Favorite Films (lists up to participating site members)

[barnflatwyngarde]

The Scarlet Claw (Rathbone)
Dial M For Murder
The Jungle Book (Disney)
Tora! Tora! Tora!

Interesting that you included one of the Basil Rathbone, Holmes movies.

Of the 14 movies he and Nigel Bruce made, I only really enjoyed "The Hound of the Baskervilles".

The main problem for me was Bruce hamming it up mercilessly as Dr Watson. He portrayed Watson as a near imbecile who was as much use as a chocolate teapot.
The way he interpreted the part influenced the entire Holmes movie canon for years.

I much preferred Nigel Stock's interpretation in the BBC Holmes series of the 60's.

I agree that Dial M for Murder was a smashing movie.

[Errata]

I totally forgot to put Top Secret! on my list. Val Kilmer before he took himself seriously. Pure gold.

[Robert]

Hi Barn

I liked all the Rathbone Holmes films. I just picked the Claw as a particularly good example. The Claw's speech about not bearing to let another man have her struck me as a bit wooden, but otherwise I liked it. I do agree that the Rathbone films had one idiot too many. You can either have Watson as an idiot, or Lestrade as an idiot, but not both. And yes, as far as I can recall, Stock was good in the 60s. He also had to play to two different Sherlocks (Wilmer and Cushing) so that was quite creditable too.

The strange thing is, when I read a Holmes story the voice I hear in my head is neither Rathbone's, nor Wilmer's, nor Brett's nor anyone else's.

[barnflatwyngarde]

"The strange thing is, when I read a Holmes story the voice I hear in my head is neither Rathbone's, nor Wilmer's, nor Brett's nor anyone else's."



Yeah me too.
I haven't really thought about it before, but t is pretty strange when you think that Holmes is such a well defined character, and he was played by some superb actors who each put something unique into their interpretation of the role.

[Mayerling]

Growing up it was Rathbone's film interpretations that were the inspiration. Later it was Brett's. As for Bruce and Dennis Hoey's Lestrade (the only one of the detectives in the stories who appeared in more than one of the Rathbone films), while both are meant to lighten the mood, neither are total dunces. In "The Pearl of Death", Lestrade feels a victim broke his lumbar vertebrae in falling, and medical man Watson looks at Lestrade sharply and says, "You don't break your back by simply falling!" Lestrade quickly is aware of something amiss in "Terror By Night" when the police arresting Alan Mowbray in Scotland are acting as though the 1707 act of Union is a curiosity of the past regarding Lestrade's police power.

Of the Rathbone Series:

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (George Zucco is the best of the Moriarty's)
The Hound of the Baskervilles
The House of Fear
The Scarlet Claw
The Pearl of Death
Sherlock Holmes Faces Death
Terror By Night (Frederick Worlock's putting down of Bruce is priceless)
The Voice of Terror (really the only topical wartime Holmes film - based, of course, on "Lord Haw Haw"'s broadcasts.)

Jeff

[Robert]

Jeff, what do you make of Renee Godfrey's accent in Terror By Night?

[Mayerling]

Jeff, what do you make of Renee Godfrey's accent in Terror By Night?

Hi Robert,

Accents are very peculiar, and thinking of Ms Godfrey's makes me cringe a little. Her role (Vivian) was as one of the conspiratory links in the plan to steal the jewel (she gets that coffin made). So she's a "bad girl". Notice how the first time we see her (supposedly buying a coffin, an object regarding death) she is more intent on putting on her lipstick. We are to assume she is totally without any moral interests whatsoever (which seem to suggest that applying make-up makes a lady suspicious). I noticed she tried to maintain what passed in Hollywood then (1946) and for sometime afterwards as a "Cockney-style" accent (although without the vigor of a real Cockney accent, and it's fun poetry that pops up). Frequently she would pause to say "Ain't it?" to whomever she spoke to, as though trying to stimulate a careless attitude, with a bit of a "damn-you're-eyes" impertinence. Since it was a "B-feature" I was willing to accept her faux-bad girl Cockney. If it had been a better feature with a star turn (say Angela Lansbury as the impertinent maid in "Gaslight") the performance would have struck as more realistic.

