L'artiglio scarlatto

Universal's Sherlock Holmes series brought the characters into the 20th Century. Many of the were related to World War II, stories in which Holmes went in pursuit of spies and counterspies; others tried to mimic the original Arthur Conan Doyle stories with a presentation of mental puzzles. Although generally well executed, seldom did any of the titles rise above the level of "B Pictures"--but on the rare occasions that they did, they did so with a vengeance, and THE SCARLET CLAW is such a case. Directed at a fast clip by Roy William Neill, memorably photographed by George Robinson, and sporting an expert cast in a particularly clever script, this is easily among the best of the series.

The story hearkens back to such titles as THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES. Lord Penrose (Paul Cavanaugh) is convinced that his small, Canadian town is beset by an evil spirit--and is indeed giving a lecture on psychic phenomena when his wife is found murdered, presumably by a apparition that haunted the town many years before. Convinced that it is the work of an otherwordly being, he does not welcome the arrival of Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone), who is convinced that there is nothing ghostly about the matter in the least.

The Universal films counted a great deal on the chemistry between Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as Holmes and sidekick Dr. Watson, and indeed that chemistry is on full display in this particular title. But the overall cast is remarkably fine, not only the aforementioned Cavanaugh but most particularly Gerald Hammer, who frequently appeared in these films and here offers a uniquely memorable turn as the fearful postmaster. And, unlike most other films in the series, the solution to the crime is indeed a shocker.

The restoration is very handsome and the DVD comes with two nice bonuses, a short documentary on the challenges faced by those who restored the series (THE SCARLET CLAW receives particular mention) and an erudite audio commentary by film historian David Stuart Davies. If you've seen one or two films in the series and been unimpressed--give this one a try to see what Rathbone and company could do when when they had all the right makings. Recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

"The Scarlet Claw" is probably the best of these Rathbone/Bruce films. The plot is very cool. I found the movie to be more frightening than "The Hound of the Baskervilles". And of course, Rathbone is always wonderful as Holmes. I would recommend this movie to any Sherlock Holmes fan or to anyone who just likes mystery movies.

Although to some people this might be blasphemous, I am not at all a fan of the way Bruce interprets the Watson character. This is simply because I believe this is not the way ACD intended to portray the character and it's simply ridiculous. Movies being another art form though, one must certainly make allowances for alternative interpretations. Rathbone, as usual, excels himself here and in my personal Holmes actor ranking he's first just before Jeremy Brett.

At the outset, I had the slight impression that the story is a bit of a rip-off of the HOUND but very soon one realises that the storyline goes into quite another direction. But since The Hound Of The Baskervilles is my very favourite Holmes story that didn't undo the story for me.

What made me wonder a bit was that although set in francophone Canada the only French allusions are the use of the address 'monsieur' and the name of the village... Everything else sounds quite English.

Still, the movie is greatly entertaining and the eerie marshland atmosphere with a hint at the supernatural is cleverly caught.

I like all of the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films, but this is one of my favorites. Imagine you are in The Quiet Man's village of Inisfree full of quirky colorful characters and suddenly the fog rolls in and a glowing monster wandering around the marshes first starts ripping out the throats of sheep, then graduates to people.

The same thing happens here, except it is in a village in wartime Canada. Luck will have it that Holmes and Watson are in Canada at a convention on the occult when the first human victim is killed, the wife of one of the attendees of the conference. She was once a famous actress. This is quite a mystery, since two of the people Holmes comes to suspect end up victims of "the monster" themselves, and yet none of the three victims has anything in common, none know each other now nor ever did. Well, they actually did have one thing in common - each had an odd premonition that they were about to be killed before it happened. The first victim actually sent a message to Holmes at the convention in Canada asking for his help, unfortunately, not in time though.

You know you are in present day because of the technology being used, but the characterization of Holmes, Watson, and the villagers makes the film timeless. How odd that Universal could hit it out of the park in the 40s with the Sherlock Holmes series in the realm of suspense and even horror, but really never managed to hit the mark post Laemmle with any of the actual Universal horror franchises.

