The Sleeping Cardinal

Sherlock Holmes' Fatal Hour (1931)

** (out of 4)

British film was originally released under the title of THE SLEEPING CARDINAL but was renamed in the U.S. to put Holmes in the title. The film has a man shot dead in a bank yet no money was stolen and there appears to be no witnesses, no suspects and no real clues as to what happened. Holmes (Arthur Wontner) and Dr. Watson (Ian Fleming) are soon on the case and it might be Moriarty who has something to do with the killing. Based on the stories "The Empty House" and "The Final Problem", this Holmes effort was considered lost for many decades until a print finally turned up in the U.S. (with the American title) but the end results are pretty disappointing. I think the biggest sin any movie can make is being boring and sadly that's the case here because I really lost interest in the movie around the thirty-minute mark and hard to struggle to make it through to the end. There are some good things here but more on those later. I think the biggest problem is the screenplay that simply has way too much endless dialogue that just keeps going and going and going. It seems each scene could have been wrapped up with a few lines but instead everyone kept talking and sometimes the same things were being said over and over to the point where I really lost interest in what was going on. It also doesn't help that the majority of the actors are speaking very slowly and drawn out. Wontner would play Holmes in five different movies and I must admit that I enjoyed his performance. He gives a "thinking" performance as he takes his time to react to anything said to him and you can see the "thinking" going on with the character. Some might think this goes back to my complaint of things going too slowly but even thinking, Holmes moves faster than anyone else here. I also enjoyed (no not that) Fleming in the role of Watson as he plays it very serious without any humor. The rest of the performances weren't all that interesting to me. In the end, it's always a good thing when a lost film is discovered but as often is the case, the movie in question really doesn't turn out to be anything special.

SHERLOCK HOLMES' FATAL HOUR (1931) shows its age as a creaky early talkie, and the mystery isn't particularly thrilling. But Arthur Wontner is fantastic in the role of Sherlock Holmes and it's a real treat to see him play the sleuth here (for the first of several times).

Holmes is up against his arch-rival, the elusive Prof. Moriarty, the brain behind a vast criminal organization. It's true that there's very little action in this film, but listening to Wontner (as Holmes) explain his deductions and seeing him face off against his nemesis is fun stuff. The subplot about the card cheat gets tedious and it's a little annoying how Watson and Lestrade can never keep up with even the simplest jumps in Holmes's logic ("No one could've shot into this window from street level. And why are you blabbering about trees?"), but it's an enjoyable flick for fans of Arthur Conan Doyle's detective.

That may not be what the producer and director of "Sherlock Holmes Fatal Hour" had in mind, but that's what this picture is in essence. I tried to make allowances for a 1931 movie, as I imagine fluid, mobile camera-work came shortly thereafter, and one can excuse the lack of camera movement or location shots.

That said, I did not feel as confined as some other reviewers, or as bored, either. That is because I thoroughly enjoyed the performance of Arthur Wontner as Holmes. I must confess I, too, kept comparing his with Basil Rathbone's, who I always thought owned the role. Having seen Wontner as Holmes I now have doubts who I prefer, as Wontner brings an extra measure of dignity and mental acuity to the role.

The plot is pretty straightforward, about a civil servant/card cheat blackmailed by Prof. Moriarty into a dishonest venture. No twists, no surprises, just actors doing their job in an interesting story. I did think Ian Fleming as Watson overacted and seemed ill at ease in his role. Very worth a look, if only to compare Wontner to Basil Rathbone - and you may be in for a surprise on that score.

While there are so many actors that portrayed Sherlock Holmes over the years and the discussion about the most faithful one could go on forever, one thing is certain: nobody looked more similar to the original Holmes illustrations than Arthur Wontner. His resemblance to Sidney Paget's illustrations is truly uncanny, it is as if he was actually modelling for those... which is impossible of course as those were made some 30 years before this film. Of course that similarity alone would not be enough to make him a good Holmes, but fortunately his portrayal of the famous detective is also excellent and very close to the novels.

Ian Fleming gives a sometimes bit wooden, but otherwise also very good portrayal of Watson and even thought at points the film does make fun of him not being able to keep up with Holmes, he definitely is not reduced to being a comic relief (as it happened to Nigel Bruce way too often) and is portrayed as a trustworthy friend and helping hand for Holmes. The rest of the cast is also fine, except maybe Norman McKinnel, whose overacting gets a bit annoying at times.

And while several of the Rathbone movies wandered off very far from the source material, this movie, even though it is not flawless, stays true to Doyle's spirit. It is based on two shorts, The Final Problem and The Empty House (which were actually the last before and the first after the detective's The Great Hiatus), borrowing from both's plot, but it also adds new elements to the mix and the result is a bit messy at points. It stars with a bank watchman getting killed during what appears to be a robbery, but we soon learn that apparently no money was stolen. As we go on a young man who likes to cheat during card games gets involved in the story along with her sister (played by the beautiful Jane Welsh), we have Moriarty giving orders while hiding behind the painting of a sleeping cardinal (hence the film's title), a shoemaker who is not what he seems to be and Inspector Lestrade, played by Philip Hewland, being completely unable to follow Holmes' thinking. So, we have a lot going on, but the story is somewhat strained at times, however it isn't much of a problem really, and the good performances, along with the witty dialogue more than make up for it.

The Sleeping Cardinal eventually spawned four sequels and while unfortunately one of those, The Missing Rembrandt is lost, all the others are in public domain now, so they are very easy to come across. This was also considered a lost film for a long while, but now there are obviously at least two copies available and the version I came across was pierced together from those. The majority of the film came from a copy with quite OK sound and picture quality, while a few short scenes (about 5% or less of the film) that were probably missing from that print are from another copy with way inferior picture quality. But overall this version is very watchable, unlike some of the copies described in older reviews. The film was also released in the US (screed under the somewhat sensationalist title, Sherlock Holmes' Fatal Hour) where it proved to be a surprise hit and I wouldn't be too surprised to learn that the series' (that run from 1931 till 1937) success was an inspiration for 20th Century-Fox to try their hands on a Holmes movie in 1939.

Creaky and confined early talkie from the UK that is the first of five in this Sherlock Holmes series.

A few of the impressionistic scenes are impressive and lend what little atmosphere is available in the technological and limited restraints of the period. There are some interesting and odd little flourishes and we have some pre-code dialog like "oh my God" and "go to Hell" that would become no-no's in the years ahead.

While the dated delivery is the damper in this otherwise OK presentation and it looks theatrical, but is somewhat enhanced by the creepy characters and some dark and mysterious images. Holmes, Watson, Moriarty, La Strade, and Mrs. Hudson are all respectful renditions. The "game" afoot is complex and Sherlock's deductions are sound.

This long lost film is a welcome find for aficionados and an example of sound movies finding their way, and an artifact worth a view for its time and place. The biggest fault is not its confinement but its soggy and slow delivery of almost all of the dialog where it feels like they were not sure that the on set concealed microphone would catch every word.