Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce’s Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson laid down a terrific on-screen template.
We celebrate their top films…
Sherlock Holmes has been around for a long time.
Can Holmes be more or less intellectually driven in the past?
Is his mind stretched or diminished by the modern age?
That actor was the amazing Basil Rathbone.
Fox were, apparently, unsure if this casting would work.
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Well, the executives at Fox neednt have worried.
He gets to tease Watson, and laugh a little at him, always in a kindly way.
Its this warm response that makes Rathbones Holmes my favourite to watch.
He plays both the intellectual giant and the human being so well.
AfterThe Hound Of The Baskervillescame another film in the same year The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes.
Sherlock Holmes therefore went into battle against the Nazis inSherlock Holmes And The Voice Of Terror(1942).
The changeover is bumpy to begin with.
Instead Universal made twelve films in total, all of them in a contemporary setting, up until 1946.
Perhaps this is because all the films were directed by one man Roy William Neill.
FromSherlock Holmes And The Secret Weapononwards he was at the helm, and produced most of them, too.
Neill died in 1946, and no more Rathbone/Bruce films were made.
Many of them are barely longer than an hour in length.
It goes to prove that the best characters are the ones that are adaptable without losing their appeal.
It just goes to show that it doesnt have to be on home territory to work.
Inspector Lestrade adds extra comic value.
She looks at him with such dejected annoyance.
