Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1942)

Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson must protect a Swiss inventor of an advanced bomb sight from falling into German hands.

Director:

Roy William Neill

Writers:

Edward T. Lowe Jr. (screenplay) (as Edward T. Lowe), Scott Darling (screenplay) (as W. Scott Darling)

Stars:

Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Lionel Atwill

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Basil Rathbone	...	Sherlock Holmes
Nigel Bruce	...	Doctor Watson
Lionel Atwill	...	Moriarty (as Moriarity)
Kaaren Verne	...	Charlotte Eberli
William Post Jr.	...	Dr. Franz Tobel
Dennis Hoey	...	Lestrade
Holmes Herbert	...	Sir. Reginald
Mary Gordon	...	Mrs. Hudson

Storyline

Working for the British government, Sherlock Holmes manages to spirit Dr. Franz Tobel out of Switzerland and into England before the GESTAPO are able to get to him. Tobel has devised an immensely accurate bomb site and while he is willing to make it available to the Allies, he insists on manufacturing it himself. Soon however, he vanishes and it is left to Homes, assisted by the bumbling Dr. Watson, to decipher a coded message he left behind. Holmes soon realizes that he is up against his old nemesis, Professor Moriarty.

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Plot Keywords:

sherlock holmes | doctor watson | bomb | nemesis | gestapo | 

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Genres:

Adventure | Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English French Indonesian

Release Date:

12 February 1943 (USA)

Also Known As:

Secret Weapon

Filming Locations:

Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of several titles in the Sherlock Holmes series whose original copyrights were apparently not renewed and have thereby fallen into public domain; as a result, seriously inferior copies are presently being offered by a number of VHS and DVD dealers who do not have access to original studio masters.

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Goofs

When Sherlock in his Lascar disguise goes on his pub/bar crawl, in the second pub, the Golden Hawk, the dartboard he stands in front of is hung wrongly, with #20 at 1-o-clock instead of 12-o-clock.

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Quotes

Sherlock Holmes: Christmas boxes. Watson, I'm beginning to see the plan. Dr. Tobel divided his bombsight into four parts just as we brought it back from Switzerland. He's given one section of the mechanism to each of these famous scientists. What a fascinating plan. You see, each part is useless without the other three and undoubtedly, none of these scientists is known to each other.

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Crazy Credits

Opening credits prologue: SWITZERLAND

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Connections

Follows The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)

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Soundtracks

Rule Britannia
(1740) (uncredited)
Music by Thomas Augustine Arne
Played in the score when London is shown

User Reviews

Not A Lot Of Credibility But A Whole Lot Of Entertainment

Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) begins this story in disguise, helping to smuggle famous physicist "Dr. Franz Tobel" (William Post) out of Switzeralnad and under the watchful eye of the Nazis, who want his bomb sight plans. The Allies obviously want it, too, and Sherlock is there to help. Dr. Tobel has invented an instrument which greatly aids in the accuracy of aerial bombardment.

Holmes and Dr. Tobel arrive safely back at Baker Street but the scientist would rather be alone, for some mysterious reason, although he had promised the English to help them, not the Germans. He stays true to that promise but there are some desperate moments for Holmes and the English along the way.

It's an entertaining film and one in which our famous detective uses not one but three different disguises. He needs all the help he can get when he goes up against his arch-rival, "Professor Moriarity." One complaint: if Moriarity was that evil, he would have dispensed with Holmes without batting an eyelash, instead of giving him openings to escape. It's pretty sad, too, when the usual dim-witted Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) has to rescue his boss from certain death a couple of times!

Yes, there are some credibility issues in this story but if you can put your brain on hold a few times, it's a fun film to watch....and it looks beautiful, thanks to the great restoration job done on this DVD. It makes the old print come alive with some wonderful visuals, particularly the night-time shots.

One other note: whoever did the English subtitles in here misspelled or misinterpreted at least a half dozen words. It's very sloppy work, and not the first time I've encountered this watching the entire series on the restored DVD set.