The Spider Woman

DVD, The Spider Woman (1944) film

By far the best film to this point in the Sherlock Holmes series, this may not be the most Holmesian tale, but it has enough familiar artistry among the visual humour, exciting exchanges and unfolding puzzle to successfully straddle both the original stories and this film series which is far from being a set of adaptations and more an of-the-time reinvention to appeal to the war audiences, which it succeeded in doing. There are elements of various stories such as the pygmy from 'The Sign of Four', the venomous means of death similar to 'The Speckled Band' and even a nod to Holmes' death at the Riechenbach Falls.

Every aspect of the production seems imbued with a freshness and dynamism that some of the previous films in the series lacked. The back-projection of the rushing river in Scotland that Holmes falls into looks especially real, the emotion of losing Holmes is played intelligently by Watson, Mrs. Hudson and Inspector Lestrade (Dennis Hoey back again in the role), so that his inevitable reappearance means more than a little sleight of hand, even if we knew he wasn't dead. There's visual continuity (the shots fired against the wall in a previous film are visible), Holmes gets to indulge his penchant for disguises as successfully as ever (and Rathbone his mannerisms), and even the way the suicides are presented in shocking montage denotes a pace not expected of such an old production.

There are no dull moments or hokey sets, and the tale is full of the kind of touches the stories were famous for - undercover, Holmes tricks the villainess into giving him her fingerprints, while she has her own ways of exposing his false identity. Not only are the production values at a peak, but the boldness of the action is stronger than before - a deadly shootout atop the city's rooftops, the crazy-looking imposter at the spider expert's house (his grimace as he slices open a gas tank and flings the axe at Holmes leaves a stronger impression of malignant enmity in that brief moment than a long scene could have evoked), and even the James Bond-type escape from a dastardly fairground shooting gallery shows Holmes logical brain in full flow as he uses the gears of the machinery to loosen his bonds.

The spider woman herself is a worthy adversary, a smiling, self-satisfied evil, half-concealed beneath a veil. The veil of death! Maybe they should have called it that. The scene when she openly visits Baker Street, both she and her enemy double-talking their way through the conversation, probing and playing their cards is the perfect example of her character. It's all a deception, with the strange little lad and his fly-catching tendencies, to leave a nasty taste in their mouths. All in all a jolly good watch, even though a couple of the villainess' accomplices were in it before (Vernon Downing as Norman was the posh, stuttering fellow in the previous film, and I think the guy with the case who got shot by Holmes was in another one too) and I haven't even mentioned the hilarious case of mistaken identity by Watson!

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