Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes film series

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Tony Stucchio, Sep 3, 2014.

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  1. I agree but my fav is still Peter Cushing with a nod and a wink also to Nicol Williamson as Holmes in anon Conan Doyle piece.
     
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  2. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    All great. Too bad we couldn't make a movie The Battle of Sherlock Holmes where we have Rathbone, Cushing, Williamson, Brett, and Cumberbatch all vying for the title, trying to out-sleuth each other!
     
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  3. smilin ed

    smilin ed Senior Member

    Location:
    Durham
    Anyone seen the Russian TV adaptations? They're supposed to be really good.
     
  4. The Wanderer

    The Wanderer Seeker of Truth

    Location:
    NYC
    Character so well written, rarely a disappointing Holmes.

    (My fondness for Basil, does favor him a bit though)
     
  5. scotto

    scotto Senior Member

    Agreed and, to be clear, I didn't mean "low budget" as a knock at all.
    I was already a huge fan of all the Universal monsters by the time I finally saw the Rathbone/Bruce Holmes movies, so the B-movie familiarity was immediately welcoming. Having been an avid devourer of "Famous Monsters of Filmland" since the age of 6, which routinely featured Rathbone, Rondo Hatton, Evelyn Ankers, and other Holmes players in those pages, I was right at home with the Universal Holmes series.
    Makes me want to go watch "Pearl of Death" right now...
     
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  6. Tony Stucchio

    Tony Stucchio Active Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York City
    Understood.
    As far as current movies, it seems the higher the budget, the less I enjoy it.
     
  7. erniebert

    erniebert Shoe-string audiophile

    Location:
    Toronto area
  8. Tony Stucchio

    Tony Stucchio Active Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York City
    In one of the pics on that link you provided, you can see heavy cake-ish makeup on Rathbone. I don't think we were ever supposed to see that much detail. Even in the '40s with brand new 35mm prints, unless you sat in the first row, you probably couldn't see that much detail.

    I used to attend "Sons of the Desert" meetings where we watched Laurel and Hardy films in 16mm. There was a retired actor there in his 70s or maybe 80s --(I think he was in one movie, the rest was stage work) -- who told me he never liked to sit too close to the screen: "I don't like to see the make-up on the actors' faces, and the scenery shaking."

    To paraphrase what someone else said on this forum about music -- don't remember who it was, but it might have been Steve -- these movies are so good, forget the mastering and just enjoy them. It's still much better than the 5th generation, splicy, scratched, edited, 16mm dupes they used to show on UHF channels at 3am. Can you believe I once saw an edited Terror By Night, which is only an hour to begin with? It was shown in an hour time-slot, with commercials, on WNBC in New York well after midnight. I still have it on tape -- it was the first time I saw that one -- and I still enjoyed it!
     
  9. erniebert

    erniebert Shoe-string audiophile

    Location:
    Toronto area
    I was impressed with the amount of detail and how clean the restoration was, yes.
     
  10. AJH

    AJH Senior Member

    Location:
    PA Northern Tier
    I pulled-out the Blu-ray set this past weekend and had a Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes marathon. We had a wonderful time watching these movies again. The restoration team did a fantastic job!
     
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  11. Andy Lee

    Andy Lee Active Member

    Location:
    North Shields, UK
    I really enjoy the series. There's a real spirit of adventure to them, even the later weaker ones, that makes them engaging - and all the films are beautifully enhanced by the playing of Rathbone and Bruce.
     
  12. badfinger54

    badfinger54 Senior Member

    Location:
    Victoria, TX USA
    Loved them when I was younger and they showed them regularly on a San Antonio station (was it Saturdays or Sundays?).
     
  13. noahjld

    noahjld Der Wixxer

    Jeremy Brett - lovely man.Polite and charming.
     
  14. rburly

    rburly Sitting comfortably with Item 9

    Location:
    Orlando
    They used to show these around noon on Saturdays in the 60's when I was a kid. I'd read the Complete Sherlock Holmes on Sundays in bed. Great memories.
     
  15. Tony Stucchio

    Tony Stucchio Active Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York City
    I'm sure you all know that he was also in the filmed version of My Fair Lady.
     
