Sherlock Holmes Enfrenta a Morte

always enjoyed the atmosphere of this movie. spooky manor, wind and thunder and lightning. pleasure to watch over and over. its in my top 3 of the whole series starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. if any of you enjoy this movie then the other 2 that make up my top 3 would be of interest to you. they are House of Fear and Hound of the Baskervilles. another one that has great atmosphere but doesn't have the stately manor to speak of is the Scarlet Claw. the selections i have mentioned are best viewed at evening with all the lights off. i even go as far as lighting candles to give my own surroundings similar atmosphere.

David

This is a very entertaining Sherlock Holmes film with some of the best - maybe THE best - camera-work I've seen in the Basil Rathbone-Nigel Bruce series.

The photography was better than the story, which was disappointing only in that it was too easy to spot the killer. Heck, even I found it no problem, so it must have been too easy.

The characters were interesting and all quite different. Some were mental patients who had suffered from World War II. Miburn Stone played the lone American and I didn't recognize the man who went on to play "Doc" in the long- running hit TV series "Gunsmoke." However, his voice sounded familiar.

Considering Universal Studios churned out no less than three Sherlock Holmes pictures in 1943, after resurrecting the series with 'Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942),' it's often easy to underestimate the creative talents behind the camera. Not being particularly in the mood for an overdose of WWII Allied propaganda, I conveniently skipped over 'Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1943)' and 'Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943)' until a later date, and was delighted to discover that 'Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943)' is perhaps, in my limited experience, the finest Holmes adaptation I've seen to date. Technically, the picture is not only competent, but surprisingly proficient, and Charles Van Enger's shadowy cinematography superbly captures the desired mood. In a break from Holmes' all-important war efforts, most of the film takes place in an ancient mansion, now serving as a convalescent home for shell-shocked combat soldiers. The film openly acknowledges its somewhat cliché scenario, that one of the home's trusted residents must be a murderer, and the directness with which the narratives progresses consistently keeps us interested.

'Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943)' was adapted, rather loosely, from Arthur Conan Doyle's short story, "The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual," which was first serialised in "The Strand Magazine" in 1893. Still in the midst of the Second World War, Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) has volunteered his services at Musgrave Hall, now a convalescent home, in Northumberland. Detective Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) is first summoned to the old house after Watson's assistant (Arthur Margetson) is unexpectedly attacked by an unknown assailant. By the time the detective arrives, however, the head of the house has been murdered and covered with autumn leaves. The fiancé of the murdered man's innocent sister (Hillary Brooke) is immediately suspected, and a cocky Insp. Lestrade (Dennis Hoey) wastes no time in placing him under arrest, after formulating an unashamedly inadequate solution. Holmes, meanwhile, begins to deduce that this mystery goes back considerably further than anticipated, perhaps stretching back to a centuries-old family ritual, whose meaning has been lost for generations. Can he solve the mystery before it claims its next victim?

Not surprisingly, Rathbone and Bruce are excellent in their signature roles, successfully avoiding the "going through the motions" performances that usually accompany such familiarity with a character. The supporting players are adequate, if not notable, though Dennis Hoey is very enjoyable as the smug and incompetent police detective Lestrade. The story has a few indirect references to combat, but Holmes' talents don't contribute anything to the war-effort; he's much more at home when he's tackling smaller and more cunning foes than the Nazis. Above all else, Van Enger's cinematography is the picture's major star, and, considering that the filmmakers must surely have been working with a restricted budget, the crisp black-and-white photography brilliantly evokes the mood of a considerably more expensive film. Director Roy William Neill delights in subtle storytelling tools that increase the film's creepiness, including the mansion's blustery, leaf-strewn entrance, a uncannily-clever black raven, a clock-tower that occasionally strikes thirteen at midnight, and a supposed dead body that reaches out a clammy hand to ensnare the cold-blooded murderer.

The opening world turning and the Universal anthem playing and then the foggy cut to Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as the great Sherlock Holmes and his trusty sidekick Watson staring at us telling us that yet another one of their adventures lies before us always sent shivers of joy down my spine and engendered the greatest anticipation when I was young. These films hold up remarkably well considering,well, everything. The stories are not always the best, the scripts sometimes make too many assumptions about what they feel the audience knows or should know. The acting is very decent but like the script and direction - very formulaic and predictable. But somehow all of it works and we have little screen gems to be viewed again and again. Director Roy William Neill does yet again a fine,workmanlike job in this tale of Dr. Watson working in a convalescent home when murder and the the Musgrave Ritual collide. Though based on the short story by Arthur Conan Doyle, the screenwriter takes several liberties here. Firstly, we are in the present time rather than Victorian England. After the first two films in the Rathbone-Bruce series, Universal(when they took the series over from Twentieth Century Fox) changed the venue for cost reasons. They also had Holmes as a fighter against Nazism and such. This sixth film in the series makes a dramatic departure from that and goes back to the mystery roots delved into in the first two films. Wisely done. The story here concerns a ritual and people dying when the clock chimes thirteen bells. The real heart of these films is the performances of Rathbone and Bruce. they are not great. There is no pathos. No great acting scenes. But each man imbues his character with warmth and solidity that breeds confidence in what they are doing. Rathbone seems so earnest at times yet always has a way with words and a clever phrase. Bruce embodies the almost cartoonish buffoon with a heart of gold and loyal to the core. Character actors of great ability surround them. Dennis Hoey is always fun as Inspector Lestrade and his wit fencing with Watson is great fun. This film also has a gem of a performance by Halliwell Hobbes as Brunton the butler. He is comic perfection in his scenes particularly in his drunken one. Look for Gunsmoke's Milburn Stone(Doc) as Capatain Vickery. Like all the later Holmes pictures by Universal during WWII - look for the heavy-handed(No argument here as it being a necessary one)message delivered between Holmes and Watson. This is good stuff.

This is one of a good number of solid, interesting mysteries in the series of Sherlock Holmes movies starring Basil Rathbone & Nigel Bruce. This one takes the basic idea from the Doyle story "The Musgrave Ritual", and combines it rather freely with several other plot elements to create an essentially new mystery. Some of the additions are rather imaginative in themselves, and overall the mystery has the kind of intriguingly offbeat tone that fits well with the famous characters.

The setting has Watson staying in the Musgrave house, which is being used as a convalescent home for army officers, when a series of violent crimes breaks out. The mystery that arises combines suspense with an interesting puzzle that must be solved. The villain in many of the movies in the Universal series is known from the beginning, but this is one of the exceptions, allowing the viewer to try to deduce what is happening from the same clues that Holmes has available.

Rathbone and Bruce always work well together, and Dennis Hoey always adds some good moments whenever he appears as Inspectator Lestrade. Some of the secondary characters, especially some of the recovering officers, are also interesting. Although this, like the rest of the Universal Holmes features, is set in the (then) present, the setting in the old mansion gives it an atmosphere more like the earlier era of the Doyle originals. Anyone who enjoys the other features in the series should not be disappointed by this one.