That faux-Cockney problem lasted for many years. Dick Van Dyke demonstrated it again in "Mary Poppins" as Bert, but he certainly is more talented.

Jeff

[Robert]

Thanks Jeff. Yes, it was a strange accent and rather out of keeping with her elegant appearance.

[lynn cates]

Zucco

Hello Jeff. I thought that I was the only one who preferred Zucco to Atwill and Daniell?

Well done, that.

Cheers.
LC

[Mayerling]

Zucco forever

Hi LC,

Zucco is better than the other two, I think, because he seemed to really enjoy the part. His Moriarty had a sense of humor (twisted as it was) and an enjoyment of tormenting underlings. Note how he tells off the servant shaving him, how that man would love to cut his throat but won't because he knows what the Professor's gang will do to the man. And then he has two nice comic moments. First, when he returns to his home for the first time in months (he's been on trial for murder, so he has been in prison), and his prize African violet plant (or whatever) is near death. He turns to that same servant and says with gravity, "I thought I told you to take daily care of this plant!" The servant hems and haws, protesting that he did. Then Zucco shows he could have been Holmes rival as a detective: "If that's the case why does that watering can have a spider's web on top?!" The servant is allowed to start watering the plant.

The other moment is towards the end when Zucco (disguised as a police guard sergeant) has led his gang into the place where the robbery is to be performed. He is met by the dignitary in charge (Henry Stephenson) who before he turns over the keys insists on seeing Zucco's authorization papers.
Zucco has foreseen this, and produces what are presumably excellent forgeries. Stephenson reads this and shakes his head in agreement, saying that proves Zucco is the right person. Zucco is a little put out by this (why would he and his fellow gang members, all wearing police uniforms, be there if they weren't supposed to be there?), so he demands Stephenson produce papers or evidence that he is the dignitary in charge! A somewhat confused Stephenson does so, and Zucco after reviewing the papers okays them!!

I'm sorry. While I like Lionel Atwill and Henry ("The sneer that walked like a man") Daniell very much, Zucco had more fun in his performance of the part.

Jeff

[Robert]

Re jokes, thy couldn't resist, near the end of the series, having Holmes say "Hullo!" and Watson answer "Hullo!"

They must have rejected this joke a hundred times before they gave in to temptation.

[lynn cates]

Zucco

Hello Jeff. Thanks.

Was it Nigel Bruce who had to produce papers?

At any rate, Zucco is, next to William Pratt (Boris Karloff), my FAVOURITE actor. Look at his eyes and sinister voice.

Cheers.
LC

[Mayerling]

Zucco

Bruce is in the scene, but it is Stephenson who has to produce the papers - he's technically in charge.

I do like Zucco. Quite a nice threatening presence in many films. Sometimes he is actually acting for a good cause, but in a morally blind way. In "Conquest" he convinces Greta Garbo, a married Polish aristocrat, to betray her marriage and become Napoleon's (Charles Boyer's) mistress, so that Poland can regain some of it's sovereignty.

Jeff

[lynn cates]

The eyes have it.

Hello Jeff. Thanks.

I'll say. I particularly liked him as Professor Andoheb in "The Mummy's Hand." watch his eyes in the scene where he first meets Dr. Banning and Babe.

Cheers.
LC

[Mayerling]

More Zucco

Sometimes George could be funny. He discovers that a spur-of-the-moment diagnosis on the mental state of another character was spot on correct in "After the Thin Man" and is astonished about that. In "Lured" he's a detective who likes crossword puzzles, and is paired (somewhat against his will) by his superiors with Lucille Ball.

George could also be sensible and decent. In "The Secret Garden" he tries to counsel a stubborn Herbert Marshall against needlessly codling and protecting Marshall's son Dean Stockwell (Zucco can see this is going to make the boy a neurotic weakling in the long run).