Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Tweekums This story sees Sherlock Holmes being employed by Roland Carstairs to because he believes somebody is planning to steal the 'Star of Rhodesia'; a large diamond that his mother is taking back to Edinburgh in the night train out of Euston. Also aboard are Inspector Lestrade, Dr Watson and his friend Major Duncan-Bleek… although the latter two almost miss the train. While Holmes and these three have their dinner Carstairs is murdered and the diamond is taken! The guard is certain that nobody left the carriage so the number of suspects is limited; a grumpy maths professor, an attractive young woman taking her mother's coffin to Edinburgh and a couple who appear to be feeling guilty about something. Holmes suspects the involvement of Colonel Sebastian Moran; a villain second only to Moriarty who has a penchant for jewel thefts.The moving train has proved a fine location for a number of films; it gives us a closed location with a set number of people and the possibility that somebody might get thrown off! Nobody gets thrown off here, not quite anyway, but it is still rather thrilling in a slightly old-fashioned way. Most of the guest characters are somehow suspect and ultimately emerges that more than one are involved in the plot even if one of them is only tangentially involved and doesn't know about the theft. There are some good twists before the case is closed although one does make ones of Holmes's deductions less impressive than it might have been. Basil Rathbone impresses as Holmes and Nigel Bruce is amusing as Watson… even if the character is rather bumbling. Alan Mowbray provides solid support as Major Bleek and Renee Godfrey is delightfully vampish as Vivian Vedder even if her accent is somewhat bizarre! Over all this is a solid Sherlock Holmes story which fans should enjoy.

Cristi_Ciopron This is the installment on a train, and it's very well directed, and eerie; it has the comic book story this kind of show could afford: suspenseful and eerie. It also has an awesomely nice actress in a supporting role, a mercenary vamp. Maybe my installment of predilection, more atmospheric than others: I liked the cast (here, a frightening henchman, plus the colonel …), the plot, the speed; its genre is action suspense, not the whodunit. The pace and the eerily looking supporting characters (also by a smart use of lighting) make it so exciting. And Rathbone is in good shape; he even has an action scene.The ideas of such a plot are speed and action: to keep Holmes wired. And for these, they had the requisite cast; Rathbone couldn't make a Holmes who was more than an action star always on the move (and, in other renderings of the character, the attempt to add depth led to adding gloom and creepiness, as in the '80s TV show, which I used once to analyze at length). The main asset is a script that keeps Holmes busy in public, it keeps Rathbone on the move, and this advantages his own understanding of Holmes as a plausible action star (not also as a recluse thinker …). (I am under the impression that Rathbone didn't make a very good indoors Holmes, a very good meditative Holmes; on this train, and with these colleagues, we are spared the conveying of an indoors Holmes.)

Lechuguilla It's no Orient Express but the film is reasonably interesting with Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Watson (Nigel Bruce) on hand to guard a valuable jewel. Yet, despite their presence, murder occurs shortly after they leave the train station. Suspects include five to seven passengers, depending on whom the viewer deems suspicious.The film features good plot misdirection and there's a nifty twist at the end. But one minor character spoils part of the story's logic and, at just one hour in duration, the film seems rushed. There's very little back-story for most characters.The Watson character is quite annoying, as he is way too unobservant, inept, and useless to be convincing as a sidekick to Holmes or to have the title "Dr.". Bruce plays the role well, but in this particular film we could have done without the character.In the copy I watched the B&W visuals were poor; intro title sequence names were blurry; also, the overall visual quality was not very good. Stock footage at the beginning, and of exterior train shots throughout, conveys a cheap look and feel. Sound quality also is poor, with some dialogue too muffled to understand precisely.Despite these weaknesses the film is worth a one-time watch for the whodunit puzzle. I was way off in my guess of the killer, which resulted in a surprise ending, and therefore more fun than a puzzle that is easy to figure out.

mark.waltz Mysterys set on trains are always thrilling because of the claustrophobic feeling of all the suspects, investigators and usual red herrings being placed so close together and unable to get away. In this case, the mystery surrounds a precious diamond, the Star of Rhodesia, stolen from a wealthy British dowager. It just so happens that Sherlock Holmes has been hired to guard the stone so the occurrence of a murder to get possession of the jewel is perfect timing. While the movie gets a little slow at times, there's still a lot of thrills to be had, particularly Rathbone's desperate fight with the unseen killer that almost knocks Holmes off the side of the train. The identity of the killer and their relation to a previous Holmes villain is ingenious.