The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939) (Digitally Restored)

the best of the classic Sherlock Holmes series

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Apr 27, 2004 | 2 out of 2 found this The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939) review helpful

Pros: great performances, classic 1930s Hollywood

Cons: stereotypes, diverges from original stories

This is the best of the classic Sherlock Holmes series which starred Basil Rathbone as the great detective and Nigel Bruce as his companion and biographer Dr. John Watson.Released originally in 1939, it was the follow-up "The Hound of the Basker...villes" and was based on the famous stage play written and starring William Gillette.If you're looking for a great re-creation of a classic Conan Doyle story from the Holmes canon, move on. If you're looking for escapist fun, this film is a delight in its own way. The Golden Age Hollywood recreation of the Victorian gaslight era , with its swirling London fog, is wonderful, and Rathbone immerses himself in the role of Holmes completely; you can tell how delighted he is not to be playing a villain, for once. You even get to see a bit of Rathbone's old music hall days with a little song and dance by the great detective operating incognito.The incomparable Ida Lupino, who went on to becoming quite the film and television director in her own right, lends a bit of studied elegance in the role of Ann Brando. Mary Gordon, as Mrs. Hudson, was so perfectly cast that she reprised the role throughout the series. The rest of the cast is rounded out by great performances by the large British expatriate community of Hollywood's Golden Era.The Basil Rathbone performance was the seminal Sherlock Holmes in the popular imagination for the next 50 years. Whenever one thought of the great detective, it was usually the image of Rathbone in his fore-and-aft deerstalker's cap, his drooping Meerschaum pipe, and his commanding presence. The role of Dr. Watson as played by Nigel "Willy" Bruce made the character into something of the comic relief - an overweight bungling English boob - in many productions and farces for years to come. George Zucco, oily and brilliant as the arch nemesis Professor Moriarty, and E. E. Clive as the erstwhile Inspector Bristol of Scotland Yard round out the great cast.The characterizations in this series, especially this movie and its predecessor, overshadowed many other performances onscreen until Jeremy Brett went "back to the Canon" and recreated the role in the Granada Television series. But this was Hollywood, and they were out to simply make a great movie. They did. Read more Less