Friday, 18 May 2012

Murder, eh?


The Scarlet Claw (1944)

Directed by Roy William Neill this is the eight film in the series of Sherlock Holmes films which star Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. While visiting Canada our heroes try to solve the case of a murder in a village which the locals blame a monster for.

Despite being an original story the plot for this film shares a number of similarities with The Hound of the Baskervilles. This is one of the better made efforts in the series but the mystery does sort of unravel towards the end as there is only one character left that the killer can be which does rather hamper the ending being a surprise. It is also interesting to note that while not a direct propaganda piece like some of the other films in the series made during WW2 the epilogue does take the opportunity to extol the virtues of Canada in reference to the war effort.

3/5

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