The Woman In Green

DVD, The Woman In Green (1945) film

Not one of the better entries in the Sherlock Holmes series, it's another film that has no basis in the written stories, apart from the character of Moriarty and his death by falling from a height, and the ingenious dummy in the window Holmes uses to fool a would-be assassin. Other than that there are mentions of Holmes' brother Mycroft, and Inspector Lestrade, who doesn't appear in this film for no apparent reason. The Holmes/Watson friendship, occasional observations of the detective and Watson's looking the fool are in the mix as usual, but the the good moments are sparse, and for another appearance of criminal mastermind Moriarty you'd expect them to have pulled out a cunning and devious plot.

Instead, Moriarty matter-of-factly visits his nemesis at Baker Street (a novel approach), showing that he wasn't hanged after all. The plot is only to get a bit of dough, and there must have been easier ways to that end than presenting hypnotised victims with the apparent evidence that they murdered someone. Moriarty wouldn't have been satisfied that Holmes was under the influence unless he put a needle through his stomach or somewhere dangerous, but this Moriarty is too quick to believe, his cunning brain isn't barely in evidence. And so he makes a bid for escape that causes him to plunge to his doom, and this time he really must be dead.

Henry Daniell does a reasonable job, the third actor to play the Professor in the series, and he has the blank, cold face for it, but the writing doesn't give him much to play with. The rooftop scene where Holmes appears about to walk off under hypnosis was dramatic, the height looking real, though it was back-projection. Unfortunately, like Holmes' hypnosis, the spell is broken when Watson jumps up there with him - a fold in the backdrop spoiling the illusion of the cityscape. Along with Daniell, Paul Cavanagh is back for another role, this time as Sir George, and the villainess' housekeeper played a similar role in 'The House of Fear'.

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