Arthur Conan Doyle

About the movie A young Bengali detective in London delves into a century-old legend of a deadly hound, uncovering dark secrets and unexpected suspects in a race to solve the mystery before it claims another life.

Sherlock Holmes matches wits with his arch-nemesis Professor Moriarty, a criminal genius conspiring to make a fortune by manufacturing the next generation of wartime weaponry.

Teenagers Sherlock Holmes (Nicholas Rowe) and John Watson (Alan Cox) meet and become good friends as students at London's prestigious Brompton Academy at the height of the Victorian era. Holmes has remarkable powers of observation and prides himself on guessing people's names & where they are from just by observing them keenly. Meanwhile, a hooded figure uses a blowpipe to shoot Bentley Bobster (Patrick Newell) and Reverend Duncan Nesbitt (Donald Eccles) with hallucinogenic thorns, the effects of which lead to their deaths. Bobster has a meal at a restaurant (when he hallucinates that the bird he is eating has come alive and is attacking him). Bobster returns home and locks himself inside his first-floor room, and he jumps out of the window when he imagines the room attacking him and set itself on fire. Reverend Duncan Nesbitt was alone in church at night when he hallucinates that the knights from the tinted windows have come alive and are attacking him. Nesbitt runs out of church and is trampled by a horse carriage. Watson is introduced to Holmes' mentor, Rupert T. Waxflatter (Nigel Stock), a retired schoolmaster and inventor. Waxflatter is an eccentric retired professor to whom the school has given a large attic space for his inventions, which include a flying machine. Waxflatter had already written 27 books and is considered a genius. His machine has a bicycle pedal which flaps the wings and provides lift to the craft. Holmes finds a newspaper article circled on Waxflatter's death announcing Bobster's death. A mysterious man comes to meet Waxflatter (whom we later learn was Craigwitch). Waxflatter's niece Elizabeth (Sophie Ward) is also Holmes' close friend and love interest, and Holmes competes for her affections with fellow student Dudley (Earl Rhodes), though she shows a marked preference for Holmes. Holmes suspects foul play in the deaths of Bobster and Nesbitt (as both men graduated from the same university in 1809, and the manner of their deaths did not match their personality) but is rebuffed by Scotland Yard policeman Lestrade (Roger Ashton-Griffiths) when he suggests a connection between the deaths. Holmes is unjustly expelled from the Academy due to Dudley's machinations. During an exam, Dudley throws a note at Homles' feet and when he picks it up, the teacher spots him and accuses him of cheating. Before he leaves, Holmes has one last match with his fencing instructor Professor Rathe (Anthony Higgins) but loses after becoming distracted by a light reflected from Rathe's ring. The mysterious hooded figure strikes again, shooting Waxflatter with a hallucinogenic thorn, causing him to stab himself as he fends off imagined gargoyles. As he dies, Waxflatter's last words to Holmes are "Eh-Tar." Holmes secretly meets with Watson and Elizabeth and begins his investigation of the murders. Piecing together the clues - a jingling-bell sound made by the killer, a piece of cloth, and the blowpipe dropped at Waxflatter's murder scene - the trio uncover the existence of Rame Tep, an ancient Egyptian cult of Osiris worshipers. The cult's main weapons were blowpipes, used to shoot thorns dipped into a solution which cause the victim to experience realistic, nightmare-like hallucinations. Their investigation then leads to a paraffin warehouse of Froggit and Froggit, a Wapping-area manufacturer, where they discover a modern-day revival of the Rame Tep cult conducting their service inside a wooden-pyramid-reconstruction hidden in the warehouse. When Holmes interrupts the ceremonial sacrifice of a young girl, the three are attacked and shot with thorns by the worshipers. It is only through Holmes' endurance and the intervention of a graveyard caretaker that they're able to survive the hallucinations and their pursuers. The following evening, at Waxflatter's loft, Holmes and Watson discover a picture of the three victims and a fourth man, Chester Cragwitch (Freddie Jones). Unfortunately, Rathe and