one-nine-eighty Based on "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle this film brings Rathbone and Bruce back as Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. Crooks are after a valuable Pearl, it's up to Holmes and Watson to stop the pearl finding it's way into the clutches of the wrong doers. But as Holmes makes an uncharacteristic mistake the upper hand is lost and Holmes and Watson are soon forced to take up the chase. Can they get the pearl before murderous consequences occur? As with the other Rathbone and Bruce films performances here are solid. Dennis Hoey supports well as the bumbling Lestrade, as do Evelyn Ankers and Miles Mander as Naomi Drake and Giles Conover. Shot by Universal and directed by Roy William Neill this is 9th of 14 films with Rathbone and Bruce taking the lead. This is a straight forward Sherlock Holmes story and therefor it's one of the better ones that Universal pumped out, no Nazi's or dinosaurs in sight - although there is the Creeper, but the less said about that the better. It feels more upbeat in pace than others in the series, it feels like reading a comic at times where the hero is trying to keep up and then get ahead of the bad guys. I enjoyed this and like the other films in the series its guaranteed to add to a wonderful lazy Sunday afternoon. A lovely mystery and suspense film with a chase style pace to it. Enjoy.

Paul Evans Heavily based on Conan Doyle's Six Napoleon's, the U overall touch was added making it more to the taste of the forties audiences. The threads of the missing Pearl, random killings and broken China seem almost secondary go the fiendish, back breaking Creeper. Very good use of camera work, they purposely kept shots of the Creeper as a shadowy figure only, until the latter part of the film that is. We get the usual femme fatale in the shape of the beautiful Evelyn Ankers. The darkness of the Creeper is counter balanced by the usual silliness from Watson and LeStrade, and Rathbone's disguises are great fun. All in all I think it's one of the better outings for Rathbone, plenty of fun. 7/10

classicsoncall I generally enjoy watching these Sherlock Holmes films but I can't help feeling that the famous detective was often writing the script of the story instead of solving a crime. How else would he surmise that the recent murder of a retired major might have been caused by the presumed dead Hawkston Creeper, who confines his back breaking technique to specifically the third lumbar vertebrae? For once, Holmes receives a comeuppance when the famed Borgia Pearl is stolen from the Royal Regent Museum during a Holmes demonstration to prove how easy it would be to steal it! Talk about timing, that's another thing. The villain Conover (Miles Mander) had to position himself to eavesdrop on Holmes and the museum curator without anyone seeing him, a tactic very much over-used by B Westerns of the era and a fair share of mystery flicks as well. A lot of this stuff works only if one is willing to suspend disbelief long enough to allow for the circumstance.However the story throws enough other distractions into the mix to make it an entertaining affair, like the business with the broken china and the six Napoleon busts. When the Creeper was finally brought out of the shadows, I had to marvel at the make-up job done on the character until I learned it was the actual disfigured countenance of the actor Rondo Hatton suffering from a form of acromegaly. My immediate impression was that he might have been right at home in a Dick Tracy film with that series' odd assortment of villains but a quick look at Hatton's credits reveal no such role.As always, Holmes solves his case satisfactorily, but this one time I had to wonder how he managed to thwart an attack by The Creeper. Having set up Conover for his own version of spinal tap by his dreaded associate, the authorities arrive to find Holmes safe and sound, so one can only presume he dispatched The Creeper, though there was no off screen gunshot to herald that conclusion. With the Borgia Pearl of Death now in safe hands, the only question left to my mind was why it seemed to effect various shades of gray throughout the story.

TheLittleSongbird Great ingredients for a great Sherlock Holmes mystery, and Pearl of Death was that. Despite the too-short length and the out-of-place patriotic speech, Pearl of Death is one of the better entries of the RKO series(Scarlet Claw being the best, Hound of the Baskervilles and Adventures of Sherlock Holmes are even better but they were 20th Century-Fox distributed). It is crisply and atmospherically shot, with very striking period detail and the fog and shadows make the atmosphere remarkably creepy. The music score is very well-incorporated and haunting, if somewhat similar to the score of The Wolf Man, the film is solidly directed right up to one of the series' scariest climaxes and the dialogue is both funny and intelligent(you have to love Holmes' line to the police in the climax). The story, while only containing elements(the pearl, the Napoleon busts) of the original story, moves very quickly though not feeling too rushed and is always engaging with great suspense and sense of mystery. The acting is strong, the most memorable being Rondo Hatton who is just spine-chilling as the Creeper, having seen this at about 11 years old and having vague memories of that viewing it was Hatton that I remembered the most vividly. Basil Rathbone is spot-on as Holmes as he always was, cunning and very well-read with a touch of humour about him, Pearl of Death also has some of his best deductions of the series. Nigel Bruce is amusing as Watson, and he does bring some loyalty to counterpoint with Rathbone's Holmes, though the character can be too much of an idiot in this series and at times that is true here. His chemistry with Rathbone still convinces, there really is a great dynamic between them. Lestrade is even more so, the character was always inept but this Lestrade really is as thick as a brick, like with Watson the writing of the characters is part of why that is. Dennis Hoey is very funny though and seems to be really enjoying himself. Evelyn Ankers is very attractive with great disguises, she makes for a striking and strongly-acted accomplice. Miles Mander is not quite as good as the rest, he is menacing in a quiet and subtle sense- without falling into total blandness- which is a good approach, if not quite distinguishing himself in the climax especially compared to Hatton, one rare case where the henchman actually eclipses the mastermind. In conclusion, an entertaining and atmospherically effective Sherlock Holmes mystery, Hatton's Creeper makes the film. If you are a purist though and want a more faithful adaptation of the story, watch The Six Napoleons with Jeremy Brett as Holmes as part of the Granada series, even better than this and one of the best of that series. 8/10 Bethany Cox