Rent Sherlock Holmes: Dressed to Kill (1946)

Series Farewell. - Sherlock Holmes: Dressed to Kill review by Steve

The last of the 1940s Universal series of Sherlock Holmes adventures doesn't leave us on a high. The diminished budgets mean the photography and set design are no longer strengths. Some of the support cast has slipped away, like Dennis Hoey as Lestrade. Though Mary Gordon makes a brief valedictory return as Mrs. Hudson.

And perhaps it's time to acknowledge that Basil Rathbone has been less engaged over the last four films. Except Holmes and Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) are such a resilient combination, it barely seems to matter. But fans of Arthur Conan Doyle might want to avert their gaze when Watson is quacking like a duck to cheer up a little girl.

There is a particularly strong villain in Patricia Morison as the imperious/sexy gang boss in search of some counterfeit bank plates. So who will break the fiendish cypher hidden in some musical boxes, which will reveal their location? It's much the same setup as The Pearl of Death (1944).

Maybe Holmesian logic could break the code of why this is called Dressed to Kill? But the sleuth of the later films spends more time taunting Watson than on three pipe solutions. Universal had the rights until '49, but maybe it's best this ends now, with a relatively dignified farewell to the finest crime/mystery series of the studio era.