Terror by night (1946)

Please Leave A Message

Tell Me What You Feel

Terror by night (1946)

6/10

Starring

Basil Rathbone

Nigel Bruce

Directed by Roy William Neill

Terror by Night is the thirteenth of the Sherlock Holmes film series to star Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce and was directed by Roy William Neill. It is based on the characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and the although the movie's story is an original, it borrowed plot elements from some of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes mystery writings, which are The Adventure of the Empty House, The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax, and The Sign of the Four.

The movie has more twist and turns than a door knob, when you think things are going this way, the writer (Frank Gruber) takes you on another turn. Shot mostly on a train set, I have to give kudos to the cinematography, as at no point in the movie do you feel any form of cramps in the shots. Then the screenplay also, the twists are so much that the writer has to be at the top of his game not to live too much loose ends that we the viewers don’t get lost.

Then there is the obvious switch that Sherlock did when he was shown the diamond, you will notice the switch, which at first I wondered why they made it noticeable, not knowing that it was all part of a big plot.

The movie's plot is about a diamond, the diamond is so valuable that the owner's son hired Sherlock Holmes to guard it while it is been taking to Scotland on a train ride.

While on the train, the diamond gets stolen and a murder is committed, since the train is still in motion it is obvious that the murderer is still on board the train. Now Holmes and Watson have to find the murderer before the train makes its final stop.

The movie did show a sort of lack of emotion in the character of Lady Margaret, although it was part of the plot, as it is commented by the other characters in the movie, it didn't go well with me the viewer, although death is expected at some time, the death of Roland was a turn off for me as it was not expected at all.

The movie's twist and turns are worth seeing although the movie is not as captivating or as fun as Pursuit to Algiers, it did show good writing and direction in the part of Frank Gruber and William Neill.

It is a nice DVD to get.