Doctor Watson (Nigel Bruce) summons Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) to Musgrave Manor to look into an attempted murder. The wealthy Musgrave family has allowed part of their mansion to be used as a convalescence home for injured soldiers, so living on the property are multiple family members, servants, soldiers, and the medical staff. Soon, in the old dark house, people begin to die, and Holmes sets out to find the killer.
When Universal took over the Holmes franchise, they kept actors Basal Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, but updating the setting to then present day. They also ill-advisedly changed the genre from mysteries to propaganda spy pictures, with Holmes chasing Nazis. And for an unknown reason, gave Holmes a comically bad hairstyle. After three of these, they did a partial reset, putting Holmes back in Gothic murder mysteries. They didnāt change the date, but had Holmes popping up in places where the modern world would have minimal effect, such as out of the way fishing villages or old castles on Scottish crags. Sherlock Holmes Faces Death was the first of these, with the setting being an old manner house of a landed family. We are still very much in wartime, with the house filled with soldiers, but they could have been from any war as far as the story is concerned. The appearance of the house (generally) and the social norms followed by the rich and their servants fit more naturally into a 1890s setting than a 1940s one.
The switch had another huge advantage: Universal knew how to do Gothic. Not only were we back into mysteries, but some, such as this, The Scarlet Claw, and The House of Fear, drifted into horror, particularly Old Dark House horror. Here we have a house Holmes describes as having a personality, and being āgruesome.ā The grounds are foggy, there are long shadows everywhere, the building is filled with secret passageways, and under it all is an ancient crypt. Add in a strange ritual incantation a family member must say over a dead body, and stories of ghosts haunting the halls, and weāre solidly in horror territory. And Universal even had the sets already prepared for that; they just repurposed what theyād used for Dracula and the Frankenstein series. Itās no surprise that it all looks good.
Rathbone is also in great form. Heād later tire of the part, though even at his most disinterested he was still enjoyable, but that was in the future and here his Holmes has a bit of an imp about him. It helps that heās given sharp, playful banter to toss at Dr. Watson.
The mystery itself is not one of my favorites (although worlds better than the spy stuff) and the killer is given away in a far too obvious way too early, but this is a fun, creepy film, and one of the better Holmes movies.
I’ve ranked all of the Rathbone Holmes films here.