Touches You

That was an excellent one.

Simply A Masterpiece

Blistering performances.

"Sherlock Holmes in Washington" isn't as bad as some fans make out. For once, the supporting cast don't have to put on their lamentable Cockney accents, as the plot is based in America mostly. Basil Rathbone is very settled as Holmes and his approach is much more natural than Jeremy Brett's. George Zucco is outstanding as the villain, those coal black eyes that could hold their own in the never- ending hell. Henry Daniell is also effective as another villain of the film. The story plays more like an Espionage plot and it works well. The middle section of "Sherlock Holmes in Washington" is rather weak with an unnecessary diversion from the plot. However, the film quickly improves. I found Nigel Bruce's clowning around to be rather irksome but it's not the actor's fault. It is the writers who are to blame. Anyone who is familiar with Nigel Bruce as Watson, might forever identify him as a buffoonish but lovable and loyal companion to Holmes. However, you only need to see Nigel Bruce in the 2 period films of Sherlock Holmes made by "20th Century Fox" and to listen to those excellent radio episodes to know that he could play Watson as the serious character of the stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. I do like "Sherlock Holmes in Washington" but it would be overshadowed by the Holmes films from 1944.

This above-average entry in the Rathbone/Holmes canon sees the normal procedure of adapting a story for the screen abandoned in favour of some wartime propaganda. Here, Holmes is up against an international ring of spies whose job is to transmit top-secret information to the enemy. Cooperation between the British and American sides is emphasised in this film and the propaganda makes it quite interesting to watch as a measure of the times. On top of that, it's got a cracking story too involving some missing documents which have fallen into the wrong hands. The plot twists and turns repeatedly as clues and events come and go; they've really packed a lot into the seventy minute running time.Rathbone and Bruce are excellent together as always, with Rathbone on top commanding form as a fearless Holmes who always manages to stay two steps ahead of the enemy. Bruce milks his comic value for all its worth as the culture gap between countries is played for laughs; we witness Watson discovering chewing gum and mulling over the newspapers while in America. A black porter also provides some comic relief, although of the borderline racist variety. Thankfully the bad guys in this film are played by excellent, menacing actors. Henry Daniell, who would later go on to be Moriarty in THE WOMAN IN GREEN, is an evil henchman. One look at his face and you can realise why they cast him repeatedly in this series - cruel is too kind a word for it.Horror fans will also enjoy the rather brief presence of George Zucco, star of countless B-movies in the '40s. Zucco plays the chief Nazi war criminal and has some excellent banter with Rathbone - the pair really bring out the best of their acting abilities in each other. Suffice to say, he makes for one of the finest villains in the long-running series, even if he doesn't get much in the way of screen time. Then there's the beautiful woman in peril; the delight of Holmes pretending to be a clumsy antiques expert as he infiltrates the enemy base; lots of peril (Holmes nearly gets a block dropped on him and almost dies as a result of a spring-loaded trap); a gun fight and plenty more. Add to this Bruce's excellent support, an amusing travelogue interlude where all of the capital's landmarks are helpfully pointed out, truly nasty baddies and, perhaps most importantly, a sense of fun, and this turns out to be an entertaining highlight of the series.

Holmes versus the spies, again. Another one of those propaganda films with Holmes and Watson heading for Washington, D. C. Some of it is travelogue hokum with a sightseeing tour of the capitol city. There's the Lincoln Memorial! There's the Washington Monument! Put this silliness aside along with the two minute speech Holmes makes to Watson at the end, and it isn't a bad movie. There is an exchange of some microfilm tucked in a matchbook that is transferred to an unsuspecting young woman who is going to marry a military man. There are a whole herd of folks after that secret, but they don't know what form it has taken. The matchbook is transferred like a hot potato, hidden in plain sight. When the bodies start showing up, our boys enter the picture. There's nothing much new here other than pretty good atmosphere and the usual Holmes/Watson shtick. I really was aware that Watson is treated like a small child by our hero. He gets shushed, put down, talked about in front of others; it's really humiliating. The sad thing is that his character deserves it. Still, it works pretty well as grade B spy stuff.

First, I want to point out that the copy of this film (DVD) that you want is the re-worked UCLA film lab version that was digitized from a very pristine black-and-white 35 mm print. All other copies are inferior to this one. The aspect is full-screen.In the story, A British courier is dispatched to Washington as a decoy for the real carrier of a secret WW II document which is imperative to the Allied offensive. The real courier is one Alfred Pettibone, traveling under the alias of John Gregson (played by Gerald Hamer, astonishingly, uncredited in this film! We also saw Hamer play the postman in "Sherlock Holmes and The Scarlet Claw"; and other characters in "Sherlock Holmes Faces Death" ; in "Pursuit to Algiers," and in; "Terror by Night").Pettibone/Gregson manages to surreptitiously hand off the document, which he had reduced to microfilm and embedded in a matchbook, to the fiancé of an American Navy Lieutenant -- she doesn't know that she has it until she suddenly recalls that Pettibone/Gregson dropped the matchbook into her purse just after he lit her cigarette. Still, she plays dumb to Zucco's threatened tortures. Before the girl's actual abduction, Pettibone/Gregson is kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by these same Nazi agents, (one of whom is played by Daniell).Holmes and Pettibone had worked together before on important cases so Holmes is ready to take on the task and travel with Watson to Washington when the British authorities tell him that his associate has disappeared, along with the document. Subsequent to attempts on his own life and that of Watson's, the pair travel to America where the Washington D.C. police are at their beck and call.It's soon discovered by both Holmes and the Nazis that the young fiancé has the document, or at least a knowledge of its whereabouts, so the bad guys kidnap her just before Holmes can get to her. Then, Holmes has to dredge up some quick clues to locate the Nazi agents' (the boss of whom is played by the great and sinister George Zucco!) base of operations.Will Holmes be in time to save the girl and recover the document?!? What do YOU think *.* Still, it's a good suspenseful film with plenty of action. Definitely worth watching.