Sherlock Holmes' Fatal Hour (1931)
"The Sleeping Cardinal" (original title)

A card cheat is threatened with exposure into joining a criminal enterprise that Holmes believes is controlled by Professor Moriarty.

Director:

Leslie S. Hiscott

Writers:

Arthur Conan Doyle (stories), Cyril Twyford (adaptation),

Stars:

Arthur Wontner, Ian Fleming, Minnie Rayner

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Arthur Wontner	...	Sherlock Holmes
Ian Fleming	...	Dr. John Watson (as Jan Fleming)
Minnie Rayner	...	Mrs. Hudson
Leslie Perrins	...	Ronald Adair
Jane Welsh	...	Kathleen Adair
Norman McKinnel	...	Prof. Robert Moriarty, alias Col. Henslowe (as Norman McKinnell)
William Fazan	...	Thomas Fisher
Sidney King	...	Tony Rutherford
Philip Hewland	...	Inspector Lestrade (as Phillip Hewland)
Gordon Begg	...	Marston, the butler
Louis Goodrich	...	Colonel Sebastian Moran
Harry Terry	...	No. 16
Charles Paton	...	J.J. Godfrey

Storyline

Card cheat Ronald Adair hears a disembodied voice coming from a painting of a cardinal threatening him with exposure and disgrace unless he becomes part of a criminal conspiracy involving counterfeit money. Adair is reluctant and is later found shot in the head in a bank. Holmes rightly suspects that his arch-enemy Moriarty, the master of disguise, is behind the plot.

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Plot Keywords:

card cheat | counterfeit money | shot in the head | disguise | painting | 

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Genres:

Crime | Mystery

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

February 1931 (UK)

Also Known As:

Sherlock Holmes' Fatal Hour

Filming Locations:

Twickenham Film Studios, St Margarets, Twickenham, Middlesex, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twickenham Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

84 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Photophone System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Filmed in the 1.20:1 early sound ratio, the latter day conversion to 1.37:1 results in many of the players' heads being cropped off the top of the screen in numerous shots.

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Quotes

Dr. John Watson: Oh, Holmes, you're marvelous!
Sherlock Holmes: Elementary, my dear Watson, elementary.

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Connections

Version of Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1905)

User Reviews

A major disappointment

It's nice that this film exists, but as it stands it's a major disappointment. Director Leslie Hiscott and cinematographers Sydney Blythe and William Luff get some nice proto-noir compositions into the first and last reels, but in between it's a very claustrophobic movie that seems to take place entirely indoors, either in the home of Ronald Adair or in Sherlock Holmes' and Dr. Watson's digs at 221B Baker Street. We know the film is set in 1930 instead of the 1890's because Holmes deduces that Watson is having trouble with his car, but we never see any cars — or much action of any kind. It's just eight reels of dull, ill-paced talk (where was Alfred Hitchcock when they needed him? Actually working at a bigger, more prestigious British studio than Twickenham!), sloppily recorded by Baynham Honri, who for some reason gets an on-screen credit in type as big as the director's. And though I usually respect the critical judgments of the late William K. Everson — who said Arthur Wontner was one of the two best actors ever to play Holmes — he's never convinced me in the role. He's perfectly adequate in the scenes showing Holmes as a cerebral "armchair detective" but utterly wrong for the neurotic man of action Sir Arthur Conan Doyle also intended Holmes to be. But then to me (to paraphrase the opening of the Conan Doyle Holmes story "A Scandal in Bohemia") Basil Rathbone (who looked uncannily like the Sidney Paget illustrations for the original Holmes stories and did both the cerebral and the active sides of the character consummately well) will always be THE Sherlock Holmes.