Dressed to Kill
a Sherlock Holmes mystery
Director: Roy William Neill
Writers: A. Conan Doyle; Frank Gruber, Leonard Lee
Cast:
- Basil Rathbone — Sherlock Holmes
- Nigel Bruce — Dr. John H. Watson
- Edmund Breon — "Stinky" Emery
- Patricia Cameron — Evelyn Clifford
- Harry Cording — Hamid
- Mary Gordon — Mrs. Hudson
- Carl Harbord — Inspector Hopkins
- Holmes Herbert — Ebenezer Crabtree
- Leyland Hodgson — tour guide
- Patricia Morison — Hilda Courtney
- Wallace Scott — Joe Cisto
- Ian Wolfe — Commissioner of Scotland Yard
- Frederick Worlock — Colonel Cavanaugh
Universal, 1946
black & white
First off, note that the title of this fine Sherlock Holmes movie, Dressed to Kill, is only thinly useful: that is, murderers may dress like toffs rather than thugs. Can't say too much about the plot without giving it away, but the central mystery involves three little music boxes made in Dartmoor Prison and sold along with other notions in curio shops. Someone in London desperately wants those music boxes.We are told that Dr. Watson's account of "A Scandal in Bohemia" has just appeared in the Strand Magazine, which dates the action to Summer 1891. The script isn't based exactly on any A. Conan Doyle story; its core idea perhaps closest to Doyle's "The Six Napoleons", but a good original story in its own right.
Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce turn in on-the-mark performances as Holmes and Watson. Holmes' musical sideline is matched for once by Dr. Watson imitating a duck. Patricia Morison is particularly good as the suave society lady Hilda Courtney. And I always appreciate Holmes' odd associations across all strata of London society: epitomized here by Holmes and Watson's descent into a pub to talk with a safecracker (played by Wallace Scott) who is happy to do a favor for Mr. Holmes.
Dressed to Kill is a quite enjoyable exemplar of the Basil Rathbone - Nigel Bruce films of Sherlock Holmes adventures.
© 2008 Robert Wilfred Franson
JMF advised on this.
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