The Pearl of Death (1944)

Top Tier Basil Rathbone-Nigel Bruce Entry in the Series. Fans Mostly Love this One because of its Mystery and the Fact that, for a change, it is Taken from a Conan Doyle Story. It Contains Horror Elements and has Diabolical Villains who are Brutal and Cruel.Everyone Comments on the Lasting Memory of Rondo Hatton as the Creeper, the Deformed Bone Crusher that is Truly Creepy. His Physical Presence is Scary. Perhaps Another Reason the Character is so Infamously Remembered is that Pretty Evelyn Ankers is Reminded that the Creeper (Beast) is Infatuated with Her (Beauty) and Lurks just Outside Her Bedroom Stroking one of Her Personal Items, a Vanity Compact. This kind of Verbal Abuse Happens more than Once and She is Justifiably Terrified.This is Archetypal and the Two Never Meet On Screen but the Sexual Dominance is there Nonetheless. Strong Stuff. Ankers gives a Good Performance Donning Three Disguises, Master Villain Giles Conover also goes Incognito, as does Holmes (typically).Sherlock Makes a Big Mistake in this One, to the Delight of Lestrade and Watson is Along as Expected Comedic Relief and Adding a bit of Sleuthing. Holmes Verbally Berates the Old Boy Again..."Watson go to the door and do what I tell you."...Watson: "Huh!"...Holmes: "No, not huh, just do it.".

Great ingredients for a great Sherlock Holmes mystery, and Pearl of Death was that. Despite the too-short length and the out-of-place patriotic speech, Pearl of Death is one of the better entries of the RKO series(Scarlet Claw being the best, Hound of the Baskervilles and Adventures of Sherlock Holmes are even better but they were 20th Century-Fox distributed). It is crisply and atmospherically shot, with very striking period detail and the fog and shadows make the atmosphere remarkably creepy. The music score is very well-incorporated and haunting, if somewhat similar to the score of The Wolf Man, the film is solidly directed right up to one of the series' scariest climaxes and the dialogue is both funny and intelligent(you have to love Holmes' line to the police in the climax). The story, while only containing elements(the pearl, the Napoleon busts) of the original story, moves very quickly though not feeling too rushed and is always engaging with great suspense and sense of mystery. The acting is strong, the most memorable being Rondo Hatton who is just spine-chilling as the Creeper, having seen this at about 11 years old and having vague memories of that viewing it was Hatton that I remembered the most vividly. Basil Rathbone is spot-on as Holmes as he always was, cunning and very well-read with a touch of humour about him, Pearl of Death also has some of his best deductions of the series. Nigel Bruce is amusing as Watson, and he does bring some loyalty to counterpoint with Rathbone's Holmes, though the character can be too much of an idiot in this series and at times that is true here. His chemistry with Rathbone still convinces, there really is a great dynamic between them. Lestrade is even more so, the character was always inept but this Lestrade really is as thick as a brick, like with Watson the writing of the characters is part of why that is. Dennis Hoey is very funny though and seems to be really enjoying himself. Evelyn Ankers is very attractive with great disguises, she makes for a striking and strongly-acted accomplice. Miles Mander is not quite as good as the rest, he is menacing in a quiet and subtle sense- without falling into total blandness- which is a good approach, if not quite distinguishing himself in the climax especially compared to Hatton, one rare case where the henchman actually eclipses the mastermind. In conclusion, an entertaining and atmospherically effective Sherlock Holmes mystery, Hatton's Creeper makes the film. If you are a purist though and want a more faithful adaptation of the story, watch The Six Napoleons with Jeremy Brett as Holmes as part of the Granada series, even better than this and one of the best of that series. 8/10 Bethany Cox

