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Sherlock Holmes Faces DeathRating:
Release Date: 28 October, 2003 Retail Price: $19.98 OUR Price: $17.98 You SAVE: $2.00! Cast: Complete Cast (6 total) |
Sherlock Holmes Faces Death Reviews
Doesn't he face death in every movie?
SHERLOCK HOLMES FACES DEATH was the movie in which Universal abandoned the idea of making Holmes a WWII spy-catcher and delivered him in a more traditional story of mystery, riddles and puzzles (albeit still set in the then-present day). Although I enjoyed watching the previous three movies, it is nice to see the characters of Holmes and Watson going back to their roots.
Based loosely upon Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Musgrave Ritual", the story is concerned with mysteries rather than war. Here, Watson is a genuine doctor with a practice of his own rather than merely a sidekick to the Great Detective. Holmes is the private detective worried about ancient secrets and unsolved mysteries. FACES DEATH itself is, I feel, more concerned with style than substance. The plot is no great piece of literature, but the presentation has good features.
There's a dark, gothic flavor to the film, which adds to its atmosphere, even if it doesn't quite fit together logically. A clock that chimes thirteen times, secret passages, a convenient lightning strike, etc. These things are all creepy, even if not all of them end up with rational explanations.
I watched this movie twice. Once normally, and the second time with commentary track that's available if you buy this as part of the 4-pack collection. I think it works a lot better if you allow yourself to be absorbed by the stylistic moments rather then looking too closely at the plot. Some parts of the story are obscure while others seem obvious. That said, there are a few good scenes of genuine detective work.
There are some funny moments in the film -- some unintentional. A patient asks Watson if he happens to have any cigarettes on him. Watson replies in the affirmative and drops a giant box of the cancer sticks onto the table. Try to find a doctor who will do that nowadays! But the deliberately funny scenes work too. Comic relief is provided by both Watson and Inspector Lestrade (the latter seems a bit dimmer than usual).
All of the films in the Rathbone/Bruce Holmes series have a certain mood to them, and if you like that flavor, then watching almost any of the movies will provide that fix. But SHERLOCK HOLMES FACES DEATH (generic title and all) is an above average entry and contains everything that makes this such an enjoyable series.
Not a Nazi in sight in splendid Holmes mystery
After three films in which Sherlock Holmes battled the Nazis, even Universal must have grown tired of their gimmicky attempt to "modernize" the Great Detective. With "Sherlock Holmes Faces Death," Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce are back on more familiar turf and solve a mystery having absolutely no connection to World War II.
For the first time in the series, a film doesn't merely credit a story by Arthur Conan Doyle, screenwriter Bertram Millhauser actually makes use of one, "The Musgrave Ritual," a traditional murder mystery involving an old family curse. The story gives director Roy William Neill plenty of opportunities to pour on the atmosphere that is the series' best attribute, aside from stars Rathbone and Bruce, of course.
With this entry, the series greatly improved, and greater adventures were still to come for the famous detective from Baker Street.
Brian W. Fairbanks
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