school nurse Mrs. Dribb (Susan Fleetwood) catch and separate them, preparing to expel Watson and Elizabeth in the morning. The three escape their sleeping quarters and Elizabeth returns to the loft to salvage her uncle's work. Holmes and Watson locate Mr. Cragwitch who explains that in his youth, he and the other five men were in Egypt, where they looted an underground pyramid containing the tombs of five Egyptian princesses. This was the underground pyramid of Rame Tep where they planned to build a hotel. Their find led to an angry uprising by the local populace which was violently put down by the British Army; one boy, Eh-Tar, who along with his sister lost their parents in the uprising, swore revenge. Eh-Tar vows to replace the bodies of the five princesses with the bodies of the men who desecrated the tomb. Craigwitch is then poisoned by the hooded figure's thorn and suddenly attacks Holmes but is subdued by Inspector LeStrade, who came after reconsidering the evidence presented by Holmes. As they return to campus, Holmes realizes that Rathe is Eh-Tar, but he and Watson arrive too late to stop Rathe and his sister Mrs. Dribb (Susan Fleetwood) (ostensibly the school nurse) from abducting Elizabeth. Using Waxflatter's self-propelled, heavier-than-air flying machine, they travel to the warehouse just in time to prevent Rathe from sacrificing Elizabeth, setting the cult's pyramid temple afire. As Rathe escapes with Elizabeth, Mrs Dribb is killed in a fight with Holmes. Watson successfully thwarts Rathe's escape by sabotaging his carriage. Rathe then tries to shoot Holmes, but Elizabeth intervenes and takes the shot instead. Enraged, Holmes duels Rathe and manages to get the better of him when Rathe falls through the frozen River Thames. Holmes returns to Elizabeth's side and caresses her as she dies. Afterwards, as he exchanges goodbyes with Watson, Holmes explains how he figured the identity of Rathe and Dribb, who are actually Eh-Tar and his sister, with Watson pointing out that Rathe is Eh-Tar spelled backwards - a clue that Holmes had failed to notice. Holmes transfers to another school and Watson gives him an antique pipe that he bought during the investigations as a Christmas/farewell present. As Holmes leaves by horse carriage, Watson expresses per voice-over (by his older, adult self-reminiscing) that he would long for yet more adventures at Holmes' side. Sometime later, Rathe is revealed to be alive; he checks himself into an inn as "Moriarty", making him Holmes' arch-nemesis.

Title and Credits are shown over a painting of Baskerville Hall on a hill top during a storm. A narrator tells us, "Know then the legend of the Hound of the Baskervilles. Sir Hugo a wild, profane and godless man; An evil man, in truth for there was with him a certain ugly and cruel humor that made his name a byword in the county." A drunken party is underway and a servant is tortured by Sir Hugo (David Oxley). The servant's daughter is the prize, but she has left the house. Furious, Sir Hugo sets the hounds on her trail, "The hounds: Let loose the pack!" The servant girl escapes on the estate, Sir Hugo gives chase and both hear the loud baying of a hound. The girl takes refuge in the old abbey ruins, but Sir Hugo finds her. In a fit of rage, he stabs her with a dagger. He hears the hound. It attacks and kills him. "And so, the curse of Sir Hugo came upon the Baskervilles in the shape of a hound from Hell, forever to bring misfortune to the Baskerville family. Therefore, take heed and beware the moor in those dark hours when evil is exalted else you will surely meet the hound of Hell, the hound of the Baskervilles." Dr. Mortimer (Francis De Wolff) reads this last passage to Sherlock Holmes (Peter Cushing) at his Baker street residence. Holmes is unimpressed and Dr. Mortimer is perturbed. Holmes asks the real reason for his visit. "The body of Sir Charles Baskerville discovered on Dartmoor early today," Dr. Mortimer reads from a local newspaper. Sir Charles was found by a servant, Barrymore, near the abbey ruins up on a hill not far from Baskerville Hall. The coroner's inquest ruled it heart failure. Dr. Mortimer's desire is to have Holmes investigate the matter because he thinks Sir Henry is in danger. Holmes agrees to see Sir Henry at his hotel the next day. Dr. Watson (Andre Morell) sees Dr. Mortimer out. Sir Henry