Holmes doesn’t appear in this until around 12 minutes or so. Before then a British agent is abducted in the US by some foreign agents, led by Henry Daniell (back in villainy harness after his red herring role in Voice of Terror). So Holmes and Watson hot foot it over to Washington and go chasing for some microfilm. (The agent soon wounds up dead, delivered to Holmes in a trunk – bloodthirsty bunch, these Golden Years of Hollywood filmmakers).
Watson chews gum and enjoys Flash Gordon, which is fun – more could have been made of this, the culture clash. (He also chats about cricket.) It’s certainly more fun than the bland woman (Marjorie Lloyd) who unknowingly has the microfilm – although she does get knocked out and rolled up in a carpet, which is cool. Holmes doesn’t wear any disguises but he pretends to be a prissy antiques collector. Again, Holmes is about to be killed when someone comes to the rescue.
Although Daniel is a baddy he’s got a superior – none other than George Zucco. But Daniell is wasted as a henchman and Zucco’s villain is a bit of a whimp, to be honest – he’s a bit squeamish and not very smart. They also make this big deal about how he’s been in America for ages and is a pillar of the community but he isn’t very American (now if the blustery southern senator had turned out to be a baddy, that would have been a surprise). This is the weakest Rathbone Holmes film – just a lot of running around and undeveloped villains. Holmes quotes Winston Churchill about America at the end.
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