उपयोगकर्ता समीक्षाएं

The last Rathbone Holmes (14/14) is again a slightly weaker affair than most of the preceding entries, another variant of The Pearl of Death this time involving music boxes. Music boxes whose tunes play out the location of the stolen and hidden Bank of England £5 plates no less. Holmes proves he has an inbuilt police whistle and a photographic(?) memory for music, whilst Watson says that he likes brass bands but is tone deaf. The woman here, although a thoroughly bad hat is not The Woman, the one and only Irene Adler who had bested Holmes in 1891, but for most of the film she has the upper hand.

By now the steam had left Rathbone, and although Bruce wanted to carry on and Universal held the copyright until 1949 the series had reached its natural conclusion. Director Roy William Neill had less than a year left to live too. Some lovely bits: Holmes consoling Mrs Hudson, distraught at letting 2 people into 221b who turned it over; Holmes' biscuit jar was seen to good advantage. And yes, the bullet holes in the wall from Faces Death were still there at the end! No matter how bad, mawkish or daft this marvellous series got I've always loved every entry. Watching a clean Definitive DVD of this with a lump in my throat I think of Brian Wilson's line "It's so sad to watch a sweet thing die", without even the dignity of end credits (they're lost).

All things must pass.

The last in a wonderful cycle of 14 movies that got launched by a different major production company but always kept the brilliant duo of lead actors Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as Sherlock Holmes and his loyal assistant Dr. Watson. Some say this is a much weaker entry in the series but, quite frankly, I have no idea on what arguments those opinions are based, as this is another marvelously scripted and professionally directed detective adventure! When an old school friend of Dr. Watson is found murdered, Sherlock Holmes immediately suspects that this has something to do with his latest collector's item purchase, namely a wooden musical box. Two other identical boxes were made by a convicted burglar in prison and the altered melody hides a secret code that leads his accomplices to the location of two stolen Bank of England printing plates! True, the valuable-objects-hidden-at-different-locations premise is somewhat similar to the previous Holmes film "The Pearl of Death" and may therefore come across as unoriginal, but the screenplay contains more than enough variety to make "The Secret Code" another very compelling mystery film. Holmes female opponent, for example, is a truly clever woman who nearly succeeds in setting a trap for our brilliant detective during a very well-mounted sequence. Furthermore, "The Secret Code" (I refuse to use the completely irrelevant title "Dressed to Kill") is fast-paced and contains loads of terrific dialogues. As usual, Bruce's character Dr. Watson provides the story with a couple of neat comical moments, most notably the scene in which he tries to comfort a little girl who just got traumatized by imitating the sound of a duck...impressively, I may add.

"Dressed to Kill" puts Sherlock Holmes and the devoted but bumbling Dr. Watson on the trail of a ruthless gang intent on securing - by hook, crook or thrown dagger - three seemingly innocuous music boxes. The boxes come from a workshop in one of England's famous prisons. Perhaps vocational rehabilitation of cons has its downside.

The conspirators - a suave gentleman-type, a thuggish chauffeur and a beautiful woman - come close to writing finis to Holmes's career and his life. Of course they can not succeed where Dr. Moriarty has failed.

Set in a London past the time of Conan Doyle, the film features a never to be overused "follow that cab" episode. The usually exclusively cerebral Holmes here actually does some strenuous exercise and proves handy with a revolver.

Fun to watch, this isn't the best Rathbone/Bruce Holmes film but it's pleasant enough for a late, cold winter night's entertainment.

7/10.

This is a solid Sherlock Holmes mystery in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series, with an interesting story, a good villainess, and a good pace once it gets going. Although, as with many movies in the series, the plot is not found in any of the original Holmes books, a number of the story elements were drawn or adapted from various Doyle stories. A number of times Watson also makes reference to one of the 'canonical' cases.

The setup is good, and it produces some interesting possibilities. Holmes must not only figure out a peculiar puzzle involving music boxes, but must do so in a race with a criminal gang that is trying to accomplish the same thing. Patricia Morison makes an elegant adversary for Holmes, and Rathbone and Bruce work well together as always.

Although these later movies in the series do not hold closely to the Victorian atmosphere of the originals, most of them are pretty good in their own right, and while this one mostly follows the usual formula, it is an enjoyable entry in the series.

Dressed To Kill was the last of the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce Sherlock Holmes movies. I rather enjoyed this.

Music boxes are sold at an auction and the buyers of these seem to get killed. Holmes and Watson are called to investigate these killings and learn that a young women, who is the leader of a criminal gang has something to do with them. After attempting to kill Holmes, she is caught at the end.

