Rent Sherlock Holmes: The Woman in Green (1945)

Finger Murders. - Sherlock Holmes: The Woman in Green review by Steve

The fourth from last entry in the Universal Sherlock Holmes series begins a slight decline, with stories little related to the Arthur Conan Doyle adventures. The characters change too, and not just Dr. Watson's stupidity. The great consultant detective is also stretched from his origins, and here proves an expert on women's fashions, and an accomplished flirt.

This actually has a decent and gruesome original story about a serial killer who murders young women and surgically removes a finger. There's a frisson of Jack the Ripper. But then the investigation takes us away from the perilous, foggy streets of London to focus on a diabolical, upmarket gang of blackmailers, led by Professor Moriarty. 

Henry Daniell makes a nicely repellant Moriarty and Hillary Brooke is imperious as the femme fatale/hypnotist. And it seems whatever the quality of the script, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce are indestructible as Holmes and Watson. Actually, the sleuth and the Professor share some fine dialogue lifted entirely from Doyle's The Final Problem.

The comical scene where Watson gets hypnotised into thinking he is wading across a stream is a series low point, and yet, idiotically funny. There are a few creepy, transgressive moments of horror. And as always, Roy William Neill directs with craft, and at least some regard for the legend. The series may be winding down, and budgets squeezed, but it is rarely dull.