DVD Review-Sherlock Holmes Faces Death

Who doesn't like a taut Sherlock Holmes who-done-it movie?

Of course, we were spoiled by the brilliance of Jeremy Bretts' Holmes on BBC Granada
Television in the 80's and 90's, but we must not forget how compelling Basil Rathbone's portrayal of
Holmes was in the 1940's, where, except for the first two movies, “The Adventures of Sherlock
Holmes” and “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” Holmes' exploits were set in present World War II time
time, rather than the Victorian times of the late 1800's, when Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the memorable
series. It safe to say, despite the dozen of actors who played the famous sleuth in the past 70 years,
both Rathbone and Brett were the definitive Holmes of their period.

Before his acting career began, Rathbone was a officer in the Liverpool Scottish, 2nd Battalion,
rising to the rank of Captain. During the first World War, he was an expert at disguising himself, so
that he could scout enemy positions during the daylight, rather than at night, which was the custom in
those days. This was one trait he shared with the fictitious Holmes, who was a master of disguises. In
1918, Rathbone was award the prestigious Military Cross.

Upon his release from the service, Rathbone embarked on a illustrious stage career, which
included playing Shakespeare's Romeo. Switching to the movies, Rathbone distinguished himself by
playing swashbuckling villains. He was an especially adept swordsman, and he used his athletic ability
to his advantage in several sword fight scenes, in movies like Captain Blood, The Adventures of Robin
Hood, Tower of London and Mark of Zorro. He also received two Academy Award nominations for his
parts in “Romeo and Juliet” and “If I Were King.”

From 1939-46, Rathbone appeared in fourteen Sherlock Holmes movies, with Nigel Bruce
playing his bumbling sidekick Dr. Watson. Conan Doyle wrote Watson as a staid and serious character;
“stout fellow” as Holmes often called him. Yet Bruce's portrayal of Watson was sometimes comic and
always eccentric, which people said was Bruce's real personality anyway. So in effect, when Bruce was
playing Watson, he was really playing himself.

Sherlock Holes Faces Death (1943), which is drawn from an old Holmes short story called the
Musgrave Ritual, opens in a pub, where a creepy black crow mutters the single, sinister word of
“Blood.” When he hears the bird's exclamation, a young sailor, played by future Rat Packer Peter
Lawford, acting in his first movie, looks looks like he's ready to jump out of his skin.

We cut to a creepy old house named Musgrove Manor, which is being used as a nursing home
for several officers who are suffering from shell shock, which we now call posttraumatic stress
disorder. Dr. Watson is the temporary live-in physician, and his assistant Dr. Sexton is attacked outside
the house and nearly killed. Watson calls in Holmes. When they arrive at Musgrove Manor, they find
the owner of the house Geoffrey Musgave dead outside the house under a bed of leaves.

Scotland Yard Inspector Lestrade (Dennis Hoey) is called in, and immediately draws one bad
conclusion after another. It makes you wonder how this simpleton ever became a police officer in the
first place, let alone an Inspector. For some absurd reason, Lestrade arrests American air force Captain
Vickery (Milburn Stone), who is in love with the gorgeous, blond Sally Musgrave (Hillary Brooke).
Brooke was later the straight woman, who played foil to Abbott and Costello during their 1950's
television shows.
 Red herrings are inserted throughout the movie, including a clock that strikes thirteen times
instead of twelve, which turns out to mean absolutely nothing. Dead bodies keep turning up and before
Sally can receive her inheritance, she must recite a centuries' old ritual, with makes no sense to anyone,
except Holmes of course. Holmes realizes that the words in the ritual are clues to locating a treasure
hidden centuries before in the basement. Since the upstairs main floor of Musgarve Manor is covered
with black and white tiles, Holmes deduces it was meant to be used as a chess board, to indicate the
exact spot in the basement below where treasure is hidden. Holmes uses the remaining soldiers and
household help as chess pieces, with the Musgrave Ritual's words read by Sally directing their moves.

The rest of the movie is a mad dash for the treasure, while Lestrade, thank God, gets lost in a
maze of tunnels set throughout the cavernous estate, as Holmes saves the day and the treasure.

After a slow start, the last half hour of the one hour and ten minute movie rockets by with one
suspenseful moment after another. I give Sherlock Holmes Faces Death a solid four stars out of a
possible five.

At the movies' end, Holmes tells Watson, “The days of grab and greed are over.”

That is, until the next Sherlock Holmes movie.