Baskerville (Christopher Lee) is dressing in his hotel room. Holmes and Watson arrive, but Sir Henry mistakes them for hotel employees that have come to investigate a missing boot. Dr. Mortimer arrives amid the confusion and makes introductions. Sir Henry makes it clear he intends to occupy Baskerville Hall. Dr. Mortimer reluctantly tells Holmes the estate is worth about one million pounds. The will details bequests, including one thousand pounds for the Barrymores, and Dr. Mortimer is to receive forty thousand pounds. Holmes tells Sir Henry that, "I must impress upon you that I believe your life to be in considerable danger." Holmes also tells him that he is unable to leave London at the moment, but he will be sending Dr. Watson along to Dartmoor. Before anyone leaves, the first attempt on Sir Henry happens. A poisonous tarantula is hidden in a boot and crawls up near Sir Henry's head, but Holmes dispatches it. Sir Henry, Watson and Dr. Mortimer arrive in Dartmoor. Dr. Mortimer exits the cart for a short walk home. Before he walks away Perkins, the cart driver (Sam Kydd) suggests that Dr. Mortimer not walk alone. He tells him there has been a prison escape and a man named Selden, sentenced to life imprisonment is out on the moors. Sir Henry and Watson proceed to Baskerville Hall while Dr. Mortimer walks home. They are met at the Hall by Barrymore (John Le Mesurier). He gives the new master a tour of the house, and shows him a portrait of Sir Hugo. He tells him of the legend. Sir Henry notices a missing portrait, another of Sir Hugo. He is told it disappeared a few months ago. Watson is at the table finishing his meal. Sir Henry offers a toast, but Mrs. Barrymore (Helen Goss), visibly upset drops her glass then excuses herself. Dr. Watson asks Barrymore about the death of Sir Charles, as he found the body. Dr. Watson asks Barrymore if he believes in the legend of the hound. Barrymore tells Dr. Watson that he has heard the terrible howl. Dr. Watson is awakened in the night to the sound of a woman moaning. He investigates but finds nothing. The next morning the local Vicar, Bishop Frankland (Miles Malleson) stops to ask Sir Henry for a donation to the church. He is invited in for a glass of sherry. Sir Henry asks Mrs. Barrymore to donate an old suit to the jumble sale. Dr. Watson stops at the Grimpen Post Office to get a telegram from Holmes. It reminds Watson, "Under no circumstances allow Sir Henry to venture on the moor alone at night." Dr. Watson walks back to Baskerville Hall through the moor. He encounters Stapleton (Ewen Solon) who warns the doctor he was about to step into a trap. Stapleton also warns Watson to stick to the trail, lest he fall into the Grimpen Mire. Along the walk he encounters Cecile Stapleton (Maria Landi). Watson asks her if he is on the right path to Baskerville Hall. She bolts without answering, and Watson follows her but he falls into the mire. Stapleton rescues him, Cecile returns and helps. The Stapletons, father and daughter, return Dr. Watson to Baskerville Hall. Watson and Stapleton go into the house, and Cecile remains in the cart outside. They don't know Sir Henry is out riding his horse. Sir Henry arrives and talks to Cecile. She is very rude to Sir Henry. She runs away and when confronted, she kisses Sir Henry. That evening after everyone else has gone to bed, Sir Henry is joined by Dr. Watson. They see a light under the door of an unoccupied room. A candle burns near a window. Sir Henry notices a light out on the moor--a signal. Dr. Watson and Sir Henry investigate outside and find the source of the light. They find Selden (Michael Mulcaster), the escaped convict. They give chase and hear the hound. Sir Henry suffers a mild heart attack. Dr. Watson helps him back to the hall. Dr. Mortimer examines Sir Henry and orders bed rest. Dr. Watson wants Mortimer to stay and watch Sir Henry while he returns to the moor. Watson goes to the abbey ruins and encounters Holmes asking, "Why have you left Sir Henry alone?" Holmes tells Watson he has been in Devon for the whole time gathering information from Selden. "Selden told me all he had seen since hes been hiding." They hear the hound in the distance and run to investigate. Holmes notices Dr. Mortimer left Baskerville Hall. They hear a man scream and rush to investigate. They spot a man they believe to be Sir Henry