Rathbone-Bruce Sherlock Holmes films

Infobox Film
name = Sherloch Holmes Series


caption = Nigel Bruce as Dr. John H. Watson and Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes
director =
producer =
writer =
starring = Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Mary Gordon (Mrs Hudson) and Dennis Hoey (Insp Lestrade)
music =
cinematography =
editing =
distributor = Two films Twentieth Century Fox, 12 films Universal Studios
released = 1939 - 1946
runtime =
language = English
budget =
amg_id =
imdb_id = The Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce were made between 1939 and 1946. The two lead actors, who made 14 black and white films together as the eponymous heroes, became global icons playing Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson.

Early films

" The Hound of the Baskervilles" was originally intended as a one-shot production. But when it became an unexpected hit Twentieth Century Fox followed it up with "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", which established the common series technique 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 is actually quite different.

Wartime propaganda

With the outbreak of WWII, Universal Studios which had taken over production of the movies shifted the plot from Victorian England to present day 1940s. Three of these Universal Studios 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 parallel 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 Bomb Sight," analogous to the real-life Norden Bombsight.

The amount that these three films' focus on propaganda seems to generally follow the course of the war, with the first coming during some of the more dire times of the war for the Allies (earlier in 1942, though its beginnings were in 1941, before American involvement in the war), the second coming slightly later (later in 1942, after America joined the Allied cause), and the third coming when the course of the war had turned considerably (1943); where as "Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror" (early 1942) was concerned exclusively with wartime intrigue and drama (espionage, sabotage, spying, enemy infiltration, public morale and support for the war, public sacrifice for the war effort, the value of protecting the home-front, the role that every citizen could play in victory).

"Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon" (later 1942) has less of a focus on the war and instead uses the object in question, a secret bombsight, as vehicle for a more conventional type of Holmes story featuring his arch-nemesis, Professor Moriarty (though it does have some small roles for Nazi characters who have some propagandistic lines).

Finally, while "Sherlock Holmes in Washington" deals with the abduction of a British government courier who has information that is critical to the Allied war effort, it does not have any explicitly Nazi characters.

Starting with 1942's "Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon", all of the remaining films were directed by Roy William Neill.

Later films

Five additional films were made during World War II: "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 reference and are "standard" Holmes mysteries. There is some propaganda value, as demonstrated by scenes such as Holmes' quoting Churchill regarding the vital role that Canada plays 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 never reverted to the original Victorian setting of the first two films in the series and of the original Holmes' stories and characters.

Rathbone eventually tired of the role (though Bruce never did). 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.

Differences between book and film

Most of the movies take great liberties with the Sherlock Holmes canon:
* Beginning in 1942, Holmes is updated to fight modern villains, such as the Nazis. However, after 1945, his enemies become much less politically oriented, as World War II was over by then.
* Several Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories are often mixed to create a new narrative. Of the series, only "The Hound of the Baskervilles" closely follows its source material.
* Bruce's portrayal of Dr. Watson as a doddering old fool is quite different than Doyle's conception of him in the original stories, where he is a competent, if unexceptional, physician.
* The same is true of the Inspector Lestrade character, whose portrayal by actor Dennis Hoey is more akin to a Keystone Cop than the character in the Conan Doyle stories.

Cast

Mary Gordon plays Mrs Hudson in films in which she appears, and Dennis Hoey is Inspector Lestrade.

Throughout the series, supporting actors often reappeared in varying roles. For example, Harry Cording appears as:
* 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, 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," appears as 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, is 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 it was referenced in "Terror By Night" during a conversation between Holmes and Lestrade in which Holmes remarks, "...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 domain:
* "Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon"
* "The Woman in Green"
* "Terror by Night". The original nitrate version of this film has been poorly preserved. In particular, the last few minutes are damaged and the best versions show skips and sound problems. The digitally remastered version does not have these problems and is in quite good condition.
* "Dressed to Kill"

These four films have also been released in colorized format.

These four films are the Rathbone-Bruce films most often shown on television. 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.

The films

* "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1939)
* "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (1939)
* "Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror" (1942)
* "Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon" (1943)
* "Sherlock Holmes in Washington" (1943)
* "Sherlock Holmes Faces Death" (1943)
* "The Spider Woman" (1944)
* "The Scarlet Claw" (1944)
* "The Pearl of Death" (1944)
* "The House of Fear" (1945)
* "The Woman in Green" (1945)
* "Pursuit to Algiers" (1945)
* "Terror by Night" (1946)
* "Dressed to Kill" (1946)

Other Rathbone-Bruce appearances as Holmes and Watson

After their first two films in 1939, Rathbone and Bruce also starred in the American radio series, "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes". 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’ Victorian cases.

When Basil Rathbone stepped down from the film role in 1946, he also stepped down from 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, Rathbone and Bruce 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. The only jarring element to the modern listener is the frequent interruption for sponsors’ messages, particularly the heavy-handed and enthusiastic endorsements of Petri wine by the radio announcer, and occasionally, Dr Watson.

At the same time that the film series was being made, Rathbone and Bruce had a cameo as Holmes and Watson in the 1943 comedy musical extravaganza "Crazy House". They also made their only non-Holmes/Watson appearance together in the 1944 film adaptation of "Frenchman's Creek".

Seven years after the radio series had finished, Rathbone twice agreed to reprise the role of Holmes.

The first occasion was for a half-hour television episode of the CBS series "Suspense", entitled, "The Adventure of the Black Baronet", broadcast on 26 May 1953. It was intended to be a pilot for a subsequent television series, but the option was not picked up by any network.

The second occasion, also in 1953, was for a Sherlock Holmes stage play, but Bruce was too ill to agree to appear as Watson, and died while the play was still in rehearsal. The play opened to largely negative reviews, and only ran to three performances.