
Even after the films ceased to be used for explicit propaganda purposes (both during the latter years of the war, when Allied victory seemed more assured, and after the war's conclusion), the writers of the Universal series never reverted to the Victorian setting of the two Fox productions and of the original Holmes' stories and characters.
The duo also made numerous radio recordings as Holmes and Watson, one of which was used in the Disney film The Great Mouse Detective
, for the cameos of Sherlock Holmes and Watson. Rathbone eventually tired of his role (though Bruce never did).
:
Throughout the Universal series, supporting actors often reappeared in varying roles. For example, Harry Cording
played:
Henry Daniell
, Frederick Worlock, and Gerald Hamer also made several appearances in different roles throughout the life of the series. Evelyn Ankers
, who gained fame as Universal's "scream queen," was both the Limehouse
barmaid Kitty in Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror and the villainous Naomi Drake in The Pearl of Death.
Holmes' arch-nemesis, Professor Moriarty
, was portrayed by three actors: Lionel Atwill
in 1943's Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon, Henry Daniell in The Woman in Green, and George Zucco
in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. He "dies" violently in each of the three episodes, one of the few times that a villain dies repeatedly in a film series (though his death in The Woman in Green apparently had some permanency, as Holmes remarks in Terror By Night, "...Colonel Sebastian Moran was the most sinister, ruthless, and diabolically clever henchman of our late but unlamented friend, Professor Moriarty.").
:
The original nitrate elements of Terror by Night have been poorly preserved. In particular, the last few minutes are damaged and versions commonly available on low-quality home video show skips and sound problems. The digitally remastered version does not have these problems and is in excellent condition.
The four public domain films are the Rathbone-Bruce films most often shown on television, and have also been released in colorized
format. The others, including the classic Hound of the Baskervilles, are very seldom shown, even on the Fox Movie Channel
, which shows Twentieth Century-Fox films exclusively. However, Turner Classic Movies
aired almost all of the Rathbone/Bruce films on December 25-26, 2009.
The master elements to the classic Rathbone-Bruce films (from both Fox and Universal) have passed on over the decades from the two studios to other independent companies, and today they reside with CBS Television Distribution
(whose KingWorld predecessor inherited the films in 2003). All of the films were formally restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive
in 2003, and these restorations have been issued on home video via MPI Home Video
.
. The series proved enormously popular, and ran from 1939 to 1946.
The series is generally credited with keeping Rathbone and Bruce’s portrayal of the characters alive during the three-year gap in the films, and helped the characters reach a wider audience. It remains questionable whether the film series would have even been resurrected without the radio series having continued in the meantime.
Two hundred and twenty episodes were made, of which around one hundred and fifty are now thought to survive, with over fifty of these episodes being freely available on the internet. The episodes are all in the public domain.
Given the limited number of Conan Doyle stories, script editor Edith Meisner wrote a large number of original scenarios for the series. As with the film series, even the wholly original stories would lift plot elements and lines of dialogue from the canon. Unlike the film series, the radio episodes retained their Victorian setting right up until the very end of the run, with each episode opening as the radio announcer would talk to an elderly, retired Dr Watson, now somewhat improbably living in a bungalow
in California
, and he would reminisce about one of Holmes’ cases.
When Rathbone stepped down from the film role in 1946, he also left the radio series at the same time. Nigel Bruce, however, continued for another year, and the 1946-7 series gave him top billing alongside Tom Conway
, who took over the role of Holmes. Conway was partly cast because he had a voice remarkably similar to Rathbone’s, and 39 episodes were made with the Conway-Bruce partnership.
It should be noted that the series was not specifically created for Rathbone and Bruce – the Sherlock Holmes series, under various titles, ran on American radio from 1930 to 1950 with a variety of actors in the lead roles. However, the duo proved by far the most popular and long-serving actors in the lead roles, and were no doubt helped by their being the only actors in the radio series to also play their roles on screen (although the late William Gillette
, best known as Holmes on stage, had been Holmes in a 1916 film, and had starred in the very first radio episode in 1930).
