Review #1216: The Woman in Green.
Cast:
Basil Rathbone (Sherlock Holmes), Nigel Bruce (Doctor Watson), Hillary Brooke (Lydia Marlowe), Henry Daniell (Professor Moriarty), Paul Cavanagh (Sir George Fenwick), Matthew Boulton (Inspector Gregson), Eve Amber (Maude Fenwick), and Frederick Worlock (Doctor Onslow) Directed by Roy William Neill (#846 - Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, #873 - Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon, #925 - Sherlock Holmes in Washington, #936 - Sherlock Holmes Faces Death, #1021 - The Spider Woman, #1040 - The Scarlet Claw, #1056 - The Pearl of Death, and #1161 - The House of Fear)
Review:
This is the eleventh film of the Sherlock Holmes series of films with Rathbone and Bruce, release three months after the previous film. If you're at all familiar with how these things go for these features, you'll probably find yourself satisfied with this installment. Anyone looking to jump in these films out of random will also find themselves with a workable winner in any case - it won't be much of a waste in any case with a run-time of just over an hour in 68 minutes. I do think the title is pretty amusing, given that this is a black-and-white film, and I don't think anyone even mentions green at any point. Then again, with a focus on severed forefingers (not shown, obviously), blackmail of rich people, and hypnotism, one won't really think about that too much. It doesn't have much in terms of deep mystery, but it is a decent experience in entertainment at least, having a few interesting sequences. Rathbone is as efficient as ever, never seeming lost in the shuffle or disinterested in getting the best out of what he can with the scenarios presented - consistent as one can. Bruce plays up to the standard of his second fiddle character with comic relief - some of which that works, some that doesn't, with two easy moments easy to highlight you can judge for yourself. One involves him being a skeptic of hypnotism and its effectiveness, opening stating his doubts when at a presentation, only to have him subsequently tricked into being hypnotized and taking off his shoe and rolling his pant leg. The other is him leading the way to "rescue" Holmes while the other authorities arrest the others, including him hopping up on a ledge to get him down. Whatever the case may be, Rathbone and Bruce are around to keep things steady.
This is the third film with the character of Professor Moriarty (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939), played by George Zucco, and Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1942), played by Lionel Atwill), with each having the same type of fate for its villain: falling off a great height. This is the third different actor to play the role, but it also happens to be his third appearance in the Holmes series, joining the tradition of re-using actors for multiple appearances (as is the cast with Brooke and Cavanagh). Daniell proves fine, with one key highlight being a sequence in which he sneaks into Holmes' place in order to have a conversation with him midway through the film, warning him about further pursuit into the mysterious killer. Of course his final fate is a bit ridiculous, since he tries to escape jail by jumping from one ledge to another - while wearing handcuffs, and he then just falls down to death. I guess just having him go to prison didn't pull the final punch they wanted. Brooke is okay as the person referred to in the title, although she isn't really too particularly compelling with the hypnotism aspects. This is the second of four films you can find in the public domain (alongside Secret Weapon and the last two films of the series - Terror by Night and Dressed to Kill), which makes them readily available. In recent years, they were digitally restored and given computer colorization by Legend Films; the Universal films had for decades deteriorated in terms of cellulose nitrate film, requiring restoration from the UCLA Film and Television Archive, which took eight years to restore the twelve films from 1993 to 2001. As a whole, this is a decent film among other okay films of the Holmes cycle with Rathbone and Bruce, being just as well to recommend as other features for anyone looking for a bit of quick mystery.
Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.