***SPOILERS*** Even though he's barley in the movie and he doesn't show up until halfway through it it's with out a doubt Rondo Hatton as the notorious Hoxton Creeper who's the star of the show. Hatton is so fearsome and threatening that we know about him all throughout the film "Pearl of Death" well before he made his grand appearance in it!It's when jewelry crooks Giles Conover and his pretty assistant Naomi Drake, Evelyn Ankers, had the precious Borgia Pearl stolen from them, after they stoled it first, by an undercover, as a priest, Sherlock Holmes, Basil Rathbone, that they enlisted the services of the Hoxton Creeper to get it back for them. The Creeper was presumed to have been killed, by the local London police and Scotland Yard, in his aborted escaped attempt from Devil's Island where he was supposedly drowned in the Caribbean Sea. Conover gets the Creeper on board with him only after he himself heisted the pearl for a second time from the London Royal Regent Museum and hid it in a bust of Napoleon in a local antique shop. The problem for Conover is that there were six exact Napoleon busts and by the time his assistant, Naomi Drake, got to the store to buy them back they were all sold out!It took a while for Holmes to figure it out but it was the Napoleon busts that were the reason for the deaths of a number of Londoners who were found with their backs broken, the Creeper's way of murdering his victims, and smashed dishes cups and bowels scattered all around their bodies. Realizing that these murders were the work of the Creeper who used the smashed dishes and cups to cover up his real search for the Napoleon busts Holmes soon came to the conclusion that it was Conover who was using him to find the Napoleon bust with the Bogia Pearl hidden, by Conover, in it!***SPOILERS*** One of the better Sherlock Holmes films with Basil Rathbone as the famous detective "The Pearl of Death" did in fact have a very contrived and not too believable ending. We never got to see what kind of relationship the Creeper had with the beautiful Naomi Drake in that he goes completely bonkers when he's told, by Holmes, that she's to face the London Gallows for the murder of Doctor Watson, Nigel Bruce. This ridicules and obvious trick by Holmes, in that Dr. Watson was in fact alive and well, had the Creeper turn on his "Master" Giles Conover without as much as a second thought in that Holmes was only pulling his leg! There's also the confrontation between Holmes, with the aid of a handgun, and the Creeper that completely took place off camera! Which made you wounder that if it were actually seen by the audience it would have came across so phony, the indestructible Creeper gunned down by a puny .38 revolver, that those watching it would have had trouble believing it!

"One of two things has happened. Either the woman he bumped into was an accomplice, in which case she has the pearl, or he managed somehow to conceal it in his flight." The pearl, of course, is the cursed Borgia Pearl, an object of rich men's lust. The "he" is Giles Conover (Miles Mander), a master criminal as cruel as he is clever, as contemptuous of men as he is unmoved by women. The Borgia Pearl has been the object of criminal stratagems since it arrived in London for display in the British Museum. The director of the museum is immensely proud of how he has harnessed electricity to warn of any untoward action involving the museum's objects. But what happens when Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) apparently makes a mistake. And what happens when the electricity doesn't work. It will be Sherlock Holmes, aided by his game but confused partner, Watson (Nigel Bruce), against Giles Conover. Holmes makes his disdain for Conover clear. "I don't like the smell of you -- an underground smell, the sick sweetness of decay. You haven't robbed and killed merely for the game like any ordinary halfway decent thug. No, you're in love with cruelty for it's own sake." Little does Holmes realize that Conover has a creature of his own...a brute whose face is the result of a disorder of the pituitary gland. Watson might call it acromegaly. Most laymen would say it's the Easter Island Statue Syndrome. It's not long before Holmes must deal not only with Conover, but also with this creature...the Hoxton Creeper (Rondo Hatton). "A monster, Watson," Holmes says, "with the chest of a buffalo and the arms of a gorilla. His particular method of murder is back breaking. And it's always the same...the third lumbar vertebrae." "How horrible," says Watson. Does Sherlock Holmes best the Creeper? Does he recover the Borgia Pearl? Does Conover taste the bitter brew of utter defeat? You'll get no spoilers from me. Some think macaroni and cheese is the perfect comfort for what ails you. I think it's Rathbone and Bruce. People can argue about which actor has been the best Sherlock Holmes, but there is something about Rathbone's style, earnestness, profile and line delivery that makes me sit back and smile every time I watch him play The Great Detective. All that Victorian gaslight, fog and cobblestones help, too. With some strange alchemy, the Holmes movies with Rathbone have turned into an elixir of kitsch, style, remembrance of things past, satisfaction and noble causes. Mac and cheese doesn't come close.