The radio series is very highly regarded by enthusiasts of Old Time Radio, being one of the more popular series subscribed to today. However, there are frequent interruption for sponsors’ messages, particularly endorsements of Petri wine by the radio announcer, and occasionally, Dr Watson.
as Holmes and Watson in the 1943 comedy musical extravaganza Crazy House. In the bit Watson rushes in to tell Holmes that the comedy team of Olsen and Johnson
have landed on the Universal lot, but Holmes already knows. When Watson asks how, Rathbone replies: "I am Sherlock Holmes. I know everything." They also made their only non-Holmes/Watson appearance together in the 1944 film adaptation of Frenchman's Creek.
series Suspense
, entitled "The Adventure of the Black Baronet", broadcast on 26 May 1953. Martyn Green
played Watson opposite Rathbone. It was intended to be a pilot for a subsequent television series, but the option was not picked up by any network.
. He had hoped that Bruce could perform as Watson, but Bruce was too ill to appear and died while the play was still in rehearsal. The play opened to largely negative reviews and only ran for three performances.
", "The Adventure of the Red-Headed League", "The Adventure of the Speckled Band
", and "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
".
Basil Rathbone
Sir Basil Rathbone, KBE, MC, Kt was an English actor. He rose to prominence in England as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films...
and Nigel Bruce
Nigel Bruce
William Nigel Ernle Bruce , best known as Nigel Bruce, was a British character actor on stage and screen. He was best known for his portrayal of Doctor Watson in a series of films and in the radio series The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes...
played Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
's characters Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
and Doctor Watson respectively in fourteen black-and-white
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
films released between 1939 and 1946.
Beginning at Twentieth Century Fox
The first two films were produced by Twentieth Century Fox. The Hound of the BaskervillesThe Hound of the Baskervilles (1939 film)
The Hound of the Baskervilles 1939 mystery film based on the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and is directed by Sidney Lanfield and produced by 20th Century Fox....
in 1939 was originally intended as a one-off production. However, as the release met with critical success in the US, the studio followed it up the same year with The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (film)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a 1939 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, the final one they would make for 20th Century Fox, and...
, which established what was to become a popular trend of combining elements from several Sherlock Holmes stories to create new tales. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was ostensibly based on William Gillette
William Gillette
William Hooker Gillette was an American actor, playwright and stage-manager in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who is best remembered today for portraying Sherlock Holmes....
's 1899 play, but was actually quite different.
The Hound and The Adventures were the first Sherlock Holmes films to be set in the proper Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
– all previous Holmes films had been set at the time of the respective films' release, up to and including the 1930s British series featuring Arthur Wontner
Arthur Wontner
Arthur Wontner was a British actor best known for playing Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's master detective Sherlock Holmes in five films from 1931 to 1937...
.
Move to Universal
Twentieth Century Fox dropped the Sherlock Holmes series after the second film. There is no clear reason for this, although Holmes scholars such as the late Richard Valley (editor of Scarlet Street magazineScarlet Street (magazine)
Scarlet Street was an American film magazine that primarily specialized in the genres of horror, mystery and film noir. Its initial concentration was on Sherlock Holmes and related film and television productions, but later its subject matter expanded to include a variety of other genres.The title...
) and others have suggested that the poor critical reception for The Hound in Great Britain may have been a factor. The subsequent 12 films later produced by Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
are unrelated to the first two Fox pictures (except in the casting of Rathbone and Bruce, as well as Mary Gordon
Mary Gordon (actor)
Mary Gordon was a Scottish actress, long in the United States, who specialized in housekeepers and mothers, most notably the landlady Mrs. Hudson in the Sherlock Holmes series of movies of the Thirties and Forties...
as housekeeper Mrs. Hudson), although the films are often regarded as a single series.
Universal Studios purchased the rights to some of the short stories from the Conan Doyle estate in early 1942 and planned a new series of films, including both original scripts and (loose) adaptations of the canon
Canon of Sherlock Holmes
Traditionally, the canon of Sherlock Holmes consists of the fifty-six short stories and four novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In this context, the term "canon" is an attempt to distinguish between Doyle's original works and subsequent works by other authors using the same...
. Rathbone and Bruce (who had continued playing Holmes and Watson in radio broadcasts after the films were discontinued by Fox) were the obvious choice for the leading roles.
Wartime propaganda
Universal shifted the setting from Victorian England to then present day 1940s – partly for budgetary reasons but also to give a modern action-adventure feel, in tune with popular contemporary tastes.Following the entry of the United States into the Second World War, the first three Universal movies featured explicit anti-Nazi themes: Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror
Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror
Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror is the third film in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series of Sherlock Holmes movies. Made in 1942, the film combines elements of the Arthur Conan Doyle story "His Last Bow" and loosely parallels the real-life activities of Lord Haw-haw...
, Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon is the fourth in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series of Sherlock Holmes films.- Plot :Sherlock Holmes pretends to be a Nazi spy to aid scientist Dr. Franz Tobel and his new invention, a bombsight, in escaping a Gestapo trap in Switzerland...
, and Sherlock Holmes in Washington
Sherlock Holmes in Washington
Sherlock Holmes in Washington is the fifth film in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series of Sherlock Holmes movies.- Plot :A British agent carrying a vital document is murdered on his way to deliver it in the USA...
. Universal noted at the beginning of each film that Holmes remained "ageless" as they updated him to face 20th century villains — in this case, the Nazis.
These movies often paralleled real-life events. For example, in Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror, Holmes battles a Nazi radio program, similar to the real-life "Germany Calling" broadcasts of the British traitor Lord Haw-Haw
Lord Haw-Haw
Lord Haw-Haw was the nickname of several announcers on the English-language propaganda radio programme Germany Calling, broadcast by Nazi German radio to audiences in Great Britain on the medium wave station Reichssender Hamburg and by shortwave to the United States...
. In Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon, the British and Germans fight to secure the "Tobel bombsight", analogous to the real-life Norden Bombsight
Norden bombsight
The Norden bombsight was a tachometric bombsight used by the United States Army Air Forces and the United States Navy during World War II, and the United States Air Force in the Korean and the Vietnam Wars to aid the crew of bomber aircraft in dropping bombs accurately...
.
Starting with 1942's Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon, all of the remaining films were directed by Roy William Neill
Roy William Neill
Roy William Neill was a film director best known today for directing several of the Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, made between 1943 and 1946 and released by Universal Studios....
.
Six additional films were made during World War II: Sherlock Holmes Faces Death
Sherlock Holmes Faces Death
Sherlock Holmes Faces Death is the sixth film in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series of Sherlock Holmes films. Made in 1943, it incorporates elements of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle story, "The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual".-Plot:Dr...
, The Spider Woman, The Scarlet Claw
The Scarlet Claw
The Scarlet Claw is a 1944 Sherlock Holmes movie directed by Roy William Neill, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. It is the eighth film of the Rathbone/Bruce series. The device of a killer using a supernatural entity to cover up his crimes is borrowed from The Hound of the Baskervilles,...
, The Pearl of Death
The Pearl of Death
The Pearl of Death is a 1944 Sherlock Holmes film starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson. The story is loosely based on Conan Doyle's short story "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons" but features some additions, such as Evelyn Ankers as an accomplice of the villain, played...
, The House of Fear
Sherlock Holmes and the House of Fear
Sherlock Holmes and the House of Fear is a 1945 crime film directed by Roy William Neill. It is loosely based on The Five Orange Pips by Arthur Conan Doyle, and features the characters Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. It is the 10th film of the Rathbone-Bruce series.-Plot:Holmes is visited by Mr...
, and The Woman in Green
The Woman in Green
The Woman in Green is a 1945 Sherlock Holmes film starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson, with Hillary Brooke as the woman of the title and Henry Daniell as Professor Moriarty. It is mostly an original story, but scenes from Arthur Conan Doyle's The Final Problem and The...
(made after the end of European hostilities but prior to the Japanese surrender). These movies have no explicit war references and are "standard" Holmes mysteries. Sherlock Holmes Faces Death is set in a convalescent home for shell-shock victims, but the plot is not war-related. At the end of The Spider Woman appears a shooting gallery whose moving targets are effigies of Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
, Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
and Hirohito
Hirohito
, posthumously in Japan officially called Emperor Shōwa or , was the 124th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order, reigning from December 25, 1926, until his death in 1989. Although better known outside of Japan by his personal name Hirohito, in Japan he is now referred to...
, but the plot is not war-related either. Holmes quotes Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
regarding the vital role of Canada in Anglo-American relations at the end of The Scarlet Claw
The Scarlet Claw
The Scarlet Claw is a 1944 Sherlock Holmes movie directed by Roy William Neill, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. It is the eighth film of the Rathbone/Bruce series. The device of a killer using a supernatural entity to cover up his crimes is borrowed from The Hound of the Baskervilles,...
, which is similar to the final scene of Sherlock Holmes in Washington, but there is no direct reference to the war and no explicit anti-Nazi propaganda.