Joining Basil and Nigel in the cast are Patricia Morison as the gang leader and Holmes Herbert.

Dressed To Kill is a good way to spend just over an hour one evening. Great stuff.

Rating: 3 and a half stars out of 5.

I have to agree with about everyone here on two things: 1 - it's sad to see this great combination of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce end its run of Sherlock Holmes films, and 2 - it's too bad it ended with a mediocre film.

The story involves several music boxes which are made in prison and sold at an auction. Whoever buys them, gets killed. (I was sorry to see Dr. Watson's friend "Stinky" bite the dust so early, as he was one of the more interesting characters.)

The main culprit is a deadly female who reminds Holmes of an ex-foe he has great respect for: "Irene Adler." This character is "Hilda Courtney" (Patricia Morrison).

Actually, if I was grading this, I'd give it a C for "average." It's not the worst one in the series, as some people think, but it's not riveting, either, and I can see why the guys decided to "pack it in" after this one. The end of World War II also signaled the end of this series as a number of them were WWII stories.

It was a wonderful ride. I own all of them in the series and have a high regard for everyone connected with the set. I still think Rathbone is THE Sherlock Holmes and always will be.

DRESSED TO KILL (Universal, 1946), produced and directed by Roy William Neil, comes to a close with the studio's twelfth and final "Sherlock Holmes" installment (1942-46) starring Basil Rathbone (Sherlock Holmes) and Nigel Bruce (Doctor Watson). Acquiring a title already used for the 1941 "Michael Shayne" entry for 20th Century-Fox starring Lloyd Nolan, this DRESSED TO KILL, not an unofficial remake, is nothing more than an adaptation from an untitled story by its creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, this time involving inexpensive music boxes.

Opening with an overview of what an off-screen narrator describes as, "Dartmoor Prison, isolated from the outside world by walls of granite," introduces one of two prisoners (later revealed as John Davidson, played by Cyril Delevanti), working on music boxes that gets shipped out monthly to the Gaylord Auction Room. Its auctioneer, Mr. Crabtree (Holmes Herbert), sells three identical music boxes to three individual buyers, Julian Emery (Edmund Breon), Evelyn Clifford (Patricia Cameron), proprietress of the Clifford Toy Store; and William Kilgour for his little girl (Topsy Glyn). An hour after the auction closes, Colonel Cavanaugh (Frederick Worlock), arriving too late for purchase the boxes in question, acquires the names and addresses of its buyers. Julian Emery (Edmund Breon), a collector, affectionately called "Stinky" by his former school chum, Doctor Watson (Nigel Bruce), interests his friend and colleague, Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) after being told by Emery of how his apartment was burglarized with only a music box stolen in the middle of the night. Later, Emery is found stabbed to death followed by Kilgour's daughter found bound and gagged inside a closet of her home by Holmes. With Holmes now on the case, assisted by Inspector Hopkins (Carl Harbord - filling in for Dennis Hoey as Inspector Lestrade), the ace detective realizes these are not just ordinary music boxes for that the tunes are identical, yet different. Narrowing down Hilda Courtney (Patricia Morison) to be the ring leader responsible for the murder of Sergeant Thompson (Tom P. DIllon) of Scotland Yard for tailing her, it's now up to Holmes to decoding the music box and motive behind all this.

With Patricia Morison as the co-starring villainous, DRESSED TO KILL might have been a great opportunity for a return guest appearance of Gale Sondergaard matching wits with Sherlock Holmes as she did in THE SPIDER WOMAN (Universal, 1943). There's even a song ditty, "You Never Know Who You're Going to Meet" which clues in on Holmes getting to meet with another deadly female, Hilda Courtney, her associates, Colonel Cavanaugh (Worlock) and dagger throwing chauffeur, Hymie (Harry Cording). As in most, but not all Holmes escapades, Holmes faces a near death experience. In this instance, Holmes with mouth taped, gets lifted onto a suspended hook above, hanging by his handcuffed wrists, left inside by villains in a locked parking garage with the turned-on motor from an automobile exhausting poisonous fumes. Had this been a weekly chaptered serial, this particular scene would most definitely close with the title card, "To be continued next week." For this 72 minute feature, everything is presented in one seating for its viewers munching on popcorn or treating themselves with a basket of fish and chips.