dead. Holmes and Watson return to Baskerville Hall to get help to move the body. They see a light under the door of the signal room. Inside the room is Sir Henry reading a book. Sir Henry asks, "Who was it Holmes? Who was the poor devil that died instead of me?" Holmes deduces it was Selden, "Selden had on the suit you were wearing when we met in London." The next morning, Holmes and Watson return to the site of the death of Selden. They go to the abbey ruins and there they find blood on a stone and a dagger. Barrymore finds Selden's body, which had been moved from the night before. His body has been mutilated. "Some revolting sacrificial rite has been performed," Holmes notes. At the Hall, Holmes confronts Mrs. Barrymore and extracts the confession she was aiding her brother, Selden. She gave him food and Sir Henry's clothes and used the candle as a signal. Holmes pays a visit on the Bishop to inquire about a missing spider. Holmes knows the Bishop is regarded as the highest living authority on the study of rare spiders. He asks about the genus Theraphosa--tarantula. Bishop Frankland finally admits he is missing a tarantula and volunteers his visitor list, which included Dr. Mortimer and the Stapletons. Sir Henry stops at the Stapleton cottage. He lets himself in when no one answers his knock. Cecile appears and asks, "Why did you come here?" Stapleton is out and Cecile tells Sir Henry he is invited for dinner. She tells Sir Henry she is Spanish and her mother is dead. Her father returned to farm, but the property is no good. Sir Henry is in love with Cecile. Stapleton walks in and sees his daughter and Sir Henry being intimate. They sit and have a drink. Holmes and Watson meet with and confront Dr. Mortimer. They suspect he may have had a hand in the strange circumstances surrounding the death of Sir Charles and the attempts on Sir Henry. They ask about an old tin mine on the property. Mortimer tells Holmes that Stapleton may be more help as it is under his land. Holmes insists in seeing the mine, and insists that Dr. Mortimer accompany him. Holmes shows Mortimer the dagger that was used on Selden and the same as Sir Hugo used to kill the servant girl centuries earlier. Stapleton, Dr. Mortimer, and Holmes explore the old tin mine. Watson stays above. It is dank and water seeps through from the mire above. Holmes is looking for bones. While Stapleton and Mortimer chock the wheels of an old mining cart, Holmes explores deeper. He tells the two men, "We won't need to go any further, I've found what I came down for." They hear the hound howling. The cart runs down the rails, hits a support beam and causes a cave in, trapping Holmes. They dig for a while, but after two hours they stop. As it turns out, Holmes is waiting in the cart. He hurt his leg. Back at Baskerville Hall, Sir Henry invites Holmes and Watson to join him for dinner at the Stapletons. Holmes is very rude to Sir Henry. This is his plan--he wants Sir Henry to leave without them. The dagger is missing and Holmes has learned that Sir Hugo's hands were webbed, like Stapleton's hands. It turns out Stapleton is next in line for the Baskerville fortune. Holmes and Watson head for the abbey ruins where Sir Henry and Cecile have gone. She is leading Sir Henry to her father, the hound, and certain death. Fortunately Holmes and Watson hear Cecile's plan as she tells Sir Henry he will die. The hound appears and leaps on Sir Henry. It begins to maul him. Stapleton attacks Watson as he tries to shoot the hound. They scuffle briefly but Watson manages to shoot Stapleton. Holmes shoots the hound which turns on Stapleton. Cecile retrieves the dagger and tries to finish Sir Henry off, but Holmes intervenes. Cecile escapes. Holmes and Watson help Sir Henry to his feet and show him the dead dog. The dog was kept in the mine, starved for weeks, given the scent and turned loose. His missing boot was the scent. Cecile still running slips into the mire and is pulled under. Back in London Holmes and Watson admire a gift sent by Sir Henry. It is the missing portrait of Sir Hugo, showing his deformed hand, as a souvenir Holmes can add to his collection. Sir Henry also included a check for a very generous amount. Watson asks Holmes about what clue was the key. Holmes quips that, "the missing boot put me on the scent." We close with Holmes and Watson having tea.