The Pearl of Death was an attempt by Universal to launch a new "monster" called "The Creeper", portrayed by Rondo Hatton
Rondo Hatton
Rondo Hatton was an American actor who had a brief, but prolific career playing thuggish bit parts in many Hollywood B-movies. He was known for his brutish facial features which were the result of acromegaly, a disorder of the pituitary gland.-Biography:Hatton was born Rondo K...
. Hatton went on to reprise the role in House of Horrors
House of Horrors
House of Horrors was a low-budget horror film released by Universal Pictures, starring Rondo Hatton as a madman, named "The Creeper." It was also known as Murder Mansion and in the United Kingdom as Joan Medford is Missing.-Plot:...
and The Brute Man
The Brute Man
The Brute Man is a 1946 American horror thriller film starring Rondo Hatton as the Creeper, a murderer seeking revenge against the people he holds responsible for the disfigurement of his face. Directed by Jean Yarbrough, the film features Tom Neal and Jan Wiley as a married pair of friends the...
, both released in 1946.
Following the war, three more films were made: Pursuit to Algiers
Pursuit to Algiers
Pursuit to Algiers is the twelfth film in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series of Sherlock Holmes movies. Elements in the story pay homage to an otherwise unrecorded affair mentioned by Watson at the beginning of The Adventure of the Norwood Builder, notably the steamship Friesland.-Plot:About to...
, Terror by Night
Terror by Night
Terror by Night is a 1946 Sherlock Holmes mystery film inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, loosely based on The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax and The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle. It was directed by Roy William Neill, and stars Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson...
, and Dressed to Kill
Dressed to Kill (1946 film)
Dressed to Kill , is the last of fourteen films starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Doctor Watson....
.
Even after the films ceased to be used for explicit propaganda purposes (both during the latter years of the war, when Allied victory seemed more assured, and after the war's conclusion), the writers of the Universal series never reverted to the Victorian setting of the two Fox productions and of the original Holmes' stories and characters.
The duo also made numerous radio recordings as Holmes and Watson, one of which was used in the Disney film The Great Mouse Detective
The Great Mouse Detective
The Great Mouse Detective is a 1986 animated feature produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, originally released to movie theaters on July 2, 1986 by Walt Disney Pictures...
, for the cameos of Sherlock Holmes and Watson. Rathbone eventually tired of his role (though Bruce never did).
Differences between the books and films
Most of the movies took great liberties with the Sherlock Holmes canonCanon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
:
- Beginning in 1942, Holmes was updated to fight modern villains, such as the Nazis. However, after the first three films, his enemies became much less politically oriented and the war was never referred to after Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943).
- Several Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories were often mixed to create a new narrative. Only The Hound of the Baskervilles closely followed its source materialThe Hound of the BaskervillesThe Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of four crime novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialised in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set largely on Dartmoor in Devon in England's West Country and tells the story of an...
. - Bruce's portrayal of Dr. Watson as a doddering old fool is quite different from Conan Doyle's conception of him in the original stories, where he is a competent, if unexceptional, physician.
- The same is true of the Inspector LestradeInspector LestradeInspector G. Lestrade is a fictional character, a Scotland Yard detective appearing in several of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle used the name of a friend from his days at the University of Edinburgh, a Saint Lucian medical student by the name of Joseph Alexandre Lestrade....
character, whose portrayal by actor Dennis HoeyDennis HoeyDennis Hoey was a British film and stage actor, best known for playing Inspector Lestrade in Universal's Sherlock Holmes series. He played the Master of Harrow in The Foxes of Harrow and appeared in Tarzan and the Leopard Woman. After a career as a singer, Hoey moved to acting on the stage in...
is unlike the character in the Conan Doyle stories.
Cast
Mary Gordon played Mrs. Hudson in all the films in which the character appears, and Dennis Hoey portrayed Inspector Lestrade in a number of the Universal series.Throughout the Universal series, supporting actors often reappeared in varying roles. For example, Harry Cording
Harry Cording
Harry Cording was a British character actor who appeared in many Hollywood films from the 1920s to the 1950s. Due to his stocky build and imposing 6'0 height, he usually portrayed thugs and henchman to the main villain....
played:
- a dive patron in Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror
- Jack Brady in Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon
- the roof henchman in The Spider Woman
- George Gelder in The Pearl of Death
- Captain Jack Simpson in The House of Fear
- Mock in Terror by Night
- Hamid in Dressed to Kill
Henry Daniell
Henry Daniell
Henry Daniell was an English actor, best known for his villainous movie roles, but who had a long and prestigious career on stage as well as in films....
