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Post by twothousandonemark on Jan 13, 2023 5:35:02 GMT
B+My first ever classic Sherlock Holmes film viewing. Basil Rathbone is terrific as Holmes, bringing nice solid screen presence for a rather lightweight story. Still, entertaining all the same, & fun around its edges. I was not really expecting its final shot - I wiki'd to make context of it. Moriarty's fall to death; I was assuming he'd be a reoccurring character brought back to life somehow - nope, this was his final official cinematic appearance it seems.
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Post by politicidal on Jan 13, 2023 16:50:30 GMT
5/10.
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Post by Nalkarj on Jan 13, 2023 17:31:59 GMT
It’s far from one of my favorites in the series, but I like it well enough. It’s certainly one of the odder entries, with a film noir vibe: hypnosis! drugs! innocents accused of murder! voiceover narration! the title! the femme fatale! that strangely memorable (or memorably strange) noir-y sequence with the man waking up in a cheap hotel room! My favorite thing about it is the exchange between Rathbone and Henry Daniell’s restrained yet sinister Moriarty. (Compare with George Zucco’s wild-eyed—and equally sinister—Moriarty in Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.) The dialogue is adapted from Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Final Problem.” Speaking of Moriarty, twothousandonemark, he had survived great falls in earlier entries: Adventures and Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (and, remarkably, he looks different every time!). But, yes, this is the character’s last appearance in this series. But it’s definitely not his final official cinematic appearance in general: He’s been in quite a few Holmes movies since, with Laurence Olivier memorably portraying him in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976). Incidentally, screenwriter Bertram Millhauser borrowed from himself for the climax, which he’d already used in the Philo Vance mystery movie The Garden Murder Case (1936). |
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Post by twothousandonemark on Jan 14, 2023 1:35:46 GMT
Speaking of Moriarty, twothousandonemark , he had survived great falls in earlier entries: Adventures and Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (and, remarkably, he looks different every time!). But, yes, this is the character’s last appearance in this series. I figured it wasn't a definitive death to be, as sudden as it was. It just seems odd, like if James Bond witnessed the end of Blofeld 3-4 times over the years. Almost like his death is a concluding payoff, no matter how many times. |
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Post by movielover on Jan 19, 2023 3:43:56 GMT
6.5/10 - I’ll round up to 7/10 for the poll.
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