The Definitive Holmes and Watson

The Definitive collection of arguably the best Holmes and Watson: Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce can only be greeted with joy, which is just how it was treated by me when it arrived in the post. Containing all fourteen films in the series that began in 1939 with The Hound of the Baskervilles and culminating with the rather melodramatically titled Dressed to Kill in 1946.

These Holmes films are to be honest guilty pleasures. Each running barely over an hour, they would today barely be considered worthy of the title "film." They are also deeply flawed, made on shoestring budgets and with shooting schedules of just over a fortnight, the Universal films anyway, were made on the fly. They shot between two and three films a year, mostly under the aegis of Producer and often Director, Roy William Neill. The two films at work were more polished productions, with more recognisable minor stars in supporting roles but the Universal films for the most part relied upon a stock company of actors, who would appear film after film in different roles, including, most importantly Dennis Hoey, as a rather dense and sceptical (not to mention curiously superior) Inspector Lestrade. Thus there is a curious continuity about the films, as the same faces appear in various guises.

Thus, visually, the Universal films are often highly stylised, influenced by the skewed camera angles and chiaroscuro of German Expressionist cinema of the twenties. Sometimes the camera work is surprisingly fluid and graceful, considering the hurried filming (sometimes slightly fluffed lines and accidents had to be left in the finished films) and Roy William Neill actually is a rather skilled director. I believe he was originally meant to film The Lady Vanishes in the late thirties but left for America and, of course, it fell to Hitchcock who crafted it into possibly his best English film. Nevertheless, Neill's surprising visual aptitude often raises the style of the films and is able to create disconcerting and visually intriguing images. He is no mere hack.

What requires comment is that these films have been lovingly restored over a decade and as such the image quality is fantastic. Also, often the original titles, which were removed in subsequent prints, have been restored to the films, giving them a greater sense of time and place - and let's face it, there's something wonderful about some of the old studio intros. The huge Warner Brother's sign, RKO's telegraph tower, and Universal's translucent rotating globe, to which we are treated here. The image and sound quality are truly excellent, and I have watched bad VHS prints of these films, where there is little sharpness or contrast but no, here black is deep and fathomless, the contrast often razor sharp, which for such old films is really something. The fact that these films have been so lovingly restored I think bears witness to their quality, despite the occasional flaws of plot and supporting casts. There is a short feature explaining the restoration, about five minutes which gives some background on this and is quite interesting but hardly in-depth.

As you'll have no doubt guessed, I love these films. They are truly comfort cinema. There is something about watching them, whether over a lazy afternoon, or late at night to relax before dipping into bed that is sublime. Admittedly they may not be for everyone, some people have difficulty with black and white movies (though I'm never sure why) but these are not challenging but then they are hardly stupid. They are fast paced, entertaining, often witty, always atmospheric and there are real gems on show. The Scarlet Claw, especially, full to the gills with fog laden claustrophobia; The Woman in Green has some genuinely hypnotic moments. Such are these films that Rathbone and Bruce set the tone and the look for Holmes and Watson for years to come, and not until Jeremy Brett (the other contender for the greatest Holmes) and first David Burke then Edward Hardwicke, some forty years later would anyone come close to redefining the roles.