, Frederick Worlock, and Gerald Hamer also made several appearances in different roles throughout the life of the series. Evelyn Ankers
Evelyn Ankers
Evelyn Ankers was a British actress born in Chile. She often played variations on the role of the cultured young leading lady in many American horror films during the 1940s, most notably The Wolf Man at age 23 opposite Lon Chaney, Jr., a frequent screen partner...
, who gained fame as Universal's "scream queen," was both the Limehouse
Limehouse
Limehouse is a place in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is on the northern bank of the River Thames opposite Rotherhithe and between Ratcliff to the west and Millwall to the east....
barmaid Kitty in Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror and the villainous Naomi Drake in The Pearl of Death.
Holmes' arch-nemesis, Professor Moriarty
Professor Moriarty
Professor James Moriarty is a fictional character and the archenemy of the detective Sherlock Holmes in the fiction of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Moriarty is a criminal mastermind, described by Holmes as the "Napoleon of Crime". Doyle lifted the phrase from a real Scotland Yard inspector who was...
, was portrayed by three actors: Lionel Atwill
Lionel Atwill
Lionel Atwill was an English stage and film actor born in Croydon, London, England.He studied architecture before his stage debut at the Garrick Theatre, London in 1904. He become a star in Broadway theatre by 1918, and made his screen debut in 1919. He acted on the stage in Australia but was most...
in 1943's Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon, Henry Daniell in The Woman in Green, and George Zucco
George Zucco
George Desylla Zucco was an English character actor who appeared, almost always in supporting roles, in 96 films during a career spanning two decades, from 1931 to 1951. He is fondly remembered for his roles in classic horror films.-Early life:Zucco was born in Manchester, England...
in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. He "dies" violently in each of the three episodes, one of the few times that a villain dies repeatedly in a film series (though his death in The Woman in Green apparently had some permanency, as Holmes remarks in Terror By Night, "...Colonel Sebastian Moran was the most sinister, ruthless, and diabolically clever henchman of our late but unlamented friend, Professor Moriarty.").
Status
Four of the films are in the public domainPublic domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
:
- Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1943)
- The Woman in Green (1945)
- Terror by Night (1946)
- Dressed to Kill (1946)
The original nitrate elements of Terror by Night have been poorly preserved. In particular, the last few minutes are damaged and versions commonly available on low-quality home video show skips and sound problems. The digitally remastered version does not have these problems and is in excellent condition.
The four public domain films are the Rathbone-Bruce films most often shown on television, and have also been released in colorized
Film colorization
Film colorization is any process that adds color to black-and-white, sepia or monochrome moving-picture images. It may be done as a special effect, or to modernize black-and-white films, or to restore color films...
format. The others, including the classic Hound of the Baskervilles, are very seldom shown, even on the Fox Movie Channel
Fox Movie Channel
The Fox Movie Channel is a channel which shows movies uncut and commercial-free.-Overview:Movie content consists mainly of selections from 20th Century Fox's library of releases through the 1990s and movies produced exclusively for television. Widescreen versions are shown whenever available....
, which shows Twentieth Century-Fox films exclusively. However, Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...
aired almost all of the Rathbone/Bruce films on December 25-26, 2009.
The master elements to the classic Rathbone-Bruce films (from both Fox and Universal) have passed on over the decades from the two studios to other independent companies, and today they reside with CBS Television Distribution
CBS Television Distribution
CBS Television Distribution is a global television distribution company, formed from the merger of CBS Corporation's two domestic television distribution arms CBS Paramount Domestic Television and King World Productions, including its home entertainment arm CBS Home Entertainment...
(whose KingWorld predecessor inherited the films in 2003). All of the films were formally restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive
UCLA Film and Television Archive
The UCLA Film and Television Archive is an internationally renowned visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles. It holds more than 220,000 film and television titles and 27 million feet of...
in 2003, and these restorations have been issued on home video via MPI Home Video
MPI Home Video
MPI Home Video is a home entertainment company that produces and distributes popular documentaries, films and television series on DVD & Blu-ray for the home video market. MPI Home Video is a subsidiary of MPI Media Group which was founded in 1976 by brothers Malik & Waleed Ali...
.
The films
- 1. The Hound of the BaskervillesThe Hound of the Baskervilles (1939 film)The Hound of the Baskervilles 1939 mystery film based on the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and is directed by Sidney Lanfield and produced by 20th Century Fox....