Dartmoor Prison where a prisoner is making music boxes, another prisoner approaches him making a proposition to tell what he knows, distrusting the fellow, a comment is made where the man will take his chances, having less than two and a half years before his release. There is no telling who might be on the inside working for Scotland Yard. John Davidson (Cyril Delavanti), a convicted thief in Dartmoor prison embeds code revealing the hidden location of extremely valuable stolen Bank of England currency printing plates in the melody notes of three music boxes that he crafts to be sold at auction. Each box plays a subtly different version of "The Swagman". At the auction each is purchased by a different buyer. Julian Emery (Edmund Breon), William Kilgour (Harry Allen) and a woman who runs a small curio shop and comes often to the auction house to pick up Knick Knacks. After the auction is over, a man Colonel Cavanaugh (Frederick Worlock) comes, says he was delayed and pays 5 pounds just to get the info on the buyers of the musical boxes. Colonel works for Hilda Courtney (Patricia Morison). Dr. Watson's (Nigel Bruce) friend Julian Emery, a music box collector, pays him and Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) a visit and tells them of an attempted burglary in his house the previous night of a plain cheap box (similar to the one he bought at auction) while leaving other much more valuable ones. Holmes and Watson ask to see and are shown Emery's collection. Emery comments that he has a box in his collection, which he bought just the day before, which resembles the one that was stolen. After they leave, Emery welcomes a female acquaintance, Hilda Courtney, who tries unsuccessfully to buy the auctioned box. when he declines, a male friend of Courtney's Hamid (Harry Cording) who has sneaked in, murders Emery. Courtney admonishes him for entering, killing Julian, and tells him to get out. They both leave with the box in her possession. The chauffeur is named Hamid, working with the Colonel and Mrs. Courtney. The three of them are in the same vehicle as they drive off, Hilda telling the Colonel of the murder. Inspector Hopkins (Carl Harbord) is assigned to investigate Emery's murder, and he promptly calls Holmes. Holmes finds the music box missing from Emery's collection. At this murder Holmes becomes even more curious and learns to whom else the boxes were auctioned off from auctioneer Ebenezer Crabtree (Holmes Herbert). Crabtree also informs Holmes that the boxes came from Dartmoor Prison and that a man came an hour after the auction wanting the boxes, and that Crabtree gave the man the buyer's addresses. Holmes and Watson arrive at the house of the person who bought the second one, just as a strange maid (Courtney in disguise) is on her way "to go shopping". They later realize it was not a maid and instead is revealed to be Hilda in disguise. She locked a child in a closet in order to steal the box from the child. Holmes is able to buy the third box. Courtney and Hamid track the woman who runs the curio shop and find that Holmes reached to her earlier and purchased the 3rd musical box from her. Upon examination, Holmes discovers that its variant musical notes' numbers correlate to letters of the alphabet. Holmes also finds that the 3 musical boxes were made by the same man in Dartmoor prison, John Davidson, who was connected with the theft of the Bank of England currency printing plates. Scotland Yard fills him in on the stolen bank plates. The plates were stolen 2 years ago. Davidson hid the plates (for printing the 5-pound notes) before he was arrested. any leak of the plates being stolen would have resulted in devaluation of the pound, since public confidence in the currency would be shaken. Davidson never revealed the location of the plates. Holmes theorizes that the plates were not hidden properly, and hence Davidson wants his comrades to take possession of them before he is released 2 years hence. This is where the music boxes connect, but all three are needed to decode the message. Holmes deduces the tune of the boxes is the clue to the location of the plates, but exactly how to extract that information he thinks he will get closer learning more about the tune itself. He goes to an actor's pub where he finds Joe Cisto, to help him identify the song. Joe helps, now Holmes must decipher the variations of the song from the three boxes, one of which he has. Through his part of the message Holmes knows that the plates are in the possession of a Doctor whose first or last initial is "S". So, he instructs Scotland yard to question the 10,000 or so doctors in