This is a wartime film that rarely enough has nothing to do with WWII, yet at the end Holmes manages to find a way to quote Churchill.

I'd highly recommend this one.

This sixth entry in the Universal Sherlock Holmes series was the third which defied the initial conception of the franchise. Universal had envisioned Sherlock Holmes as a sort of archetypal hero who, transported into the modern era of WWII, could be put on the government payroll, as it were, to work as a contract agent to hunt down Nazi spies on behalf of the Allies. Perhaps somewhat unexpectedly, this idea met with a great deal of consternation, not only from serious Sherlockians, but also from film critics whose knowledge of Doyle's work was marginal at best.

Granted, most of the Holmes films made up to that point had been updated to their respective eras (in fact, only Fox's two Holmes features with Rathbone and Bruce had taken place in their appropriate time period), but in those cases, the modernization was all on the surface. Automobiles, telephones, and the fashions of the day were all on display...but that was, for all intents and purposes, scenery. The stories, though changed (sometimes drastically) from their original forms, had a timeless quality about them. The first three Universal films, however, were very timely, with plots focused explicitly on the events of the Second World War. This took Holmes out of his element...not only in the literal sense of removing him from Victorian/Edwardian London (as previous films had done), but in transforming the character of Holmes from a consulting detective into a spy-hunter. Indeed, at times, there is more James Bond than Sherlock Holmes in this character. This trend peaked (or bottomed out) with Sherlock Holmes in Washington...the final straw for critics and audiences alike. The film was a critical and box office flop and Universal saw fit to alter the series' direction from that point on.

Though still taking place in the 1940s, the subsequent films did their best to place Holmes back in his proper role, solving intricate mysteries with deductive reasoning...rather than the pure chance and intuition that often guided him in his forays into international espionage. This may (or may not) be accredited to the director Roy William Neill (who directed all but the first entry in the series), who, with the fourth film, Sherlock Holmes Faces Death, became the associate producer...a title he would retain throughout the series' run. From that point on, the films became more Gothic in tone, in many ways more closely resembling the Universal horror films of the era than the first three Universal Holmes pictures. This decision yielded immediate positive results. Sherlock Holmes Faces Death was easily the best of the first four entries, and subsequent films topped one another until peaking with The Scarlet Claw.

Oddly enough, the film is set in a French province of Canada...for no discernible reason. The setting is completely superfluous to the plot, which could easily have played out anywhere (ideally Great Britain). This is made all the more puzzling by the fact that the predominant accent present in the film is British, rather than French Canadian...even American actors threw on Brit accents, despite the fact that American accents would have been more sensible in Canada. But no matter. This slight idiosyncrasy aside, The Scarlet Claw is the ultimate Rathbone/Bruce Universal outing. Not adapted from any of the original Doyle tales, (though borrowing heavily from The Hound of the Baskervilles), The Scarlet Claw is dripping with atmosphere. Fog-wreathed marshes are the setting as Holmes tracks a ghostly apparition that has graduated from sheep mutilation to murdering humans. The local villagers believe the culprit to be supernatural, but level-headed Holmes rejects the idea out of hand, and sets himself to the task of finding the murderer.

Rathbone, as Holmes, is at the top of his form here...cold and detached, clinical in his reasoning. And Bruce's Watson, even in this dumbed down incarnation, is a pleasure to watch. Crisp direction, beautiful cinematography (particularly for a B-film), plenty of twists and turns along the way, and no small amount of deductive reasoning from Holmes, make this the strongest entry in the Universal series. The later films were often good, but none ever matched the achievement of The Scarlet Claw...which is simultaneously Gothic, suspenseful, and very, very Holmesian. It is not without its logical flaws, but the flaws are justified by the picture's enormous entertainment value. And of all the films in the series, this one is, by far, the most entertaining.