Leofwine_draca SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE VOICE OF TERROR is the third of the Basil Rathbone series and the first to be made by Universal rather than 20th Century Fox. The Universal films were lower budgeted and had shorter running times, and they also updated the stories to the then-present day with no explanation. Thus we get Holmes and Watson tackling Nazis rather than the classic Conan Doyle villains.This story is a mixture of bits from the written story HIS LAST BOW along with a fictional version of the infamous 'Lord Haw Haw' Nazi broadcaster. It doesn't take long for Holmes to find himself on the trail of the scheming villain, and there are plenty of atmospheric touches along the way and a few exciting shoot-outs. Henry Daniell and Evelyn Ankers co-star. Given that this was made during the war, expect lots of sentimental chest-thumping and propaganda moments.

LeonLouisRicci It's 1942 and Sherlock Holmes had Survived the Reichenbach Falls (decades earlier) so why not Suspend Disbelief and Update the Setting to WWII and Tap into His Universal Appeal and Uncanny Intellect and Ability to Aid in the Fight Against Fascism. Why Not Indeed?Well, if Holmes Purist had Anything to Say about it Sherlock would be in the Old Folks Home or Pushing Up Daisies. Point Taken about Victorian England and All and the Atmospheric Differences between Buggies and Cars, but it was done by Universal Studios and its 12 Modern Highly Entertaining Holmes and Watson Movies. Its History, Move On, Get Over it, Your Dissension is Duly Noted.So here We are, the Deerstalker Hat on the Rack and the Fedora on Top of that Attention Grabbing Hair-Do and it is the Beginning of the "New" Series and Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce Continue Their Fun Portrayals with a Fine Supporting Cast of B-Movie Character Actors and some Excellent and Dark Cinematography.Propaganda in the Form of a Media Presentation, the Radio's "Voice of Terror" is as much a Villain here as the Nazis and the Titled Central Theme of Mass Communication is More Important than the Singular Human that is Uttering the Persuasion. This was After All Hitler's Greatest Asset, the Joseph Goebbels Ministry that Caused so Much Damage.

Robert J. Maxwell The budget was cut drastically when Holmes and Watson moved from Fox to Universal Studios, but this isn't as poorly done as I'd expected. Not that this resembles the original Sherlock Holmes in many ways. Rathbone makes a couple of improbably deductions at the beginning but that puts an end to his penetrating insights. After that, the story turns into a rather ordinary anti-German B feature. Instead of Sherlock Holmes it could be Boston Blackie or Charlie Chan. It doesn't look or sound like Conan-Doyle's character until the very end, when Rathbone recites the last passage from the last story, a patriotic analogy of war as weather.Yet, it really wasn't bad, for a couple of reasons. One is that the story itself involves a very real and important threat to England at the time of shooting, an invasion across the channel by German troops. (Actually the Germans were nowhere near ready but no one knew that.) As a potential martial event, the invasion of Great Britain stands somewhat higher in importance than Doctor Tobel's fictional bomb sight in a later episode.Then, too, Holmes is a bit different. Make Up gave Rathbone a few wisps of hair curling forward over his temple but he didn't yet look like a lithograph of Lord Byron. And Rathbone seems to bring more gusto to the role, although it may just be my imagination. He was pretty fagged out by the end of the series. Nigel Bruce as Doctor Watson is far less than the mumbling and disgruntled companion he was to become.And somebody ought to mention the cinematography of Woody Bredell. Maybe it's too dark in some scenes but it's always dramatic. Too bad the budget confined all the scenes to indoor stages. In none of his movies does Holmes get to spend much time outdoors. Even when he's on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean ("Pursuit to Algiers") he's stuck on an indoor stage.The cast are a bunch of stalwarts. They hit their marks, speak their lines, and do what they're supposed to. The real heavy, the mastermind behind the Voice of Terror, eluded me. I had picked Henry Daniell. (He was to play Moriarty in a later film.) Okay, so the writers foxed me, but I was wrong for good reasons. When has Henry Daniell ever been innocent of anything? He was Lord Wolfingham in "The Sea Hawk". He was always a bad guy. Even in his best, most ambiguous role, the Scots doctor in Val Lewton's "The Body Snatchers", he was driven by his ego to grave robbing. And that face -- that bony but flabby jaw, those thin lips, that icy voice. Maybe he wasn't the villain here but he SHOULD have been.There's something else too that occurred to me while watching this. I saw it as a child, on re-release or television, and I recall vividly the scene in which Holmes is listening to a performance of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony while he fiddles with a chart and watches an oscilloscope. It's of no importance but it was the first time in my life I realized there was more to Beethoven's Fifth than just the familiar opening of the first movement -- da-da-da-DAHHH. The experience almost made my hair stand on end. There might be more to all classical music. So I went on to study composition and theory, changed my name for professional reasons to John Williams, made millions, partnered a parade of pretty girls, and have had a satisfying career as a composer. All thanks to this movie.