London who match this description. Back at home, the flat is found ransacked, and a cigarette with a distinct type of tobacco is the sole clue. Holmes tracks down the woman who bought the tobacco (it is a pure Egyptian blend and only 3 people in London buy it), Courtney. While confronting her, Holmes is ambushed by her accomplices, handcuffed, taken to a warehouse, hung by a rafter, and left with poison gas filling the room. While Holmes is narrowly escaping death as he had stolen the cuff keys from Colonel Cavanaugh during the transfer to the warehouse, Courtney steals the box from Watson. Watson is visited by Hilda Courtney on the rouse she is looking for Holmes's help, while she distracts Watson with a smoke bomb, she steals the box Watson inadvertently shows her by moving the biscuit jar before he went for the fire extinguisher. Holmes manages to make it back in one piece and while conversing, Watson offhandedly mentions a quote from Dr. Samuel Johnson. Thinking about this quote, Holmes makes a connection as to where the stolen plates may be hidden. Having stolen all the boxes and deciphered their message, Courtney and gang have joined a tour group at Dr. Samuel Johnson's house, now a museum, where they slipped away and found the plates hidden within a bookshelf. Courtney is stealing the plates when Holmes ambushes the group. Scotland Yard officers arrest them, and the plates are returned to the Bank.

An off-screen narrator tells of the deadly curse carried by the fabulous "Star of Rhodesia" diamond. In London, Vivian Vedder (Renee Godfrey) verifies that a carpenter has completed a coffin for her recently deceased mother's body, which she is transporting to Scotland by train. She'll be taking it on the 7 PM train to Edinburgh. She boards the train that evening, as do Lady Margaret Carstairs (Mary Forbes), who owns and is transporting the famous Star of Rhodesia diamond. Star of Rhodesia, which she has owned for many years, was the object of an attempted theft when Lady Margaret wore it at a royal function. Holmes is certain the thieves will try again. Also travelling on the train are Lady Margaret's son, Roland, Sherlock Holmes, whom Roland has hired to protect the diamond, Inspector Lestrade (Dennis Hoey), who is also worried about the diamond's safety and Dr. Watson and Watson's friend Major Duncan-Bleek (Alan Mowbray). Holmes briefly examines the diamond. Carstairs brings Holmes to his compartment, where his mother is skeptical about the aid of a "policeman", but she lets Holmes examine the Star. While Holmes, Watson, Duncan-Bleek, and Lady Margaret are in the dining car, Carstairs falls onto the floor of his compartment. Lestrade hears the thud, but finds the door to the Carstairs compartment locked. Holmes arrives and has the attendant (Billy Bevan) open it. They find Carstairs dead and the box that had contained the Star empty. The body shows no wounds aside from a tiny spot of blood, but Holmes declares it's murder, since a thief arriving right after Carstairs died of natural causes is too improbable. Lestrade, Holmes, and Watson learn nothing conclusive in questioning the other passengers. Watson gets nowhere at all in his attempt with cranky William Kilbane (Frederick Worlock), a professor of mathematics. However, when he questions Alfred Shallcross (Gerald Hamer), he gets an immediate confession. At one point during the investigation, Watson believes an elderly couple is guilty of the crime but the only crime that they have committed is stealing a teapot from a hotel. While searching the train, Holmes is pushed out of the train, nearly to his death, but climbs back into the day coach and discovers a secret compartment in the coffin carrying Miss Vedder's mother. It has the remains of an elderly woman in the top part, but also a false bottom that could have hidden the murderer. He suspects that one of the people on the train is the notorious jewel thief Colonel Sebastian Moran. Upon further questioning, Miss Vedder admits that a man paid her to transport the coffin. Holmes asks if her employer was Duncan-Bleek, but she says she never saw him before. Watson is shocked that Holmes would subject his old friend to that kind of suspicion. As Watson and Duncan-Bleek join the group, Holmes reveals that he swapped the diamond with an imitation while examining it. Lestrade ostensibly takes possession of the real diamond. In the luggage compartment, Holmes and Watson find a train guard murdered with a poisoned dart. He also has a tiny spot of blood, but this time they find the tiny gelatin dart that delivered poison. Unlike the case of Carstairs, there hadn't been enough