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  16. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Eh, it would most likely still be visible in a fine-grain print struck off the original negative. You can't get more sharpness than what's in the film itself, so it's not like the HD or the 4K processing is putting back in extra detail.
     
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  17. Anthology123

    Anthology123 Senior Member

    You have to remove yourself from the original Sherlock Holmes a bit to appreciate the Basil Rathbone-Nigel Bruce series. What made those films work is the on screen chemistry of the two lead characters. What made the entire series interesting is many of the ensemble cast appeared on many of the films. Actors like Harry Cording, Olaf Hytton, Hillary Brooke, Evelyn Ankers, Frederick Worlock, Gerald Hamer and many others. Some of the actors from the first two Fox films appeared on the Universal films, such as Lionel Atwill, Arthur Hohl, Mary Forbes.
    One thing to note is not only did Rathbone and Bruce come over to the present-day Universal series, but so did Mary Gordon as Mrs. Hudson. She played in every film that had a scene at 221-B Baker Street.
    The Universal series also made references to the older series. In the Voice of Terror (which I grew to like after more viewings) Watson stops Holmes from wearing the deerstalker cap and dons the hat he would wear for the rest of the series. There is another one in Spider Woman where Watson let's LeStrade keep one of Holmes' pipes and he takes the iconic Calabash pipe.
    I am not certain from reading many books that Rathbone hated the role of Holmes, but rather he was afraid of getting typecasted. He might have gone back to the series in some form had it not been for the untimely death of Nigel Bruce.

    These films were adapted from parts of the original Sherlock Holmes stories to make essentially great pieces of entertainment, and they succeeded at that. They were made during the grim period of Word War II, and were probably made more lighthearted on purpose.

    I saw 3-4 of these films at the Stanford Theater in Palo Alto in December 2002. The restored DVDs certainly are good, but watching the clarity on the big screen was amazing, and very little film damage or wear. The blu-ray doesn't even come close.
     
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  18. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    I think your memory is deceiving you. A print is not going to be nearly as steady, as detailed, or as dirt-free as the digital restorations on Blu-ray. Were they showing 16mm or 35mm? I'd be extremely surprised if it was 35mm.
     
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  19. Anthology123

    Anthology123 Senior Member

    I don't know, the films came from the UCLA Film Archives that were shown at the Stanford Theater, it was stated in their flyer, they do have background notes on most of the movies they show there. What bothered me the most was all the graininess which was amplified in the blu-ray. I will have to say, there was much more detail than the DVD version, that is for certain. I guess I will have to look at them again, unless I have the wrong blu-ray set.
     
  20. Anthology123

    Anthology123 Senior Member

    Anyone interested in making this a film-by-film thread? There would have to be spoilers if we are to have an interesting discussion on them.
     
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  21. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    If you had the best surviving prints in the world of 1940s films, would you show them on a projector at a University? :eek:

    I could see them showing a digital copy or even a brand new safety print struck off the negative, but even then...

    You gotta love Pearl of Death with Rondo Hatton...

    [​IMG]
     
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  22. sami

    sami Mono still rules

    Location:
    Down The Shore
    I absolutely love both the Rathbone and Brett series and how different the interpretations were. I even enjoyed the low budget Ron Howard stuff, but I have no use for the recent Downey movies.

    The only one of the Rathbones I dislike is "Voice of Terror", and my favorites would be "House of Fear", "The Pearl of Death", "The Woman in Green", "The Scarlet Claw", "The Secret Weapon", "The Spider Woman", and "In Washington".

    All three actors who played Professor Moriarty were great, but I always liked Henry Daniell the best. Other notable actors who made huge contributions to the series were Hillary Brooke, Paul Cavanagh, Gail Sondergaard, and of course, Mary Gordon and Dennis Hoey.

    Just a great series of films, done with a sense of humor and a ton of atmosphere and style.
     
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  23. erniebert

    erniebert Shoe-string audiophile

    Location:
    Toronto area
    Just curious if you've seen the blu-rays.
     
  24. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Not yet! But I look forward to it.
     
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  25. moops

    moops Senior Member

    Location:
    Geebung, Australia
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