one-nine-eighty Based on "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle this film brings Rathbone and Bruce back as Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. Crooks are after a valuable Pearl, it's up to Holmes and Watson to stop the pearl finding it's way into the clutches of the wrong doers. But as Holmes makes an uncharacteristic mistake the upper hand is lost and Holmes and Watson are soon forced to take up the chase. Can they get the pearl before murderous consequences occur? As with the other Rathbone and Bruce films performances here are solid. Dennis Hoey supports well as the bumbling Lestrade, as do Evelyn Ankers and Miles Mander as Naomi Drake and Giles Conover. Shot by Universal and directed by Roy William Neill this is 9th of 14 films with Rathbone and Bruce taking the lead. This is a straight forward Sherlock Holmes story and therefor it's one of the better ones that Universal pumped out, no Nazi's or dinosaurs in sight - although there is the Creeper, but the less said about that the better. It feels more upbeat in pace than others in the series, it feels like reading a comic at times where the hero is trying to keep up and then get ahead of the bad guys. I enjoyed this and like the other films in the series its guaranteed to add to a wonderful lazy Sunday afternoon. A lovely mystery and suspense film with a chase style pace to it. Enjoy.

bkoganbing Baker Street purists won't have too much to quarrel about with this adaption of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Six Napoleons. Because of a master criminal's haste to get away, six people who bought busts of Napoleon Bonaparte are marked for death unless The Pearl Of Death is found.Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce are on the trail of another master criminal, in the Sherlock Holmes stories, Professor Moriarty's second in command Giles Conover. Conover is played with a quiet menace by British colony regular Miles Mander.What Mander is after is the Borgia Pearl which with its connection to the Borgias has as bloody a history as the fabled Star Of India. Rathbone already pulls a double switch on Mander and his lovely accomplice Evelyn Ankers. But later through a bit of Holmes own hubris Mander steals the Borgia Pearl from the British Museum. But he doesn't have it long. Pursued by the police fresh from the theft Mander ducks into a pottery shop and hides the pearl in some fresh plaster busts of Napoleon, in one of six of them which are later sold.Now he's on a mission to recover his loot and it's a bloody mission because Mander brings along in tow the Hoxton Creeper, a giant of a man who can and does snap people's backs to kill them. The creeper is played by Rondo Hatton and he brings this Holmes feature into the realm of Gothic horror. In fact Dr. Watson's knowledge of forensic medicine is called into play here when he correctly identifies Hatton's known method of homicide.One of the better Basil Rathbone films from the Sherlock Holmes series.

Robert J. Maxwell Rondo Hatton, a poor guy suffering from acromegaly, which you get when your pituitary loses its governor, is the creepiest of creepers in "The Pearl of Death." We don't even see him for most of the movie, derived roughly from Conan-Doyle's story about busts of Napoleon. And when the camera does glide over to him in the shadows, we see only his hands, glowing slightly because of the tight, white surgical gloves. Man, did this make my hair stand on end when I was a kid.The mastermind here is Giles Conover. He controls The Creeper and uses Evelyn Ankers as a pretty accomplice. Conover has stolen the Borgia Pearl ("the blood of twenty men on it over the centuries") and has had to hastily hide it in some half-dried busts of Napoleon. But he doesn't know which of six busts the pearl is in, so he sends The Creeper out to kill each of the owners (he breaks their backs) and smash the crockery. Lestrade is a buffoon, wrong about everything, and Watson is dumber than usual, which is saying a lot. The BBC story with Jeremy Brett hews more closely to the original but lacks The Creeper's eerie menace.But -- you know, I think it's time that Mary Gordon as Mrs. Hudson, the housekeeper and landlady at 221b Baker Street, came in for a little applause. She's clearly a member of that household. She never plays a major role and doesn't even appear in some of the entries, but she's sweet and nurturing, like no landlady you ever had. If she complains about Holmes shooting bullet holes in her wall, well, who can blame her? A kind, matronly figure with gray hair, shuffling around, bringing her tenants tea and scones. (Sob.) If the Conovers and Moriartys of the world would disappear, Holmes could sit back and play his fiddle, and Watson could read the newspapers and rub his wound. We wouldn't need them. But the world NEEDS Mrs. Hudsons -- now more than ever.Three of the Universal episodes stand out from the rest, in my uninformed but unimpeachable impression: "The House of Fear," "The Scarlet Claw," and this one.

Scarecrow-88 This time a sought after Borgia Pearl is the object of desire, worth snapping the lumbar vertebrae of many unfortunate victims' backs at the hands of the sinister Creeper(Rondo Hatton), working for a lecherous thief, the devilish, elusive Giles Conover(Miles Mander). Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are out to discover why innocent people are found dead, their china dishes broken all over the crime scenes. A Borgia Pearl was stolen by Conover in a daring heist actually caused when Holmes himself proved to the museum curator that his security system was flawed, inadvertently assisting the conniving con artist who almost got away with it. Conover had to get rid of the pearl temporarily and Holmes & Watson soon discover that it was hidden in one of six plaster busts of Napoleon..it's essential that Holmes get to the bust containing the pearl before Conover and The Creeper do, or else another victim might be targeted. Of course, Holmes must contend with Scotland Yard's Inspector Lastrade(Dennis Hoey), who is assigned to the rash of serial killings, having to tolerate his temperament and obtrusive attitude. Along the way, Holmes' life is in danger because he poses a threat to Conover's plans. Universal Studio's regular Evelyn Ankers has a substantial supporting role as Conover's lovely partner-in-crime, Naomi Drake, who uses aliases and disguises to secure information for her protégé. Hatton's The Creeper is quite an effectively spooky villain, barely seen but quite established thanks to director Roy William Neill's superb methods of building his presence until his reveal late into the film. Rathbone is more intense in this film, because of his treatment by authoritative figures and the press who blame him personally for the loss of the pearl, and Bruce's lovable Watson almost gets his best friend killed when Conover attempts to kill the Baker Street sleuth with a book containing a springing dagger. Mander, as Conover, has a very wily villain which contends with Moriarty as one of Holmes' more despicable and challenging foes. The Universal Studios production values add immensely to the beautiful look of the film and this cast couldn't be much better. Macabre plot, to boot.