There’s a mysterious spate of suicides – but Holmes says he’s too ill to investigate it because of dizzy spells. He falls in the river and everyone thinks he’s drowned – which is a pretty full on way of starting the movie, even though of course he’s faking, because Watson, Lestrade and Mrs Hudson genuinely think he’s dead and are really upset. Watson is going through scrapbooks of their old cases (including The Giant Rat of Sumatra) when Holmes turns up. Apart from this rather nasty trick of Holmes, this is the best Rathbone Holmes movie – just over an hour, without an ounce of fat on it, everyone in top form.
Holmes is convinced that the crimes are committed by a woman because they are particularly malicious and cruel. In this he’s right – it’s Gale Sondegaard, a terrific antagonist for Holmes. So Holmes blacks up and goes undercover as an Indian royal… but it’s not long before Sondegaard figures out who he is.
The duels between Rathbone and Sondegaard are wonderful – lots of flirting and intelligence. It’s wonderful when Sondegaard visits Holmes place and each one knows what the other one has been up to, and are clearly enjoying the fact. But then, just to remind everyone that they’re not mates – she almost kills Holmes with a deadly gas. It’s a great shame she was never brought back again as a character in the series.
There’s also plenty of spook factor, with the baddies killing people using a combination of deadly spiders and a pygmy – even creepier is the scene with the little kid who catches imaginary fliers. Actually there’s lots of memorable scenes: Watson thinks Holmes has visited him in disguise – but it’s actually a real person; Watson does something genuinely useful, recognising a skeleton as one belonging to an adult, not a child; Holmes and Watson visiting a spider expert; Sondegaard luring Holmes to danger by appealing to his sense of drama (setting up at a sideshow); and a brilliant climax where Sondegaard tries to kill Holmes via a shooting gallery (Watson is a good shot but fortunately a bit slow).
War propaganda is limited to Holmes going to a sideshow alley and shooting at targets including Mussolini and Hirohito. No war speech at the end, although Holmes comments on how it was clever on Sondegaard to try and kill people in a crowd – perhaps a criticism of our selfish ways or something. Actually, nah., I’m just reading things into it.
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