A Mulher de Verde

There is a vile murderer lose in London, not since the terror of Jack The Ripper has London been subjected to such gruesome doings. The killers trademark is that he severs the forefingers of his victims, the police are baffled. Enter Holmes and Watson, called into action once again, but even the intrepid Holmes is baffled. There is more to the case than meets the eye, and could there be on old adversary behind the murders?.

The Woman in Green is the eleventh of the fourteen Sherlock Holmes film's starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson, and the eighth of the eleven directed by Roy William Neill. Partly based around Arthur Conan Doyle's-The Adventure of the Empty House, The Woman In Green {ambigious title in context of the films content} continues the dark path trodden in the previous film, House of Fear (1945). As Holmes ruefully observes another female victim on the slab in the mortuary he muses "fiend that did this," and then promises to crack the case. It's Holmes obsession with the case, and the macabre nature of the story that carries the audience thru it's very chatty first half. That the darkness lifts at the midpoint is no bad thing due to the introduction of a rather well known foe from Holmes' past. However one has to wonder, as good as the "twist" is, if the film would have been better off staying in darker territory? You see the second half eases in tone as Watson slips into, what is admittedly always great fun, comedy mode and the babe of the piece {a smashing Hillary Brooke} becomes focal along with he who shall not be named. It works of course, this is Holmes trying to crack a devilish case, one that will encompass a new form of trickery in the pantheon of villainy. And then there is some fabulous shots used by Neill, one particular sequence involving swirling water and a white flower is very memorable. While the ending, in true Holmes, Watson and villain style, does its job all told. It's just one can't help feeling that this should have been far better than it eventually turned out to be. Still a fine series entry mind, and arguably the last time a Rathbone film had that delicious dark undercurrent to it. 7/10

Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) step in to help Scotland Yard when a series of murders hits London. They're all women and their right forefingers are missing! It seems an evil, beautiful woman named Lydia (Hillary Brooke) and Prof. Moriarty (Henry Daniell) have something to do with it...

Very good entry in the series. It's well-done with some very inventive direction (for this series) from Roy William Neill--especially during the hypnotism scenes. Rathbone is good as always; Brooke is very beautiful and just great and Daniell seems rather subdued. Bruce once again plays Watson as a buffoon--but I blame the screenwriters more than him. And we don't have the annoying Inspector Lestrade in this one.

Worth catching.

......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 ****

I'm a big fan of the Basil Rathbone/Sherlock Holmes series. This review is of the restored black and white 35 mm version issued in 2003. Having watched all of the Holmes films on TV or videotape, with bad prints and lousy sound, this restored version is the one to see. The restoration is perfect and shows the visual beauty of the film which is without question.

Basil Rathbone immortalized Sherlock Holmes in 14 films. The Woman in Green was the 11th in the series. There is a hint of tiredness in Rathbone's portrayal in this one. The story is interesting and involves severed fingers, the sinister Professor Moriarty and the mysterious Woman in Green. Henry Daniell is a good Professor Moriarty and Hillary Brooke as The Woman in Green is mysterious and seductive. As always, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as bumbling Dr.Watson are fun to watch.

At 68 minutes the film is short. As with all Holmes films, we wish for more. By all means see it.

"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.