SHERLOCK HOLMES and THE SCARLET CLAW 1944 starring Basil Rathbone

Video Description

The Scarlet Claw is a 1944 American mystery thriller film[1] based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes detective stories. Directed by Roy William Neill and starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, it is the eighth film of the Rathbone/Bruce series. David Stuart Davies notes on the film's DVD audio commentary that it's generally considered by critics and fans of the series to be the best of the twelve Holmes films made by Universal. The film is not credited as an adaptation of any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes tales, but it bears a significant resemblance to his 1902 novel The Hound of the Baskervilles. Alan Barnes, in his book Sherlock Holmes On Screen, describes The Scarlet Claw as "owing much" to Hound, listing their similarities: "a remote marshland setting; a painted-phosphorescent but thought-supernatural terror, an escaped convict on the loose, a cold killer ingratiating himself with everyone in the vicinity; a subplot involving cast-off clothing; plus, of course, Holmes' method of unmasking the murderer, making to return home but actually remaining behind to catch the villain red-handed (or, indeed, scarlet-clawed)." Early in the film, Watson's character directly refers to The Hound of the Baskervilles. At the very end of the film, Holmes quotes from Winston Churchill, after which Watson asks, "Churchill say that?" Holmes replies "Yes, Churchill." The music swells and Rathbone's voice drops, but he continues to speak several more words which are not heard, but lip movement indicates that he says, "God bless him."