BEFORE: Another snowstorm, even though it's spring - and unlike the last two, which managed to avoid NYC, this one hit us pretty hard. We got like 18 inches, which sort of makes up for skating on the last two storms. I feel bad because even though my boss gave me the day off yesterday, I didn't really get out and shovel until this morning, by which point my neighbor had done the bulk of the work. I heard him shoveling yesterday and again today, but that wasn't enough to motivate me to get my boots on. But I did shovel his walk and his steps the last two times that snow did fall here, I think while he was away - so karmically I felt justified in not pitching in this time.
These Sherlock Holmes films are a bit like snowstorms in late March, I keep hoping each one is the last one, though I know that it possibly, probably isn't. But the snow's got to stop coming eventually, and two more Basil Rathbone films after this one, and then I can move forward and turn things around.
THE PLOT: Holmes is recruited to escort the heir to a European throne safely back to his homeland after his father's assassination.
AFTER: Holmes and Watson are contacted by foreign officials, who need their help in making sure that the prince of Rovinia, who was educated in the U.K., gets safe passage back to his country, where he will assume the throne. There are simply too many Russian agents about who would love to take out the prince, which seems a little weird here that Russia is portrayed as the enemy, weren't they allies of the U.K. during World War II? Or by the time this film was released in 1945, was it clear to most Brits that Communist Russia was up to no good, and would be an enemy going forward? (Wikipedia says the Cold War didn't really start until 1947, so I think I'm right to be confused.)
Anyway, the plan is to fly the prince home, only a last-minute change means that there are only two seats for passengers on the plane, and Watson does NOT appreciate being separated from Holmes, and he was against taking the mission in the first place, because it interrupted their plans for another fishing trip up in Scotland. (Jeez, guys, get a room already. Or just admit to everyone that you've got feelings for each other, and enjoy taking vacations together. Fishing trip, yeah, right...)
This one was a little tough for me to follow, there were just too many characters on the boat to Algiers. Like, I wasn't sure if the singer who Watson was spending time with, who he seemed to have an attraction to, was the same woman who was hanging out with the prince, who was masquerading as Watson's nephew.
And the woman who kept calling Watson "Ducky", was that the same woman who called him "Ducky" when they went to the fish and chips place, earlier in the film? If not, then that seems like an odd coincidence, but if it was, then why did he suspect her of being an enemy agent? Because if she was the same woman who was at the pub, where Holmes and Watson were recruited for this assignment, wouldn't that mean she was on his side?
This is at least the third film where Holmes uses Watson as something of a decoy, and at least the second film where he tells Watson to go and be "as conspicuous as possible" in a social situation. The first time I thought he said "inconspicuous", so I figured that either Watson didn't understand the meaning of the word, or Holmes was counting on the fact that Watson sticks out like a sore thumb, so that even when he's trying to be undercover, the opposite effect is achieved.
Also starring Nigel Bruce (carrying over) , Marjorie Riordan, Rosalind Ivan (last seen in "The Robe"), Morton Lowry (last seen in "The Hound of the Baskervilles"), Leslie Vincent, Martin Kosleck (last seen in "Foreign Correspondent"), Rex Evans (last seen in "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man"), John Abbott (last seen in "Mrs. Miniver"), Gerald Hamer (last seen in "The Scarlet Claw"), William Davis, Tom Dillon, Frederick Worlock (also carrying over from "The Woman in Green"), Sven Hugo Borg.
RATING: 4 out of 10 games of shuffleboard
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