Sherlock Holmes and The Secret Weapon

DVD, Sherlock Holmes and The Secret Weapon (1942) film

So Moriarty is defeated by falling into a sewer this time! I'm not sure how much continuity there was between the films, but on this evidence I'd say very little as we last saw Moriarty fall from the Tower of London but two films ago! He was more like a Bond villain than the resourceful genius of the literary character, and I preferred George Zucco's version, who at least had an evil cunning to his face (until he shaved the beard off). Lionel Atwill didn't portray him as much of a great threat and actually he seemed like any old bad-guy, but I suppose what is a stereotype now was relatively new in those days.

Dennis Hoey makes his first appearance as Inspector Lestrade, the frequently baffled witness to Holmes' brilliance, and like Bruce's version of Watson, I always enjoyed the ridiculous humour he brought to it. I can't say there was much to be impressed by in this story, and it has none of the strangeness of 'The Dancing Men' upon which it's supposedly based - again, calling it something that it's not doesn't make it better. Holmes looks ever more wind-swept and makes me wish he'd get a haircut. He did manage to fool me again when I least expected it. Not in the opening disguise as the old, white-haired bookseller, that was soon seen through, but as Hoffner, Dr. Tobel's friend, laying in wait for Moriarty's henchmen. I wondered for a little if he'd played the original Hoffner to confuse us, and make it easier to accept him in the role, but then the real one turned up again.

The story starts in the middle of an adventure which is surprisingly daring for them to expect the audience to keep up, though there wasn't as much meat on the bones by the end. As before there's a patriotic speech by Holmes and Watson and lines from that famous poem. Not one of the more inventive or gripping stories, it seemed longer than it was. I did notice the drugs reference (referred to in the Production Notes on the DVD), which would have been very sly for censorship of the time.

*