Sherlock Holmes and The Secret weapon (1943)

Sherlock Holmes and The Secret weapon (1943)

6/10

Starring

Basil Rathbone

Nigel Bruce

Lionel Atwill

Directed by Roy William Neill

Good movie, worth seeing and enjoyable acting. Starting with a side of Sherlock that we don’t really get to see much of in the other films of the Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce series, Holmes disguises himself in order to fool the Gestapo and escape from Switzerland to London. With him is a scientist, Dr. Franz Tobel. Later in the film, he also uses disguises to get his way around. These acts make Rathbone’s performance more pronounced, as his acting in this movie is top-notch.

The film is quite interesting, drawing you in with various suspense tactics, making you wait as you desire to see what’s going to happen next or where all this suspense will lead. This is the fourth in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series of Sherlock Holmes films, which are based on the characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
The movie is credited as an adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes tale The Adventure of the Dancing Men, but throughout the movie, the only element that can be said to be taken from the tale is the dancing men code, which Tobel draws to be given to Holmes.

In this film, Lionel Atwill appears as Professor Moriarty, but he previously appeared in the first film of the Rathbone/Bruce Sherlock film series, The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939), as Dr. Mortimer.

The movie’s plot is about a scientist, Dr. Franz Tobel, who invents a bombing device called a bombsight. Sherlock smuggles him into London so he can deliver the invention into the hands of the British.

But Tobel is wanted by the Germans, who are ready to do anything to get their hands on either Tobel or his invention. Professor Moriarty (who seems to be on the Germans’ side because of the financial gain he’ll get) decides to kidnap Tobel and then find the invention, which Tobel has divided into four parts and given to four different people.

The chase then begins between Sherlock and Moriarty—Sherlock looking for the parts and Tobel, and Moriarty looking for the parts too, as he has Tobel, who refuses to bend even under torture.

Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon is a nice watch, and you’ll enjoy the acting put together by the trio of Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, and Lionel Atwill. I believe the movie is free to download and is in the public domain, so check archive.org.