Artivels Undescribable Perfection

Steineded How sad is this?

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Paul Evans This is such an unusual outing for Holmes and Watson, made when World War II was happening, it sees Holmes battle the Nazis. I can imagine at the time this was in the Cinemas this would have had a massive effect on the British audiences, it has hugely patriotic themes throughout, The BBC, spitfires and British commandos etc, I can almost imagine the creators of the story writing it in a way to offer hope to the British audiences watching, fearing the Nazis were infinite.It's not my favourite of Rathbone's outings, Holmes and Watson seem to fit awkwardly into this story, but it's very worth of a watch, it is beautifully filmed, it looks incredible, amazing to consider it's over seventy years old. Rathbone and Bruce work tremendously well as always, sadly it lacks any of the humour that later productions would have.Worth a look, a bit different. 6/10

Rene Juel Poulsen Sherlock Holmes is a character made by Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle died in 1930, and he did not write science fiction. The character is one of the best known fictional characters in the world, and that character lived in London in the period that the stories where written. That's why Sherlock Holmes fighting Nazis is just too idiotic and a mockery of Doyles work. If you like Sherlock Holmes, you should Watch the character in some of the Sherlock Holmes series. The best are:Sherlock Holmes: TV Series (1954–1955). Sherlock Holmes: TV Series(1964–1968). The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: TV Series (1984–1985).This on the other hand is NOT Sherlock Holmes...

Robert J. Maxwell The budget was cut drastically when Holmes and Watson moved from Fox to Universal Studios, but this isn't as poorly done as I'd expected. Not that this resembles the original Sherlock Holmes in many ways. Rathbone makes a couple of improbably deductions at the beginning but that puts an end to his penetrating insights. After that, the story turns into a rather ordinary anti-German B feature. Instead of Sherlock Holmes it could be Boston Blackie or Charlie Chan. It doesn't look or sound like Conan-Doyle's character until the very end, when Rathbone recites the last passage from the last story, a patriotic analogy of war as weather.Yet, it really wasn't bad, for a couple of reasons. One is that the story itself involves a very real and important threat to England at the time of shooting, an invasion across the channel by German troops. (Actually the Germans were nowhere near ready but no one knew that.) As a potential martial event, the invasion of Great Britain stands somewhat higher in importance than Doctor Tobel's fictional bomb sight in a later episode.Then, too, Holmes is a bit different. Make Up gave Rathbone a few wisps of hair curling forward over his temple but he didn't yet look like a lithograph of Lord Byron. And Rathbone seems to bring more gusto to the role, although it may just be my imagination. He was pretty fagged out by the end of the series. Nigel Bruce as Doctor Watson is far less than the mumbling and disgruntled companion he was to become.And somebody ought to mention the cinematography of Woody Bredell. Maybe it's too dark in some scenes but it's always dramatic. Too bad the budget confined all the scenes to indoor stages. In none of his movies does Holmes get to spend much time outdoors. Even when he's on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean ("Pursuit to Algiers") he's stuck on an indoor stage.The cast are a bunch of stalwarts. They hit their marks, speak their lines, and do what they're supposed to. The real heavy, the mastermind behind the Voice of Terror, eluded me. I had picked Henry Daniell. (He was to play Moriarty in a later film.) Okay, so the writers foxed me, but I was wrong for good reasons. When has Henry Daniell ever been innocent of anything? He was Lord Wolfingham in "The Sea Hawk". He was always a bad guy. Even in his best, most ambiguous role, the Scots doctor in Val Lewton's "The Body Snatchers", he was driven by his ego to grave robbing. And that face -- that bony but flabby jaw, those thin lips, that icy voice. Maybe he wasn't the villain here but he SHOULD have been.There's something else too that occurred to me while watching this. I saw it as a child, on re-release or television, and I recall vividly the scene in which Holmes is listening to a performance of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony while he fiddles with a chart and watches an oscilloscope. It's of no importance but it was the first time in my life I realized there was more to Beethoven's Fifth than just the familiar opening of the first movement -- da-da-da-DAHHH. The experience almost made my hair stand on end. There might be more to all classical music. So I went on to study composition and theory, changed my name for professional reasons to John Williams, made millions, partnered a parade of pretty girls, and have had a satisfying career as a composer. All thanks to this movie.

bkoganbing For the war effort Hollywood enlisted the most famous detective in fiction, Sherlock Holmes to solve the mystery of the Voice Of Terror. There's a gentleman who is giving out enemy propaganda broadcasts for the Axis powers and unlike the real life Lord Haw Haw, he's doing it by short wave radio inside the United Kingdom.What his broadcasts include though is vital information that could only come from the highest levels. He's predicting ship sinkings before they actually occur. Winston Churchill's inner circle has one very big leak in it.Though Churchill does not appear we see several members of that circle, all fictional people, no one like Clement Attlee, Anthony Eden, Ernest Bevin, Stafford Cripps, et al, but people from the British colony including some who were known for playing villains. The most prominent being Henry Daniell who in fact played Professor Moriarty in future Holmes movies. Don't take that as any kind of hint.Of course Holmes finds out who the Voice Of Terror is, but the mystery is who was the leak. And this is one of the most preposterous conclusions to a Holmes film ever done, maybe the most preposterous. For this scheme to be accurate it would have to have been concocted before there was even a Nazi Party if chronologically accurate. Even World War II audiences fervent for movies defending the Allied cause would have had a problem swallowing this one.The film is based on elements from real Conan Doyle stories. As Arthur Conan Doyle died in 1930 of course they were updated to a World War II setting. Seeing Sherlock Holmes And The Voice Of Terror now would have today's audience open mouthed with incredulity.