The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes (1935)

This fourth 'Sherlock Holmes' adaptation starring the once again brilliant Arthur Wontner is somewhat different from the others in that almost half of it is taken up by long flashbacks set in the USA; but the usual features are all there: Holmes' incredibly quick deductions, his inevitable 'Elementary, my dear Watson, elementary", his casual way of solving this VERY complicated mystery - and his obsession with his arch-enemy, Professor Moriarty...But this time there are also Americans involved: one of them is hiding in an old English castle (conveniently near to the place where Holmes has just 'retired' for a quiet life in the country...) from a murderous secret American 'brotherhood' whose members he'd betrayed and turned over to the police; and just when Holmes receives a strange message about 'danger' in the old castle, he hears from Inspector Lestrade that the informer has just been murdered the night before - shot in the face from a close distance, and thus the body being beyond recognition...As much as the average mystery fan tries to follow the twisted plot, probably VERY few will be able to follow Holmes' thoughts (although he himself gives us a few hints - which puzzle us even more...) and guess the solution; but that makes it all the more challenging and interesting to sit down and watch this masterpiece of classic crime mystery!

"The Triumoph of Sherlock Holmes" recently came out on DVD. First off the copy is quite awful, although from what I have read there aren't very good video sources to take from. Secondly, Arthur Wontner's Holmes is excellent. He looks like Holmes and he acts like Holmes as portrayed by Conan Doyle.The movie is based on one of the longer length stories, "The Valley of Fear". The story includes a long flashback to Pennsylvania coal country in the US and is included in the movie. It is very well done. As near as I can tell the scenes in America were done with American actors, including the well known character actor Ben Welden, except for Boss McGinty played by Roy Emerton who does a great job.The movie contains a good many Holmesian aphorisms taken from other stories. While it's always a pleasure to hear them I can imagine if you saw movie after movie and heard the same lines multiple times it could become a little annoying.I particularly liked the Watson of Ian Fleming as every time Holmes introduces himself and neglects Watson, Watson nudges him with his arm. A small bit but nicely done.

An excellent Holmes story that benefits greatly by going directly to the source (mainly Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Valley Of Fear") and not only sticking pretty much to the original plot but also using a lot of the great dialog that Doyle wrote for Holmes. The problem with translating Sherlock Holmes to the screen (or writing new Holmes stories in full-length novel form) is that Doyle's original creation was such a brilliant detective he solved most mysteries almost instantly. Therefore, the short story was the best medium in which to present his adventures. If a story has to be stretched out to novel or feature film length, some other means had to be found to fill out the time and pages. Thus, beginning with Basil Rathbone (or maybe even earlier with William Gillette's original play), Sherlock Holmes became an action hero rather than a thinker. Arthur Wotner's Holmes and the script of "Triumph" retains the original essence of "the best and wisest man I have ever known" and shows us that he can delight and thrill us even more by seeing him as he was intended to be seen.

***SPOILERS*** Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Wontner, looking more like Gen. Douglas MacArthur minus his corn cob pipe, Sherlock puffs on his famous Calabash Bassoon in the movie like in all the other films that he's in, is hot on the trail of his archenemy the brilliant but diabolical Prof. Moriarty, Lyn Harding. In a tale of murder and deception in the movie "The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes". Sherlock retired from police work and living in the country tending his beloved bees and beehives is brought out of retirement when he gets a coded message from one of Prof. Moriarty's hoods.Pllock,about a murder thats about to be committed at the Birlstone Castle. Before Holmes can do anything to prevent the murder from happening he finds out from police inspector Lestrade, Charles Mortimer, that the owner of the Birlstone Castle John Douglas,Leslie Perrins, was murdered. Douglas had his head blown off with a shotgun the night before. Going with the police to the Birlstone Castle Sherlock Holmes checks out the murder scene to see if he can come up with any clues. Sherlock finds Douglas' wife Ettie, Jane Carr, a bit deceptive about her husband and feels that she's hiding something that can crack the case wide open for reasons only known to herself. Pressed by Sherlock Holmes Ettie tell him and the police the true story about her husband John and how she first met him. John Douglas is really an American hoodlum from Chicago named John Murdoc who she first met in the coal mining district of Pennsylvania called "The Valley of Fear". Murdoc was a member of a group of criminals called "The Scowlers" who terrorized the people in that area.Murdoc participated and committed a number of vicious crimes with "The Scowlers" in "The Valley of Fear" and in no time at all became one of the leading henchmen of the outfit run by Boss McGinty, Roy Emerson. One day Murdoc tells McGinty that there's a spy among them and that he'll lead them to him where they can shut him up for good.Going to this deserted house in the valley Murdoc tell McGinty & Co. that the spy's name is Bernie Edwards and in a moment he'll be coming over and that they can give Bernie a hot reception as soon as he shows up. Murdoc walking out of the house for a minute and then coming in tell the startled "Scowlers" that he's Bernie Edwards and that he's also a agent of the Pinkerton Detective Agency and that their all under arrest. With that the house is raided by the police and McGinty and his top henchmen including Ted Balding, Ben Welden, are arrested and the whole "Scowlers" gang is put out of business for good.Balding later escapes from prison and goes to England where he gets in touch with Prof. Moriarty to help him find Murdoc/Edwards and offers him $50,000.00 to do it. Balding learning from Prof. Moriarty that Murdoc/Edwards is now known as John Douglas and lives at the Birlstone Castle then sneaks into the castle to murder Douglas. It's then that Douglas turns the tables on him and blows Balding's head off with the shotgun that he had with him. Douglas then puts his wedding ring on Balding's finger and makes it look like it was him, John Douglas, that was murdered. In the end Prof. Moriarty goes to the castle at night to meet Balding, who he thinks is alive, to get his $50,000.00 reward that he offered him for finding out who the former Murdoc/Edwards is and where he could find him. With Sherlock Holmes and the police having set a trap for him Moriarty is chased up to the castle tower and then falls down into the moat and drowns. As the movie ends we see Sherlock Holmes back home at his country estate tending to his bees."The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes" has it's usual brain-twisting clues that only the great Sherlock Holmes' magnificent brain can figure out like half burnt candles missing dumb bells and coded messages. But the most obvious and important clue in the film went right over the great Sherlock Holmes' head; his being unable to see that the body minus it's head wasn't that of John Douglas. Douglas to Balding, who was made to look by Douglas as himself, was as opposite and different as Mutt is to Jeff.Also the movie had a very annoying soundtrack that sounded like the sounds you would hear if you were in a German U-Boat some 200 feet under the North Atlantic Ocean.