Terror by Night

Terror by Night is directed by Roy William Neill and written by Frank Gruber. It's based on characters created by Arthur Conan Doyle, loosely using ideas from the stories The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax, The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, The Adventure of the Empty House and the Sign of Four. It stars Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Alan Mowbray, Dennis Hoey, Renee Godfrey and Vivian Vedder. Music is by Hans Salter and cinematography by Maury Gertsman.

Plot finds Sherlock Holmes (Rathbone) hired to protect Lady Margaret Carstairs (Mary Forbes) and her precious diamond, the Star of Rhodesia. Who along with her son Roland (Geoffrey Steele), is aboard the express train from London to Edinburgh. It seems that the presence of the diamond on board this train is known by many characters, both good and bad. Holmes and his trusty companion Dr. Watson (Bruce), will need to keep their wits about them.

The thirteenth and penultimate film in the Rathbone/Bruce Sherlock Holmes series, Terror by night is a considerable improvement on the one before it, Pursuit to Algiers. Like that film, this one is also set mostly on a passenger vehicle, but where the boat premise wasn't utilised for great drama and mystery previously, here on board a speeding train it is. Clocking in at under an hour in running time, film does have the feel of a TV episode, but the characters are interesting and the twists and turns in the plot are most welcome. Picture also sees more of Lestrade; true enough he's more inept than ever, as is Watson, but they keep the comedy on the high heat till the story veers into mystery solving time. Here there's also enjoyment to be had in trying to guess who the villain is; OK, so you don't have to be Einstein to figure it out, but the mystery unfolds with some wily Holmes trickery and some Dr. Watson gusto. 7/10

Terror By Night takes most of the intriguing elements of the previous Holmes film (Pursuit to Algiers), leaves out the extraneous bits which hampered that particular film, cranks up the suspense, and roars out of the station on the rails of a complex and entertaining mystery.

The film follows Holmes and his friend/chronicler Watson on a train voyage, where Holmes has been commissioned to guard a precious stone. When the gem is inevitably stolen, with murder to accompany the theft, Holmes and Watson are thrust into yet another profound whodunit. With a gallery of suspects to choose from, Holmes must find the thief/murderer before the train reaches its final destination...at great risk to his own personal safety, naturally.

This film is far more effective than its predecessor on virtually every level. The suspense is palpable and sustained, the pacing quick and uninterrupted (thankfully, no musical numbers to detract from the overall ambiance). The cinematography is dark and moody, evoking film noir and the classic films of Alfred Hitchcock. The lead performances are, as always, great...Rathbone and Bruce play it up wonderfully here, though Bruce's Watson does seem to go out of his way to make a fool of himself. Dennis Hoey also puts in the last of his six performances as Inspector Lestrade here, and contributes his usual warm, if perpetually inept (the character, not the actor), presence.

Overall, I'd rate Terror By Night as one of the top five films in the Universal Holmes series. A vast improvement over Pursuit to Algiers, with a similar plot, but far better execution. If you haven't time to watch both, give Pursuit a miss and stick with Terror.

This Basil Rathbone-Sherlock Holmes adventure involves a bunch of suspects on a train, each looking guilty making the viewer undecided who really is the culprit who trying to steal a precious diamond, "The Star Of Rhodesia."

With all these suspects (who are fun to watch), there a number of twists every five minutes to keep us all guessing. There isn't a lot of action, but just enough to keep things lively. Once again Nigel Bruce as "Dr. Watson," provides the humor with his mumbling and bumbling aboard the train. It's always fun to see the equally-bumbling Inspector Lestrade, (Dennis Hoey) too.

What I really appreciated was the fine transfer the UCLA 35mm "restored" process team did on this disc. It looks great. Speaking of looks, there is a very attractive woman aboard, Rene Godfrey, but she must have gotten the part because of those looks because she's not much of an actress. It didn't matter; she didn't have a lot of lines. The wrap-up at the end went a little quickly but overall I have no complaints about this Holmes entry. I would watch it multiple times and always enjoy it.

This is not the best of the Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce pairings but nonetheless this is one of the most fun mystery movies to watch. Terror by Night is one of those I put on late at night to watch curled up on the sofa with a cat by my side. The rhythm of the train and the steadfast bond between Holmes, Watson and Lestrade creates one of the most relaxing murder mysteries ever put on film. The deliberate pace may not please all, but to those with a taste for it this is the mystery equivalent of a good house wine.

This Conan Doyle story has a big plus for a movie adaptation: the story takes place on a train.

Holmes has been asked to protect a famous jewel, the Star of Rhodesia, while the owner, Lady Margaret Carstairs, takes the train from London to Edinburgh. Of course Holmes cannot prevent the theft, nor is the thief (and murderer) able to get off the train. This is why train stories are among the best settings for a whodunnit: all the suspects are in their own compartments, noone can get off the train and, unlike a whodunnit in a closed room, the detective has more freedom to interrogate the suspects one by one. Of course, the whodunnits on train trips bring their own set of cliches: you can bet that someone will try and kill the detective by pushing him or her out of the train. Sadly Terror By Night isn't without those clichés and, what's worse, gives Nigel Bruce (as Holmes's sidekick Watson) too many chances to spoil the movie by cracking unfunny jokes.

Terror By Night only lasts 60 minutes, so the pace is fast enough to keep the viewer interested and the movie entertaining. The movie is in the skilled directing hands of Roy William Neill, who shot this film shortly before he died of a heart attack. Neill directed more than 100 films between 1917 and 1946, of which ten Sherlock Holmes films and movies with intriguing titles as Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man (1943) and The Good Bad Girl. Apart from helming two Holmes films (this one and Dressed To Kill) he also directed the much praised film noir Black Angel (starring Peter Lorre) in the last year he lived. At least Roy William Neill left the planet in glory, a worthy end of a man who was born on a ship off the coasts of Ireland.