ackstasis Detective Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle's immortal literary creation, is reportedly the most filmed fictional character in cinema history, having been portrayed in hundreds of movies by literally hundreds of actors. Of those fortunate enough to have played the great detective, one actor – Basil Rathbone – remains the most fondly-remembered, having appeared in fourteen Sherlock Holmes films during a seven year period between 1939 and 1946. The first two pictures in the "series," 'The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)' and 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939),' were big-budget entries produced by Twentieth Century Fox. With the onset of World War Two, plans for further films were promptly shelved, apparently seen as less topical and, hence, a poor investment decision. In 1942, Universal Studios recognised a window of opportunity, and hired both Rathbone and Nigel Bruce {as Holmes' humble sidekick, Dr. John Watson} to reprise their respective roles in 'Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942).'A low-budget but technically-accomplished affair, the film is war-time propaganda in the greatest sense of the word, but, if you can stomach the unashamed patriotism, then an excellent mystery reveals itself. Though purportedly based on Conan Doyle's 1917 short story, "His Last Bow," the film bears only a passing resemblance to its source material. In order to compete with most of Hollywood's early 1940s output, Holmes and Watson – being "ageless, invincible and unchanging" – are relocated to the modern era, where the great detective "remains – as ever – the supreme master of deductive reasoning," and so can put forth his talents towards defeating Nazi Germany. This is not altogether different from the premise of "His Last Bow," in which an aging Holmes aids England's WWI efforts by bringing the sinister German agent Von Bork to justice. This was one of the few Sherlock Holmes stories narrated in the third-person, and, chronologically, the detective's final mystery.In war-torn London, a menacing German voice taunts England over the airwaves. This "Voice of Terror," obviously based on the real-life Lord Haw-Haw, regularly appears on the radio to denigrate the Allied war effort, and to reveal the latest devastating Nazi victory. The British Defence Committee has exhausted every possible option, and so place their faith in the remarkable investigative powers of Sherlock Holmes. The mystery itself is adequately intriguing, and, though some of the supporting work is a bit wooden, both Rathbone and Bruce display impeccable chemistry in the leading roles, and Thomas Gomez is suitably slimy as the enigmatic German agent, R.F. Meade. Elwood Bredell's black-and-white cinematography is exquisite, particularly given the relatively low-budget, and, in one scene, he does an exceptional job of capturing the warmth and sheer intellect behind Rathbone's piercing gaze, a single brief instant that perfectly captures the essence of Sherlock Holmes.The film ends with Holmes' wonderful meditation on the approaching conflict: "There's an east wind coming, Watson... Such a wind as never blew on England yet. It will be cold and bitter, Watson, and a good many of us may wither before its blast. But it's God's own wind none the less. And a greener, better, stronger land will be in the sunshine when the wind is cleared." I was all set to praise the film's screenwriters (Robert Hardy Andrews, Lynn Riggs and John Bright) for their incredible writing talents, before a re-read of the original story reminded me that I'd heard that speech somewhere before! Nevertheless, full credit should be offered for their foresight in recognising the enormous power of Holmes' final words. There's even a few flourishes of humour in the screenplay, particularly in Holmes' mocking deprecation of Watson's powers of deduction, but also in the self-referential moment when Holmes reaches for his iconic deer-stalker hat, before reluctantly settling for a fedora after Watson remonstrates.