Die Frau in Grün

......very enjoyable. Hilary Brooke is seductive, Henry Daniell is a terrific Moriarty, as always Rathbone and Bruce are tops as Holmes and Watson. Here you get to see them trailing a string of hypnotist-induced murders, reminders of the Ripper killings to a degree.

Be sure to pay attention to a couple scenes, the Sniper and the Hypnotist demo. Both are what made this series are keeper.

As always they don't pad it w/ unneeded scenes or characters, so you can get your Rathbone fix in about an hour or more. There are a few noir touches and of course, the patriotic ode to London at the end.

*** outta ****

So why would a serial killer sever a finger from each of his victims. It's a real puzzler that Holmes must solve before the bodies pile higher. Solid entry in the Holmes series that holds interest throughout. Note how well mounted Holmes' room is at 21 B Baker St. It's full of the kind of interesting clutter expected of an eccentric like the great detective. In fact, the whole 70 minutes is an aesthetic pleasure to look at, helped along by producer-director Roy William Neill's imaginative camera angles. Note too the suggestive dialogue in the opening lounge scene, unusual for a popular programmer of the time. And what a great pair of cold-hearted schemers Hillary Brooke and Henry Daniell make in their duel of wits with Holmes. Still and all, I thought the screenplay went too far in poking fun at Nigel Bruce's Dr. Watson. The series always played him for comic relief, but here he's made to look especially foolish in the hypnotism sequence. He is, after all, a doctor of medicine, an accomplished professional. Too bad Neill died not long after this production. For I suspect it was his guiding hand that maintained the general superiority of these little features to many others of the time.

Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) once again faces off with his nemesis Professor Moriarty (Henry Daniell), as well as a beautiful hypnotist (Hillary Brooke), in this entertaining entry in Universal's Sherlock Holmes series. Henry Daniell was probably my favorite Moriarty from the series. He wasn't hammy at all. The guy just oozed intellectual evil. Rathbone and Nigel Bruce are excellent as Holmes & Watson, as usual. Purists balk at Bruce's Watson but I think he's lots of fun and immensely likable. Hillary Brooke has one of her better roles here. Some good direction from Roy William Neill. This is one of the Universal Holmes films now in public domain so make sure you watch a good copy.

Four women have been murdered around London. The police suspect a Jack The Ripper-type killer but Sherlock Holmes has other ideas. Sir George Fenwick becomes the prime suspect when a highly incriminating piece of evidence is found in his possession. However, when Sir George is murdered the plot thickens.

The eleventh (of, ultimately, 14) films in the Basil Rathbone-starring Sherlock Holmes series that ran from 1939 to 1946. Adapted from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Empty House", "The Woman in Green" is an interesting and entertaining Sherlock Holmes drama. Like many of the Basil Rathbone films it is more a thriller than a mystery-drama so unfortunately the clever deductions take a back seat to action and tension.

Also on the negative side is the portrayal of Dr Watson, played by Nigel Bruce. Not Nigel Bruce's fault - he's doing as directed - but the fault of the screenwriter and director. Maybe I'm spoiled by the Martin Freeman version in the recent Sherlock series but Watson being played as an ignorant buffoon just doesn't work for me.

Overall, entertaining enough.

"The Woman in Green" (1945) as directed by Roy William Neill is an unusually intelligent and satisfying thriller. Reliable Bertram Millhauser wrote the original screenplay, adding elements from several of Arthur Conan Dyle's stories including "The Empty House" to an interesting but rather gruesome mystery. The plot-line involves murders of young woman from whom a finger has been surgically removed after they have died. Enter Sherlock Holmes, asked to help by Inspector Gregson, who along with his Scotland Yard colleagues is being pressed by their Boss to get results on this series of disturbing killings. Gregson takes the murders of vulnerable young women hard, adding to the seriousness of their number and frequency. Sherlock Holmes, the world's first consulting detective, is moved also and suspect his old nemesis in the matter--except that the man has been reportedly executed in Montevideo. The solution to the case end by involving Holmes with one of the suspects who turns out to have been a victim, the man's daughter, a lethal mastermind, threats against Holmes's companion Dr. Watson's life, and a sinister climax that finds Holmes walking a tightrope between life and death as his friends hasten to rescue him. Director Niell has made few errors here, and makes clever use of shots from several stories high to set up an effective climactic scene As Holmes, Basil Rathbone is unusually heroic and effective throughout. Nigel Bruce is given a rather peripheral role with low-grade comedic bits that he does flawlessly. Henry Daniell is his thoroughly professional self as the mastermind, especially when he invades Holmes's Baker Street apartments for a eerie discussion with his chief adversary. Paul Cavanagh and Hilary Brooke are each given varying moods to play and do them very well indeed. Others in the case have smaller parts and vary in their effectiveness. I find two errors in the handling of a logical storyline. One comes when Maude Fenwick, daughter of a victimized father, is given no reaction to the discovery that he is involved in the series of murders; the other is the static nature of he shots in a nightclub-restaurant that might have been handled by panning with Holmes and the Inspector. Apart from these cavils, I suggest that this is an entertaining trip into mystery, mayhem and mesmerism. One worth more than one study as it is perhaps one of the best of the Rathbone-Bruce Sherlock Holmes series of adventures.