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The Woman in Green

Written by Bertram Millhauser

Directed by Roy William Neill

USA, 1945

The Woman in Green begins with a mystery Scotland Yard cannot solve. Several women have turned up murdered around London, all with a finger severed off. Stumped by who the killer could be, Inspector Gregson (Matthew Boulton) calls on Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) to solve the case. Holmes and Watson soon discover that the deaths are far more than the work of a lone serial killer, but part of a diabolical plot involving hypnotism and the ever-evil Professor Moriarty (Henry Daniell).

Part of a series of 14 Sherlock Holmes films produced between 1939 and 1946 (by 20th Century Fox and then Universal), The Woman in Green plays with hypnotism as a way for Moriarty to gain control. Moriarty’s partner-in-crime is Lydia (Hillary Brooke), a hypnotism enthusiast. Together, they hypnotize wealthy men to believe...

Writer-director Will Gluck has had an excellent couple of years, with his last two credits, Easy A and Friends With Benefits, each doing tremendously well at the box office, with the former turning an $8m. budget into almost $75m. in cinemas, and the later taking almost $150m. from a $35m. investment. Impressive stuff.

Deadline are now reporting that Sony have bought an action-comedy spec pitch from Drew Pearce, the man who in the past year has been hired to write both Iron Man 3 and more recently Sherlock Holmes 3 (provided A Game of Shadows does well, which everyone’s expecting it to), for Gluck to both produce and direct, entitled Secretaries Day.

Though I missed Friends With Benefits this year, I absolutely loved Gluck’s Easy A last year, and thought it was the best teen comedy à la John Hughes I’ve ever seen that wasn’t made by the great Hughes himself.

Just as I did with this year’s Golden Globes, I will be offering my live-blogging this year’s Academy Awards. I will mock as fast as I can update my posts. I’ve already made my picks known and now we’ll see if they pan out. It’s possible that I’m underestimating Avatar’s momentum in the technical categories, but I usually get 75% of my picks right so I’m hoping that trend continues, so I’m hoping to meet or beat that average. Also, here’s what I’m chancing for the short categories: Logorama (Animated Short), Instead of Abracadabra (Live-Action Short) and China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province (Documentary Short).

After the jump you’ll find my commentary. My latest update will be at the top. Just keep refreshing this page to see my latest comments on all-things 82nd Academy Awards ceremony.

Out of curiosity and sheer boredom, I’ve decided to start up a new column that will run once every week or two here at Reelloop. In Off the Shelf, I’ll randomly pick a DVD or Bluray out of my collection and write a few paragraphs of random thoughts about whatever film my finger lands on. Hopefully I can make some interesting points and draw your eye to a film you might not have seen before!

This week’s film: The Hughes Brothers’ From Hell.

While I didn’t review this month’s new Hughes Brothers release The Book of Eli, a post-apocalyptic action film starring Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman, it’s worth noting a few things about my experience with the movie. While I found Eli to essentially be Post-Apocalyptic Tropes: The Motion Picture, soullessly deriving elements from The Road Warrior, Waterworld and every other film of its ilk under the sun,...