bjhiza This lame entry does a terrible disservice to the great detective..for example..when Sally rushes to find Holmes at the pub to tell him her brother Phillip is missing, Holmes response: "did you check his room?"...really. Why did it take so long for Holmes to realize the Musgrave Ritual was chess terms???..why did he play the chess game with humans.was it really necessary? Why did Holmes dig he broken needle fragment out of Phillip Musgraves's head? Don't they do autopsies on murder victims in England? Why did Dr. Sexton leave the Crown Grant down in the crypt? Why didn't the Musgrave's claim the land ages ago? "Oh, I'd rather stay poor, and let two generations down the road claim the land"...????? Why did Sally throw away a fortune??? Is there a law in England that states when you inherit land you have to evict the former tenants?!?!?...the whole movie is filled with idiotic nonsense....

TheLittleSongbird Not quite Hound of the Baskervilles, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Scarlet Claw, but definitely an improvement on the three wartime films before it. Sherlock Holmes Faces Death is perhaps too short with some of Lestrade's antics not being as funny as they could've been and the out-of-place and painfully contrived ending speech that could have been easily scrapped. It is very well filmed and directed though, with a great setting, wonderfully moody lighting and a creepy atmosphere. The music is jaunty and atmospheric, and the dialogue has a good balance of humour and provoking thought. The story- with welcome touches of The Musgrave Ritual- is paced well, keeps your attention all the way through and is suspenseful though there are a few instances where it's a little messy. The perpetrator's identity isn't a difficult-to-work-out one but how Holmes figures it out and the confrontation are fun to watch, the idea for Holmes to treat and use the suspects like giant chess pieces is a great touch and comes off splendidly and the clock's chiming is genuinely ominous. The acting is good, an even more authoritative Basil Rathbone is great as always, Dennis Hoey is amusing and Nigel Bruce while not as loyal and composed as you imagine Watson to be(though actually less of the bumbling, blustering idiot that he can be) does an amiable job too. In conclusion, a very good Sherlock Holmes outing. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Terrell-4 Sherlock Holmes, who was born January 6, 1854, came out of retirement in 1942 at the request of Universal Pictures to pursue WWII arch criminals threatening Britain and frightening aristocratic young women. Now 88, Holmes uses a substance much like Botox, hair dye and a high fiber diet to maintain that familiar appearance so many have commented on, to his intense irritation, as resembling the actor Basil Rathbone. He is, as always, aided by his companion, Dr. John Watson, now 90, and resembling Nigel Bruce, who over the years preferred to inject himself with monkey gland extracts from Switzerland to maintain an active but confused middle age. In Sherlock Holmes Faces Death, Holmes will confront one of the most dastardly of plots, with murder employed as a careless tool to achieve unspeakably selfish ends. It concerns the Musgrave Manor, a hulking, ancient mansion of hidden passages and dark crypts, where the time is always night and the weather is always howling winds and rain. Now the manor, of course, is used as a convalescent center for shell-shocked British officers. Watson volunteered to supervise their care. "What is this Musgrave Manor? A blinkin' prison?" says a sailor near closing time at The Rat and The Raven Pub. It's 1942 in wartime England. "That ain't the worst it's been called, not that I'm one for speedin' stories, heh, heh, but we knows what we knows," says the publican."Where is this Musgrave Manor?" "Down the road apiece. You'll see it when you pass the old iron gates. Only don't loiter. You won't be welcome, not by the Musgraves. They've been sittin' there, lords of the manor, since time was. If those old walls could speak they'd tell you things that'd raise the hairs on yer head." And there is The Musgrave Ritual, the recitation of ancient lines that must be spoken by the next heir of the Musgraves. How does it go? "..."Where shall he go? Deep down below. Away from the thunder, let him dig under..." Before long Sally Musgrave is reciting the ritual amidst dark shadows and lightening. Outside, the echoing trees are pulled by a howling wind...a wind that slams open shutters and wreaks havoc amongst the drapes. Sally Musgrave's elder brother has just been murdered. Her other brother has become head of the Musgraves. And Dr. Watson has called on Holmes to come to the manor and solve what appears to be an unsolvable and deadly mystery. Who is the hand behind it all? One of the twitchy officers? The doctor assisting Watson? The irritable housekeeper? The tipsy butler? We know this is far too complex for Inspector Lestrade. And then Holmes discovers that the ritual disguises a chess game only the bravest would want to play, with death and riches as rewards. It takes Holmes only 68 minutes in movie time, in this MPI release nicely restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive, to remind ourselves that nostalgia is everything it is cracked up to be and that Sherlock Holmes, even at 88 but looking good, will always be The Great Detective. And so the ingeniously complex Musgrave Ritual is deciphered, the most ruthless murderer in England is unmasked, and young Sally Musgrave is saved from a terrible fate. "Amazing, Holmes!" says John Watson. "Elementary, my dear Watson," says Sherlock Holmes.

Michael_Elliott Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943) *** (out of 4) Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) is working at a convalescent home where a murder takes place so he calls in his buddy Holmes (Basil Rathbone) to solve it. As soon as the detective shows up more bodies start to pile up so Holmes looks from the inside to catch the killer. This fourth film in Universal's series manages to be quite good even though the supporting cast here isn't nearly as strong as previous films. What does work is Neill's strong direction, which makes for some funny scenes as well as a tense ending where Holmes, as the title tells, faces death. There's a rather amusing bit with a human chess board that manages to be funny as well as give major clues to the killer's identity. Rathbone and Bruce once again deliver the goods and continue to make an impressive team. Dennis Hoey has a few funny moments but Arthur Margetson, Halliwell Hobbes and Hillary Brooke are all rather weak and don't offer any support. The screenplay is quite clever and manages to offer up a few good surprises along the way. Unlike the previous three films, this one here doesn't have any message about the world nor does it talk about the evil German but instead just delivers a pretty good mystery.