Rijndri Load of rubbish!!

Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Infamousta brilliant actors, brilliant editing

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

AaronCapenBanner Alfred L. Werker directed this second Basil Rathbone & Nigel Bruce Sherlock Homes & Dr. Watson film, released the same year(1939) features the first use of arch-enemy Professor Moriarty(played by George Zucco) who here has a plan to steal the crown jewels of England, which Holmes is determined to prevent, though the cunning Moriarty ends up embarrassing him at one point! Ida Lupino costars as a client of Holmes, being threatened by Moriarty. Basil Rathbone is once again the highlight, as the story(an amalgam of different elements taken from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories) is muddled, and like its predecessor, doesn't bear scrutiny, but still remains acceptable viewing.

MarieGabrielle Reliable Holmes story with Basil Rathbone and Dr. Watson as usual his social, albeit bumbling self.Ida Lupino is the femme fatal, her brother is murdered and she must seek help from Holmes to find out why.George Zucco as Moriarty is menacing and fun, as when his faithful servant gives him a shave with a straight-edge, and Moriarty sneers that he should want to cut his throat. Moriarty states he has nothing but contempt for most humankind.The sets are appropriately foggy and dense, London Victorian streets, oil lamps, a murder occurs in Bayswater Park; an odd Chilean flute chant, some sort of death song. There are also references to the albatross.When you see films like this today you appreciate the quality of a true suspense story, it doesn't always have wild action, but it has real suspense and theme, which is rare these days. 9/10.

kenjha The second pairing of Rathbone and Bruce as Holmes and Watson, released a few months after the success of "The Hound of the Baskervilles," is a good-looking film that has the venerable detective matching wits with Professor Moriarity, as the latter schemes a jewel heist. Lupino, although British born, usually played Americans. Hence, it's a little odd seeing her sporting an English accent here. The foggy London atmosphere is a big plus, but the plot is less than compelling. This is based on a play by William Gillette, a Holmes aficionado, rather than a story by Conan Doyle. Unlike the best of Conan Doyle, the plot lacks a mystery to really draw the viewer in.

sol1218 **SPOILERS** Professor Moriarty, George Zucco, did it again! Just when it looks like curtains for him he managed to beat a murder rap that would have sent his sorry neck straight to the London Gallows. It was only because his arch enemy the great Sherlock Holmes, Basil Rathbone, couldn't get to the courtroom on time with evidence that would have completely contradicted Moriarty's alibi that got him acquitted of murder.Knowing that it's only a matter of time before Holmes gets the goods, as well as the hangman's rope, on him Moriarty concocts a devious plan to the destroy Holmes reputation as a great detective one's in for all. Something that would be worse then death for him! By throwing a fake pass in him having Lloyd Brandon, Peter Willis, murdered by his paid goons Moriarty, being the sneak that he is, is planning to pull off a quarterback sneak, within inches of the goal line, and score the big one in heisting the British Royal Family's Crown Jewels locked securely in the Tower of London. Knowing how Holmes' mind works Moriarty plans to send him on a wild goose chase all throughout London in finding Brandon's killer while he with his famous beard shaved off, and impersonating a London Bobbi or policeman, breaks into the Tower of London and checks out with the Crown Jewels!One of Sherlock Holmes' most baffling and difficult cases to crack in that he's up against a determined Professor Moriarty who uses all his criminal genius to make make a monkey out of Holmes and look foolish in the eyes of the British public that think the world of him.***SPOILERS*** Despite all of Holmes' efforts to save Lloyd's life he ends up getting it, in the neck, in front of dozens of witnesses on a crowded London street! This has Lloyd's kid sister Ann, Ida Lupino, terrified in that she'll be targeted next by her brother's murderer! Since she was sent the same death threat, in a letter, that he got just before he was murdered! In the end it was Sherlock Holmes' brilliant powers of deduction that uncovered Moriarty's evil plan to destroy his reputation as a great, if not the greatest, English detective. As Holmes brilliantly concluded what's the big deal about some garden verity murder, which he committed dozens during his criminal career, to Moriarty when he was planning to pull of the crime of the century! Something that would not only make newspaper headlines but be forever talked about and studied in police and military academy's the world over for years to come. It was by the boastful Moriarty bagging to Holmes what he was going to do in advance that tipped off the great detective to watch out for any false flags, like a simple murder, and not try to be fooled by them. Which in fact Holmes wasn't!P.S In fact the crime of the century was actually pulled off the very day that the film "The Advantures of Sherlock Holmes" was released to the public; September 1, 1939! It was on that very day that Adolph Hitler sent his panzer and infantry divisions into Poland which started the bloodiest war in all of recorder history: World War II!