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The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a 1939 film featuring the characters of the Sherlock Holmes series of books as created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was the second film to feature Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Doctor Watson, the final one they would make for 20th Century Fox, and the final one in the Rathbone/Bruce series to be set in the Victorian London period. The further 12 films made by Universal and starring Rathbone/Bruce would take place in the present day. George Zucco appeared as Holmes's nemesis Professor Moriarty. In Britain, the film was originally released under the shorter title Sherlock Holmes.
The film was supposedly based on the stage play by William Gillette, though little of the play's original plot remains aside from the Holmes/Moriarty conflict. The play famously featured a very young Charlie Chaplin in one of his very first acting roles during its first London production, playing the character of Billy, who, in this movie, is played by Terry Kilburn.
The film begins with Moriarty and Holmes verbally sparring on the steps outside the Old Bailey where Moriarty has just been acquitted on a charge of murder due to lack of evidence. Holmes remarks, "You've a magnificent brain, Moriarty. I admire it. I admire it so much I'd like to present it, pickled in alcohol, to the London Medical Society". "It would make an impressive exhibit", replies Moriarty.
Later Holmes and Watson are visited at 221B Baker Street by Ann Brandon (Ida Lupino). She tells him that her brother Lloyd has received a strange note - a drawing of a man with an albatross hanging around his neck - identical to one received by her father just before his brutal murder ten years before. Holmes deduces that the note is a warning and rushes to find Lloyd Brandon. However he is too late, as Lloyd has been murdered by being strangled and having his skull crushed.
Holmes investigates and attends a garden party, disguised as a music-hall entertainer, where he correctly believes an attempt will be made on Ann's life. Hearing her cries from a nearby park he captures her assailant, who turns out to be Gabriel Mateo, out for revenge on the Brandons for the murder of his father by Ann's father in a dispute over ownership of their South American mine. His murder weapon was a bolas. Mateo also reveals that it was Moriarty who urged him to seek revenge. Holmes realises that Moriarty is using the case as a distraction from his real crime, a crime that will stir the British Empire - an attempt to steal the Crown Jewels. Holmes rushes to the Tower of London to prevent the crime, and during a struggle Moriarty falls, presumably to his death. In the end, Ann is married and Holmes tries to shoo a fly by playing his violin, only to have Watson swat it with his newspaper remarking, "Elementary, my dear Holmes, elementary."
The quote "Elementary, my dear Watson" was made popular by this film. Although it was spoken in the 1929 talkie The Return of Sherlock Holmes, starring Clive Brook, it was never featured in a canonical Arthur Conan Doyle story; although once Holmes said, in "The Adventure of the Crooked Man", "Elementary". The quote "Elementary, my dear Watson" was ranked No. 65 in the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes poll.
During the scene in which Holmes crashes the garden party dressed as a music hall performer, he sings "I Do Like To be Beside the Seaside". This is an anachronism, since the film is set in 1894, but the song was written in 1907.
The scene in which Holmes experiments with the flies in the glass while playing the violin is recreated in the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes.
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The original title "The Hound of the Baskervilles" refers to a dog that terrorizes a family called "Baskerville". The German title "Der Hund Von Baskerville", a mistranslation, refers to a hound, which just lives in "Baskerville", a town, that does not play a role in the story.
"Never regret anything you have done with a sincere affection; nothing is lost that is born of the heart."
- Basil Rathbone
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September 1, 1939
Although William Gillette's name appears in the credits, this film bears little or no resemblance to his 1899 play "Sherlock Holmes".
The movie's line "Elementary, my dear Watson." was voted as the #65 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100).
Lionel Atwill was originally cast as Prof. Moriarty, but was replaced before shooting by George Zucco.
The second of fourteen films based on Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional consulting detective Sherlock Holmes starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Doctor Watson.
The popular variety-hall song "I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside" is performed at Lady Conyngham's party. This was composed in 1907, fifteen years after the film's 1892 setting.
Moriarty proceeds to steal the jewels from the Crown of Edward the Confessor from behind the bars in the Tower of London. However, until 1911 there were no jewels permanently attached to the Crown - they were "hired" for each coronation and then removed.
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