BEFORE: They sort of changed the pattern of the titles with this one, the films in this series no longer begin with "Sherlock Holmes and..." which seems like a bad bit of branding for a franchise. You'd think that putting Sherlock's name in each title would draw more audiences in, and that leaving it out would be bad for business. Like the "Rambo" and "Indiana Jones" franchises made the mistake of not properly branding their first films with the hero name, this franchise seems to have made that mistake with the later films.
Film #7 in the Basil Rathbone series, so I'm halfway through with this Sherlock series after today.
THE PLOT: Sherlock Holmes investigates a series of so-called "pajama suicides". He knows the female villain behind them is as cunning as Moriarty and as venomous as a spider.
AFTER: This is a prime example of the "locked-room" mystery, where a man is killed somehow while at home, under lock and key, so the detective has to figure out how the murderer got to him. They turned this into a whole series of suicides that takes place at night, so therefore "pajama suicides", where men shoot themselves or jump from their balconies while dressed for bed. ("Pajama Suicides" is also a great band name, I don't know why nobody ever used it for that.).
Holmes would normally be assigned to the case, only he falls in the river during a fishing trip in Scotland with Watson, and is presumed dead. But come on, he's pulled this sort of thing before - if everyone assumes that he's dead, that just gives him the freedom to work the case in disguise, without alerting the villain that he's working the case.
They set up this bit in this film, and in previous Sherlock Holmes films, where Holmes adopts a disguise, usually as an older man like a peddler, or here in brown-face as an Indian Rajah, and then he tests the disguise by visiting Dr. Watson in his own office. I guess if Dr. Watson can't recognize Holmes, then the disguise is a good one, though he still looks quite a bit like Basil Rathbone to me. But the gag here is that there's an expert who happens to look a bit like Holmes, and when he shows up at Holmes' flat as requested, Watson naturally assumes he's Sherlock in disguise, so he tries to pull his make-up off, only the guy's not wearing any. It took three or four films just to set that gag up, it's nice to see that pay off.
Holmes determines that all of the wealthy men who committed suicide are also gamblers, and they've also taken out insurance policies, so the best bet is to follow the money. The film's title is a big clue about who the villain is and how she reaches her victims, but her modus operandi also seems to share something in common with a certain Edgar Allan Poe story. There are also bits and pieces of several Conan Doyle stories worked in, like a bit from "The Adventure of the Speckled Band", one bit from "The Sign of Four", and so on.
Also starring Nigel Bruce, Dennis Hoey, Vernon Downing, Mary Gordon (all carrying over from "Sherlock Holmes Faces Death"), Gale Sondergaard, Alec Craig (last seen in "Mrs. Miniver"), Arthur Hohl (last seen in "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes"), Teddy Infuhr, Lydia Bilbrook, Angelo Rossitto (last seen in "Doctor Dolittle")
RATING: 4 out of 10 shooting gallery targets
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