BEFORE: It's St. Patrick's Day, and I'm still in the U.K., figuratively of course, watching Sherlock Holmes movies. I know England's not Ireland but it's the best I can do this year. If you're looking for something Irish to watch, I can recommend "Sing Street", "Leap Year" or even "Albert Nobbs". Or, watch "Once" if you have to, but I didn't really enjoy it.
Day 6 with Basil Rathbone as Sherlock, and I'll be watching a double-header today, so my Easter film will line up correctly with that holiday.
THE PLOT: During World War II several murders occur at a convalescent home where Dr. Watson has volunteered his services. He summons Holmes for help when a doctor at the manor is attacked.
AFTER: Loosely based on the Conan Doyle story "The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual", this one sees Holmes called to Northumberland to solve a mystery - that's about as north as you can go in England without being in Scotland. Again, not Ireland, but close, right?
At a stately manor that serves as a home for veterans with shell shock - this was before we had the euphemisms like "combat fatigue" or "post-traumatic stress disorder", terms with defied the conventions of language by getting longer over the years, instead of shorter. Some of these men also become suspects in the attack on a doctor and the following murders in the Musgrave family, which owns the estate.
Inspector Lestrade from Scotland Yard shows up to try to crack the case, so you just know he's going to screw up his investigation - so he arrests Sally Musgrave's new boyfriend, Captain Vickery, for the murder of her brother Geoffrey, just because they had a fight that day, and he was seen using a rake earlier, which now has no fingerprints on it - therefore, he must have wiped them off, which is suspicious. Umm, or perhaps he wore gardening gloves. Or, as Holmes suggests, perhaps someone else wiped off THEIR fingerprints, and wiped off his, too.
The Musgraves undergo a strange ritual whenever one of them dies, the next one in line has to recite a long, strange poem, preferably on a dark and stormy night so their recital can be punctuated with thunder claps. But what do the strange phrases in the poem mean, and why does the butler know them better than Sally does? The game is afoot...
Also starring Nigel Bruce, Dennis Hoey (last seen in "Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon"), Arthur Margetson, Hillary Brooke (last seen in "Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror"), Halliwell Hobbes (last seen in "You Can't Take It With You"), Minna Phillips, Milburn Stone, Gavin Muir (also carrying over from "Sherlock Holmes in Washington"), Mary Gordon (ditto), Gerald Hamer (ditto), Vernon Downing (last seen in "Suspicion"), Olaf Hytten, Frederick Worlock, Charles Coleman, with a cameo from Peter Lawford (last seen in "Royal Wedding").
RATING: 5 out of 10 secret passageways
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