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The Pearl of Death (1944) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
7.6/10   1,459 votes
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Director:
Roy William Neill
Writers:
Bertram Millhauser (screenplay)
Arthur Conan Doyle (story)
Contact:
View company contact information for The Pearl of Death on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
1 August 1944 (USA) more
Genre:
Crime | Horror | Mystery | Thriller more
Tagline:
THE SECRET OF THE GEM OF DOOM! (original print ad - all caps) more
Plot:
When a valuable pearl with a sinister reputation is stolen, Sherlock Holmes must investigate its link to a series of brutal murders. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
User Comments:
The Cursed Black Pearl of the Borgias more (36 total)

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)
Basil Rathbone ... Sherlock Holmes
Nigel Bruce ... Doctor Watson
Dennis Hoey ... Lestrade
Evelyn Ankers ... Naomi Drake
Miles Mander ... Giles Conover
Ian Wolfe ... Amos Hodder
Charles Francis ... Digby
Holmes Herbert ... James Goodram
Richard Nugent ... Bates
Mary Gordon ... Mrs. Hudson
Rondo Hatton ... The Creeper
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Additional Details

Parents Guide:
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Runtime:
69 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Black and White
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Recording)
Certification:
UK:U | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #10184)
Company:
Universal Pictures more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
For some curious reason Holmes' cluttered Baker Street apartment has a photograph of a beardless Abraham Lincoln. more
Quotes:
Dr. John H. Watson: [viewing the Borgia Pearl] Can't be real!
Sherlock Holmes: Real as death, old fellow, with the blood of twenty men upon it down through the centuries!
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Movie Connections:
Followed by The House of Fear (1945) more

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User Comments

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10 out of 12 people found the following comment useful.
The Cursed Black Pearl of the Borgias, 11 April 2005
6/10
Author: theowinthrop from United States

In 1903 Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a short story called "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons". In it Inspector Lestrade tells Holmes and Watson of a strange series of seemingly unrelated crimes in which houses are burglarized and bric-a-brac smashed. Is it the work of a madman or an intelligent criminal? Holmes discovers the running link in the crimes - in each case a cheap bust of Emperor Napoleon I was smashed. Then the crimes become deadlier - a man is murdered at the site of one of the smashups (the home of a newspaperman named Harker - a name retained in the movie by a minor victim). Holmes soon finds out that the busts came from a store where a man who fits the description of the criminal worked. This criminal is captured. The final one of the six busts is found, and broken before Watson and Lestrade by Holmes. And out pops the world's rarest black pearl, the Borgia Pearl.

Of course the story is more fully fleshed out by Conan Doyle. His villain is an ethnic type - so there is a little racism (though nothing like the racism met with in G.K.Chesterton or R.Austin Freeman). However the story is not totally like that in the film. The villain, Beppo, is not a criminal mastermind - not a Moriarty type. He has a clever idea, not one of many clever ideas. And he kills his victim when he is confronted by an enemy (something totally unplanned). There is no "creature of the night" figure of dread but just Beppo.

So the film version is (except for the pearl and the busts of Napoleon) a rewrite. Giles Connover and the Creeper (or, as Lestrade calls him, "the Oxton 'Orror") are movie innovations, and both are quite effective, thanks to Miles Manders acting and (unfortunately) Rondo Hatton's appearance. But they helped make the film better than average.

So does Rathbone. He does a disguise act at the start (as good as his song and dance act in "THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES"). He also has a go at imitating the voice of another actor in the film (and he does it nicely)and a disguise at the end. Nice balance there. Bruce adds some good comedy, especially when he thinks fast and shows he too can hide the pearl. Also note his scene where he tries to reassure a visitor that he is as good at deductions as Holmes was.

Altogether a different story from the Doyle original, but it is a good film on it's own merits.

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