(1939) - 2. The Adventures of Sherlock HolmesThe Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (film)The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a 1939 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, the final one they would make for 20th Century Fox, and...
(1939) - 3. Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of TerrorSherlock Holmes and the Voice of TerrorSherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror is the third film in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series of Sherlock Holmes movies. Made in 1942, the film combines elements of the Arthur Conan Doyle story "His Last Bow" and loosely parallels the real-life activities of Lord Haw-haw...
(1942) - 4. Sherlock Holmes and the Secret WeaponSherlock Holmes and the Secret WeaponSherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon is the fourth in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series of Sherlock Holmes films.- Plot :Sherlock Holmes pretends to be a Nazi spy to aid scientist Dr. Franz Tobel and his new invention, a bombsight, in escaping a Gestapo trap in Switzerland...
(1943) - 5. Sherlock Holmes in WashingtonSherlock Holmes in WashingtonSherlock Holmes in Washington is the fifth film in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series of Sherlock Holmes movies.- Plot :A British agent carrying a vital document is murdered on his way to deliver it in the USA...
(1943) - 6. Sherlock Holmes Faces DeathSherlock Holmes Faces DeathSherlock Holmes Faces Death is the sixth film in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series of Sherlock Holmes films. Made in 1943, it incorporates elements of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle story, "The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual".-Plot:Dr...
(1943) - 7. The Spider Woman (1944)
- 8. The Scarlet ClawThe Scarlet ClawThe Scarlet Claw is a 1944 Sherlock Holmes movie directed by Roy William Neill, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. It is the eighth film of the Rathbone/Bruce series. The device of a killer using a supernatural entity to cover up his crimes is borrowed from The Hound of the Baskervilles,...
(1944) - 9. The Pearl of DeathThe Pearl of DeathThe Pearl of Death is a 1944 Sherlock Holmes film starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson. The story is loosely based on Conan Doyle's short story "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons" but features some additions, such as Evelyn Ankers as an accomplice of the villain, played...
(1944) - 10. The House of FearSherlock Holmes and the House of FearSherlock Holmes and the House of Fear is a 1945 crime film directed by Roy William Neill. It is loosely based on The Five Orange Pips by Arthur Conan Doyle, and features the characters Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. It is the 10th film of the Rathbone-Bruce series.-Plot:Holmes is visited by Mr...
(1945) - 11. The Woman in GreenThe Woman in GreenThe Woman in Green is a 1945 Sherlock Holmes film starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson, with Hillary Brooke as the woman of the title and Henry Daniell as Professor Moriarty. It is mostly an original story, but scenes from Arthur Conan Doyle's The Final Problem and The...
(1945) - 12. Pursuit to AlgiersPursuit to AlgiersPursuit to Algiers is the twelfth film in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series of Sherlock Holmes movies. Elements in the story pay homage to an otherwise unrecorded affair mentioned by Watson at the beginning of The Adventure of the Norwood Builder, notably the steamship Friesland.-Plot:About to...
(1945) - 13. Terror by NightTerror by NightTerror by Night is a 1946 Sherlock Holmes mystery film inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, loosely based on The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax and The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle. It was directed by Roy William Neill, and stars Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson...
(1946) - 14. Dressed to KillDressed to Kill (1946 film)Dressed to Kill , is the last of fourteen films starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Doctor Watson....
(1946)
Radio
After their first two films in 1939, Rathbone and Bruce also starred in the American radio series, The New Adventures of Sherlock HolmesThe New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was an old-time radio show which aired in the USA from October 2, 1939 to July 7, 1947. Most episodes were written by the team of Dennis Green and Anthony Boucher....
. The series proved enormously popular, and ran from 1939 to 1946.
The series is generally credited with keeping Rathbone and Bruce’s portrayal of the characters alive during the three-year gap in the films, and helped the characters reach a wider audience. It remains questionable whether the film series would have even been resurrected without the radio series having continued in the meantime.
Two hundred and twenty episodes were made, of which around one hundred and fifty are now thought to survive, with over fifty of these episodes being freely available on the internet. The episodes are all in the public domain.
