SHERLOCK HOLMES (1932)
Clive Brook appeared as Holmes in
3 films.
THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (Paramount / 1929) was apparently the very 1st Holmes film with sound. Although not a lost film, at the moment, this is not in circulation. He then appeared in a short vignette in
PARAMOUNT ON PARADE (Paramount / 1930). the only copy I've seen of this for sale was a rather pricey one from a seller in Germany, who failed to mention what "Region" the disc was!
And then 2 years later, he appeared in
SHERLOCK HOLMES (Fox / 1932). This is a case of false advertising! The credits allege it is "based" on William Gillette's stage play. That may be, but this is not an adaptation of the play-- rather, it's a SEQUEL to it! It picks up right where the play ends. Holmes is planning to retire from detecting and marry Alice Faulkner. Meanwhile, Moriarty is in the dock being convicted of murder, but swears that the 3 men responsible for his being there will all die before he does. I can see where this opening somewhat inspired the 1939 20th Century-Fox film
THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, except in that one, Moriarty was declared not guilty and freed, whereas in this one, he escapes from prison and murders the first man on his list.
In this story, Holmes has a long-standing feud with Scotland Yard detective Colonel Gore-King. More annoying than any Lestrade I've ever seen, he derides everything Holmes says, does or suggests, even when he (and his young protoge Billy) correctly figure out where the body of the murdered Judge was hidden.
Moriatry recruits a group of assassins and gangsters from several countries, who wind up going on a Chicago-style rampage, after it appears Holmes has been tricked into shooting Gore-King dead. But the two have formed a truce, and faked the murder to bring Moriarty out of hiding. Holmes further decudes the crime wave is merely a distraction from a bigger job-- robbing the bank owned by Alice's father, by tunnelling into it from the shop next door (shades of "
The Red-Headed League").
Truthfully, this film reminds me, more than anything, of a mid-40s Universal Holmes film-- except, without Rathbone & Bruce. At least, unlike nearly every silent film before it, Watson is shown to be a reliable friend (rather than a non-entity, or left out entirely). But I've never seen "roaring 20s" style gangster violence in a Holmes film before!
The one wrong note, for me, sadly, is Alice Faulkner. Miriam Jordan's pretty enough, but while I could accept Holmes admiring Irene Adler or Violet Hunter for their intelligence, Alice just seems a typically self-centered, vapid female.
Gore-King is played by Alan Mowbray, who wound up appearing n a couple of the Rathbone films, including a turn as Colonel Sebastian Moran in "
TERROR BY NIGHT". The best part of the film is after his seeming murder, when he puts aside his former derision of Holmes and they truly become allies in the fight. It reminds of the change in Arthur Holmwood (Michael Gough) in the 1958 Hammer version of "
DRACULA".
The Judge was C. Montague Shaw, who was The Clay King in "
FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS" (1938) and Dr. Huer in "
BUCK ROGERS" (1939).
Dr. Watson, who's only in the film briefly, is played by Reginald Owen, who a year later starred as Holmes in
A STUDY IN SCARLET (1933). He's probably best remembered as Ebineezer Scrooge in the 1938 version of "
A CHRISTMAS CAROL".
Moriarty is played by Ernest Torrence, known for a whole string of rotten villains in silent films.
Comic relief is supplied by Herbert Mundin as a bar owner. I remember him mostly from "
TARZAN ESCAPES" and "
THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD". His scenes look like they could have stepped right out of a late-50s Hammer Film, when it came to giving the audience a few laughs in between more intense scenes.
I enjoyed this for what it was, though I doubt it'll ever become a favorite of mine. I suppose there's a number of reasons why this film is virtually forgotten. Truthfully, it looks like it could use a nice restoration job. The picture I could tolerate, but the sound on the disc was so low, I had to crank my stereo ALL the way up to hear. I doubt I could hear it at all if I was running it thru that adapter box I needed to use with my Blu-Ray Player.