Though not quite a high note conclusion, at least the series itself didn't resume long enough to produce some really inferior products. For DRESSED TO KILL, it did indicate Watson to be Arthur Conan Doyle or being the writer of exploits to past Holmes cases submitted to Strand Magazine. It is also Watson who unwittingly helps Holmes with his case through some meaningless suggestions/ self verbal thoughts that prove valuable. Of the supporting players, including Ian Wolfe as The Commissioner, only series regular, Mary Gordon as Mrs. Hudson, appears very briefly. As much as Holmes happens to be the master of many disguises, only Patricia Morison shows how she's really dressed to kill (figuratively speaking) for one memorable scene.

Whether intentional or not, regardless of how popular, everything must come to an end, including a film series such as this classic partnership of Holmes and Watson. Yet, for this final theatrical episode, it might have been quite elementary having Holmes announcing his retirement from crime solving for its fadeout. Though Holmes' retirement never take place on screen, Rathbone's retirement from the role actually did, but didn't end all possibilities for future Holmes theatrical mysteries in later years enacted by other notable British actors as Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.

Having fallen to public domain, DRESSED TO KILL, available on video cassette and later DVD from various distributors, in black and white or colorized formats, as well as presented on numerous public television and/or cable channels, especially on Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: March 8, 2004), is a satisfactory conclusion to a popular series that shows there's no place like Holmes. (**1/2)

In their last on-screen outing as Holmes and Watson (they still did radio plays with each other after this movie) Rathbone and Bruce find themselves involved in a music box mystery. It seems that anyone who bought one of three matching boxes from a recent auction ends up either dead or with a nasty bump on the head. Assuming that there must be a weird connection Holmes takes the case.

The story rivals even The Voice of Terror in terms of sheer implausibility. When the purpose of the music box is reveal you have to wonder why anyone would go to all that effort. But it's still entertaining and Patricia Morrison makes for a brilliant villainess.

Producer and Director Roy William Neill died not long after this film was released, which is probably why it ended up being the last. They could have went on a lot longer, especially if they started using some of Conan Doyle's original works (something that they very rarely did, opting for original screenplays instead), although this one does reference two of stories as past cases.

A fine, if unspectacular end of a definitive era.

An exceedingly cunning female is DRESSED TO KILL as she challenges Sherlock Holmes for the possession of three nondescript music boxes from Dartmoor Prison.

Basil Rathbone & Nigel Bruce step in front of the movie cameras one last time as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's legendary characters in this intriguing murder mystery. While it's fun to see the plot get solved the real enjoyment comes from simply being in the company of two very fine actors as they breathe life into their roles. As Sherlock Holmes, Rathbone gives us the great detective in all his cerebral glory, putting his whole intellect into breaking an exceptionally difficult code. Bruce, as Dr. Watson, is all bumbling geniality, quietly loyal to his friend, and, for one delightful moment, even quacking like a duck while trying to soothe a distraught child. Rathbone & Bruce gave us one of cinema's iconic partnerships, forever influencing how we cast Doyle's stories in the theater of our minds.

As in all the previous Holmes films a sturdy supporting cast keeps the intricate plot moving along: Patricia Morison as the exceptionally clever woman in search of the music boxes; Holmes Herbert as a punctilious auctioneer; Edmund Breon as an eccentric collector; Frederick Worlock as a crooked colonel; Henry Cording as a sinister chauffeur; Patricia Cameron as a pretty toy shop owner; Ian Wolfe as the Commissioner of Scotland Yard; and dear Mary Gordon back for her final turn as Mrs. Hudson.

Movie mavens will recognize Olaf Hytten as the auction house bookkeeper; Marjorie Bennett as the top shop clerk; comic Charles Hall as a curious taxi driver; and Wally Scott as the busker in the pub whose encyclopedic knowledge of tunes comes in very handy for Holmes. All are uncredited.

This film, which borrowed the merest wisp of an idea from Sir Arthur's A Scandal in Bohemia, followed TERROR BY NIGHT (1946) and was the last in the cinematic series, although Rathbone & Bruce also played Holmes & Watson many scores of times on the radio.

Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Code isn't quite among the best of the series like Hound of the Baskervilles, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Scarlet Claw but it is better than Pursuit to Algiers(my personal least favourite of the series) and Voice of Terror. Neither of them are bad films though, even the weakest have entertainment value, but none are masterpieces nor did they try to be so. The story takes a little too much time to get going, things get more interesting once Holmes arrives on the scene, the film does end rather abruptly and agreed Holmes does make a few dumb and uncharacteristic mistakes here(like with the poorly guarded box). Basil Rathbone is excellent as Holmes as always, distinguished, cunning and authoritative. Nigel Bruce gives his all to Watson, while at times too much of a bumbling idiot he brings some joviality to the proceedings. Patricia Morrison is an elegant and calculating female nemesis too, and the supporting roles are well-taken. Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Code is solidly made and directed, they don't try to be too fancy but neither do they take a cheap route and they do give off a good atmosphere. The music score is appropriately eerie and doesn't overbear the mystery at all, the dialogue is snappy and amusing with a few suspenseful elements and once it gets going the story- with a good if daft idea- is fun with some nice twists and turns. The climax may be somewhat too easy but it's also very exciting, while the Holmes comforting Mrs Hudson and Watson imitating a duck scenes are nice too. All in all, not a high note end to the entertaining Rathbone-Holmes films series but hardly a sour note either. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Well Known for being the Last Time Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce would Suit Up as Holmes and Watson, and for being left to the Public Domain so there are a Myriad of Inferior Releases on VHS and DVD so Buyer Beware. There are good Prints now in Circulation (Blu-Ray).

The Film is in the Top Tier although not the Top of the Top. It is, as are all the Teams Fourteen Films, Entertaining. This One is more Self-Referential than Most. The First Shot at Baker Street has Watson Reading the New Issue of the Strand Magazine for Example.

There is a Femme Fatale with a Cool Demeanor and by Film's End She has Earned the Respect of the World's Greatest Consulting Detective. The Supporting Cast is Excellent and the Atmosphere is Shady and Elegant. It is a Fine Final Bow for the Two Actors that gave Moviegoers so much Fun.

Note: While there hasn't been a Scientific Study, one wonders just how many Youngsters, and Oldsters for that matter, that never read Arthur Conan Doyle and were off to bookstores after being enchanted by one or more of these delightful films.

The Master minds -Holmes and Watson- tackle the master crimes . While Holmes and Watson encounter at 221 Baker Street talking about the publication of the story 'Scandal in Bohemia with Irene Adler' in the Strand Review , are visited by an old friend , a collector of music-boxes , explaining the robbing a special box manufactured by an inmate from Dartmoor prison . Holmes aware about a series of music boxes holds the key to plates stolen from the Bank of England . As always , Sherlock goes into the action dressed in tweed suit , tweed coat and Fedor , as in his twelve Holmes films produced by 20th Century Fox and Universal and mostly directed by Roy William Neill . Then he sets out in pursuit the baddies and in this episode Holmes confronts an uncanny enemy (Patricia Morrison) with malignant purports . This entry , as usual , finds Mrs Hudson , but doesn't appear Inspector Lestrade , substituting a commissioner of Scotland Yard (the eternal secondary Ian Wolfe) . At the ending is resolved the case in an exciting conclusion into library of Samuel Johnson who was a XVIII century poet and author of a notorious dictionary of English language .

Once terminated the movie , Rathbone dreary on Holmes character decided killing him , such as Arthur Conan Doyle made dropping Holmes into Falls of Reichenbach . This decision along with cancellation the radio-broadcasting proceeded long time ago , originated the followers were deeply annoyed and Nigel Bruce got anger , but he early died . After that , Rathbone only played as Holmes a parody in ¨Milton Berle show¨ and on Broadway stage about a play written by his wife Ouida and with Thomas Gomez as Moriaty . In spite of various historical and important roles performed by Rathbone such as ¨Disraeli¨ and ¨Svengali¨, none surpassed his immortal character , the ideal role for Rathbone and gave him fame and money .

This was a pretty good showing for the piped one. Nothing spectacular but it'll keep you awake at 5 am. Three ordinary music boxes are sold at an auction and soon after the new owners are dropping like flies. No one really knows what's going on except you know who. Coulda been better but no real complaints.

A suspenseful Holmes and Watson feature about a group of killers out to find three music boxes sold at an auction. The boxes contain something in them that will help lead the crooks to loads of money. Only problem is that Sherlock Holmes is on their trail. Typical good acting and tight direction help this one rise above its somewhat implausible story. The chemistry between Rathbone and Bruce is as ever the binding of the film. Some other good performances are given by Patricia Morrison as a wicked woman and Edmund Breon as "Stinky," a school chum of Watson's. The verbal banter between Morrison and Holmes is for me the most memorable aspect of the film. As I watched the film, the lines slowly crept back into my head. "Praise from you is indeed gratifying Mr. Holmes," and then a line about respecting his memory. Great stuff!

Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) must figure out the mystery behind three musical boxes and why some criminals want them bad enough to kill for them. The final Rathbone Holmes film. Unlike most of the other popular detective series at the time, most notably Charlie Chan, the Holmes series never ran out of steam. Even this final entry is still a quality movie with a good mystery and interesting characters. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce are excellent as always. No Inspector Lastrade this time, sadly.

One minor quibble is that the method the bad guys use to try and dispose of Sherlock seemed unnecessarily risky when they had guns and could've just shot him. But this sort of logic flaw is not exclusive to this film or series. Movies in general have always had this problem. The James Bond series has thrived on it for fifty years. The Rathbone films are all good and I would recommend everybody try them out. If you're a fan of the Doyle stories and consider yourself a purist, however, you will probably be disappointed. But if you enjoy good suspenseful old school mystery films, this series is as good as it gets.

this wasn't the greatest of the 14 main sherlock holmes videos, but it has a very interesting plot behind it. this movie has it all, secret codes, espionage, disguises, a beautiful woman, and a huge reward. this is the last of the 14 and it was my second least favorite. still, you might as well see it since its sherlock holmes with rathbone.

Basil Rathbone stars in his fourteenth and final movie as Arthur Conan Doyle's super detective Sherlock Holmes. An interesting plot and mystery for Holmes and his faithful assistant Dr. Watson(Nigel Bruce)to solve. The title I assume must be referring to the winsome antagonist(Patricia Morison)that tries to find three music boxes before Holmes. Three identical music boxes were made by a prison inmate and sold at auction to three different collectors in London. One of the boxes was traced to one of Watson's old schoolmates(Edmund Breon), who is murdered and robbed of the newly purchased music box. The plot thickens as Holmes and Watson discover that the musical boxes contain more than just playing an old Australian folk song. Also in the cast are: Fredrick Worlock, Patricia Cameron and Carl Harbord.

Dressed to kill is the final and fourteenth film in the Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce Sherlock Holmes film series. The movie is based on the Characters of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and although the plot is an original screenplay the movie features references to Conan Doyle's "A Scandal in Bohemia".

The movie plot is quite interesting, as everything is based on a few musical notes that are out of place in a song, the music itself is a message, what the message is or what it is meant for is what our duo has to figure out.

The plot is about three cheap musical boxes (each one playing a subtly different version of "The Swagman" and only one keen in hearing and with musical background can pick it up), the musical boxes were manufactured in Dartmoor Prison by one of its inmates and they were sold at a local auction house.

The criminal gang meant to get the boxes, got to the auction a little late and all the boxes were sold to different owners, but the gang were however bent to recover the boxes by any means necessary, even if it means committing murder.

Sherlock Holmes is called on board when a murder occurs and a musical box seems to be the target, so he has to try and recover the last of the musical box and crack the secret code contained in the tune before the gang can.

Food for thought, in the movies Dr. Watson is portrayed to be much older than Holmes, and he does look it, as Nigel looks like he is 10 years Rathbone senior, but in real life Rathbone is 3 years older than Bruce, Bruce just looks older. Much talk had been around about the portrayal of Watson in this series, as he is portrayed as a bumbling fellow, who is just around and really doesn't add to Sherlock's detecting ability. While in the book and in subsequent remakes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's characters, Watson is portrayed as an upright fellow, who is a necessary addition to Holmes detective ability.

Dressed to kill is a good movie to see, as it shows our protagonist in a light of being one step ahead of the rest, we see him pick pocket with ease and escape death with the ingenuity of a fox. The movie is a nice ending to a beautiful pair and a wonderful film series.

www.lagsreviews.com

This movie is rather an anomaly. Made after WWII in 1946, but when was the action set? The transport is of the 1930's, especially the "General" London omnibus. As I said in the Goofs section, one of the scenes depicts a "General" omnibus carrying passengers on a normal route, but the "London General Omnibus Company" went out of service in 1933. Yet the ladies fashions depicted in the movie are of the 1940's.

As another viewer remarked (also in the "Goofs" section)...

"Watson refers to the events in his story 'A Scandal in Bohemia' taking place two years earlier. In the story Bohemia was a independent kingdom, but in 1943 it was obviously part of Hitler's Third Reich."

...but of course the original story by Conan Doyle was written and set before WWI.

So exactly in which period was this movie intended to be set? Although there is no mention of either WWI or WWII, I suspect it's supposed to be set in the 1930's, and before Holmes' wartime (WWII) exploits. But who knows?

The movie is nowhere near as good as others in this Rathbone/Bruce series of movies. However it has its amusing moments, but the only one to come out of it with any real credit is Patricia Morison, and there's very little else to shout about.