The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939)

This was the second and last of Twentieth Century Fox's Sherlock Holmes movies. The Hound of the Baskervilles the previous year was an entertaining yarn, but had too much of a glossy, Hollywoodish veneer, and was otherwise quite conventionally executed. I was delighted to see that this second film makes up for everything its forerunner lacked. It has all the ingredients of the perfect Holmes adventure.

It is based (apparently very loosely) on William Gillette's famous stage play, which pits the sleuth against Professor Moriarty. George Zucco, a stalwart of horror films in this era, is the Professor, and Basil Rathbone is of course Holmes himself. Nigel Bruce is endearing as Watson, and never lapses into blatant caricature, despite being the first actor to portray Watson as rather oafish and clumsy - "an incorrigible bungler", as Holmes tells him affectionately. He even gets one over on his detective friend at the end of the film, declaring triumphantly, "Elementary, my dear Holmes, elementary"!

Victorian London is portrayed with splendid gothic flourishes worthy of Universal, aglow with streetlamps, wrapped in fog and full of dark corners and shadows; the atmosphere is due in no small part to the work of cinematographer Leon Shamroy.

It's jolly exciting and pacey, as a Holmes thriller should be, and is executed with great style. I especially enjoyed the opening scenes contrasting Moriarty in his study and Holmes in his; the former moving creepily among his plants while a lone flautist plays mysteriously in the background, the latter playfully experimenting with fruit flies while plucking out staccato rhythms on the violin.

My rating? 9/10