Given the limited number of Conan Doyle stories, script editor Edith Meisner wrote a large number of original scenarios for the series. As with the film series, even the wholly original stories would lift plot elements and lines of dialogue from the canon. Unlike the film series, the radio episodes retained their Victorian setting right up until the very end of the run, with each episode opening as the radio announcer would talk to an elderly, retired Dr Watson, now somewhat improbably living in a bungalow
Bungalow
A bungalow is a type of house, with varying meanings across the world. Common features to many of these definitions include being detached, low-rise , and the use of verandahs...
in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, and he would reminisce about one of Holmes’ cases.
When Rathbone stepped down from the film role in 1946, he also left the radio series at the same time. Nigel Bruce, however, continued for another year, and the 1946-7 series gave him top billing alongside Tom Conway
Tom Conway
Tom Conway was a British film and radio actor, and elder brother of actor George Sanders.-Early life:...
, who took over the role of Holmes. Conway was partly cast because he had a voice remarkably similar to Rathbone’s, and 39 episodes were made with the Conway-Bruce partnership.
It should be noted that the series was not specifically created for Rathbone and Bruce – the Sherlock Holmes series, under various titles, ran on American radio from 1930 to 1950 with a variety of actors in the lead roles. However, the duo proved by far the most popular and long-serving actors in the lead roles, and were no doubt helped by their being the only actors in the radio series to also play their roles on screen (although the late William Gillette
William Gillette
William Hooker Gillette was an American actor, playwright and stage-manager in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who is best remembered today for portraying Sherlock Holmes....
, best known as Holmes on stage, had been Holmes in a 1916 film, and had starred in the very first radio episode in 1930).
The radio series is very highly regarded by enthusiasts of Old Time Radio, being one of the more popular series subscribed to today. However, there are frequent interruption for sponsors’ messages, particularly endorsements of Petri wine by the radio announcer, and occasionally, Dr Watson.
Film appearances outside the series
At the same time that the film series was being made, Rathbone and Bruce had a short comedic cameoCameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
as Holmes and Watson in the 1943 comedy musical extravaganza Crazy House. In the bit Watson rushes in to tell Holmes that the comedy team of Olsen and Johnson
Olsen and Johnson
John Sigvard "Ole" Olsen and Harold Ogden "Chic" Johnson were zany American comedians of vaudeville, radio, the Broadway stage, motion pictures and television. Their shows were noted for their crazy blackout gags and orchestrated mayhem...
have landed on the Universal lot, but Holmes already knows. When Watson asks how, Rathbone replies: "I am Sherlock Holmes. I know everything." They also made their only non-Holmes/Watson appearance together in the 1944 film adaptation of Frenchman's Creek.
Television
Seven years after the radio series had finished, Rathbone twice agreed to reprise the role of Holmes, first on television, and then on stage. The television appearance was for a half-hour episode of the CBSCBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
series Suspense
Suspense (US TV series)
Suspense is an American television anthology series that ran on CBS Television from 1949 to 1954. It was adapted from the radio program of the same name which ran from 1942 to 1962. Like many early television programs, the show was broadcast live from New York City...
, entitled "The Adventure of the Black Baronet", broadcast on 26 May 1953. Martyn Green
Martyn Green
William Martyn-Green , better known as Martyn Green, was an English actor and singer. He is best known for his work as principal comedian in the Gilbert & Sullivan comic operas, which he performed and recorded with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and other troupes.After army service in World War I,...
played Watson opposite Rathbone. It was intended to be a pilot for a subsequent television series, but the option was not picked up by any network.
Stage
Later in 1953, Rathbone agreed to reprise the part for a Sherlock Holmes stage play on BroadwayBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
. He had hoped that Bruce could perform as Watson, but Bruce was too ill to appear and died while the play was still in rehearsal. The play opened to largely negative reviews and only ran for three performances.
Records
Rathbone's last connection with the Sherlock Holmes role were his releasing a set of five records in 1958, titled 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'. These featured complete and unabridged readings of four Holmes stories by Rathbone. The stories were: "A Scandal in BohemiaA Scandal in Bohemia
"A Scandal in Bohemia" was the first of Arthur Conan Doyle's 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories to be published in The Strand Magazine and the first Sherlock Holmes story illustrated by Sidney Paget....
", "The Adventure of the Red-Headed League", "The Adventure of the Speckled Band
The Adventure of the Speckled Band
"The Adventure of the Speckled Band" is one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Scottish author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is the eighth of the twelve stories collected in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. It is one of four Sherlock Holmes stories that can be classified as a locked...
", and "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
"The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle", one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is the seventh story of twelve in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes...
".