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Terrific Sherlock Holmes (Rathbone series) entry
posted by genplant29STAFFMOD on December 5, 2017 at 4:07 AM
This is a very nicely done, classy Basil Rathbone series Sherlock Holmes film, that's one I fondly remember seeing on t.v. throughout my growing-up years, and that is still tremendously enjoyed. It has some specific visual moments that remain particularly memorable, namely the Hillary Brooke (as elegant Lydia) scenes of her literally mesmerizingly gently, caressingly swirling the pool of water with her finger, also the scene of Watson getting hypnotized looking at the swirling "infinity" spinning wheel, too the scene of Holmes walking on the apartment building ledge (and what eventually follows). This easily is the Sherlock Holmes series film I remember best, and most fondly, of the various ones in the Rathbone series.
The guest cast is quite wonderful. Hillary Brooke and Henry Daniell give excellent turns as complicit with one another up-to-no-gooders. Paul Cavanagh as an unfortunate recipient of their efforts is the epitome of the urbane gentleman.
This movie, while a B production, has a lot of style and polish to it and comes off (and has aged) well. Meanwhile, while I normally never at all care for how colourized old b&w movies or t.v. series episodes look (either the tinting is too pastel or otherwise just not quite credible seeming, and/or the lips and insides of mouths, etc. are oddly greyish or outright black, as is hair, clothing items, and anything else), the restored, then colourized (grounded in sepia-tone shades), version of this, that was created in 2005, looks excellent. I actually prefer the look of it over the original b&w form of the movie (which I do also think looks great). Job very agreeably done.
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Reply by barrymost
on October 30, 2019 at 1:51 PM
Oh yes. I saw this one very early on in my Basil fandom (which would make nearly two years since I first saw it). This was certainly an intriguing one in the series, and Henry Daniell was an excellent Moriarty. I recall thinking it a bit weird, but nonetheless enjoyable. I've seen all 14 of the Sherlock Holmes series, but I think my two favorites are The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Spider Woman.
Reply by genplant29
on October 30, 2019 at 4:08 PM
The two Rathbone Sherlock Holmes series movies I remember the most are this one and The Hound of the Baskervilles.
This movie has a very polished cast, which is definitely one of its appeals.
Thanks to this movie, my brother and I used to pretend-hypnotize one another as kids.
I believe you're like me, barry: Never can watch enough of The Bazz's films! I have I believe either two or three others of his movies in my personal collection. The ones I'm able to offhand remember that I have (in addition to this one) are Confession (1937) and Crossroads (1942). I'm sure you'd enjoy both of those. Basil plays two different versions of debonair-sleazy in them. Overall, definitely Confession (which I've for some time been meaning to get around to rewatching) is easily the better of the two movies, though Basil is terrific in both.
I need more Rathbone movies!
Reply by barrymost
on October 31, 2019 at 6:23 PM
Absolutely right; you can't get enough of the Baz! It's been a while since I've seen Crossroads, but I took your advice about a month or so ago and watched Confession. It was very good, and I have this extremely well-written biography/filmography on Basil Rathbone that talked about some of the crazy things that the director, Joe May, did during the making of Confession. Apparently, he was so impressed with the original German version that he decided his production would be an exact duplicate! So he sat on the set with a stopwatch to ensure each scene in the movie would run the exact length of the original. Jane Bryan, who played Kay Francis' daughter, later said she felt she was never directed in "a more ridiculous fashion" in her life.
In my opinion though, I thought each of the principal actors contributed a strong performance.
Reply by genplant29
on October 31, 2019 at 11:35 PM
I'm glad you checked out Confession, barry! Indeed, very good acting, and an engrossing story. The production is well done and polished overall. May's method of direction sounds...unusual.