time for it to dissolve in the wound. Meanwhile, a street criminal named Sands (Skelton Knaggs) incapacitates the conductor. Sands was hidden inside the coffin, and is in cahoots with Duncan-Bleek, who is, in fact, Colonel Moran. He reports how he dealt with the guard and the attendant, and turns the diamond he stole over to the Major, who knows it's the fake planted by Holmes. Sands and Moran go to Lestrade's room, where Sands knocks Lestrade unconscious and steals the diamond from him. But Moran double-crosses Sands, shooting him dead with the same dart gun he used to kill Roland and the guard. The train makes an unexpected stop to pick up several Scottish policemen, led allegedly by Inspector McDonald. MacDonald, claiming jurisdiction because he's from the Edinburgh police, has them all move to the dining room to conduct his investigation. Holmes informs McDonald that Duncan-Bleek is really Moran, and McDonald arrests Moran and finds the diamond in his vest, but Moran seizes a policeman's gun and pulls the emergency cord to stop the train. During a scuffle in which the lights are turned off, Holmes subdues and handcuffs Moran, then secretly hides him under a table. MacDonald takes the prisoner off the train, which starts off for Edinburgh. Holmes points out to Watson that Moran lies unconscious on the floor. As he revives, he's startled not to find himself in the company of MacDonald, who was actually his accomplice. However, Holmes realized that (mainly because he knew the real MacDonald), and the man the fake police took off the train was Lestrade. Meanwhile, Lestrade has untangled himself, pulled a gun on his supposed captors, and arrested them. Moran wants to take solace in the fact that Holmes doesn't have the Star, but of course the detective has pulled yet another switch, and reveals the real diamond.

When several women are murdered and their forefingers severed, Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Watson (Nigel Bruce) are called into action, but Holmes is baffled by the crimes at the start. Four women murdered in various parts of London, each woman from a different walk of life in a different area of the city and each with the right fore finger surgically removed. Holmes examines the body of the fourth victim in the morgue with Inspector Gregson. Holmes notes the only clue so far is the manner in which the fingers were surgically removed, meticulous and cleanly. They retire to Pembroke House for a drink. At the bar of Pembroke House discussing the murders with Gregson, Sir George Fenwick and Sherlock Holmes acknowledge one another, each with a nod. Holmes notices the woman with Sir George, a beautiful blond woman, as they leave the establishment, headed for her house, for a nightcap. The woman is named Lydia, her servant is Crandon. Widower Sir George Fenwick (Paul Cavanagh), after a romantic night alone with his girlfriend Lydia Marlowe (Hillary Brooke), is hypnotized into believing that he is responsible for the crimes. George leaves the hotel, goes straight to Lydia's, there were ten hours he cannot account, there he encounters a man describing his moves the prior night, putting something in his pocket, Sir George sits on a couch dumbfounded at the man's precise accounting of his moves the prior evening. The man is Moriarity. He is certain that he is guilty after he awakes from a stupor and finds a woman's forefinger in his pocket. His daughter Maude (Eve Amber) comes to Holmes and Watson without realizing that Moriarty's henchman is following her. She tells Holmes and Watson that she found her father burying a forefinger under a pile of soil. She has dug up the forefinger and shows it to them. Fenwick is then found dead, obviously murdered by someone to keep him from talking. Holmes theorizes that Moriarty (Henry Daniell), who was supposed to have been hanged in Montevideo, is alive and responsible for the crimes. Holmes sees George's right hand clenched, indicating he wanted to inform others of the item in his hand, a matchbook from Pembroke House. Holmes is certain Sir George wanted to alert someone of the person or persons seeing him at Pembroke House the prior evening. Holmes receives a notice from Sir George's bank of the closure of an account of 10,000 pounds indicating a blackmail payoff. Sir George emptied his bank account before he was killed and was likely to pay blackmail to some individual. He was shot before he could divulge the plot around the murders, the method of the criminals, and those involved in the crime. Watson is then called to help a woman who fell over while feeding her pet bird. He leaves, and minutes later, Moriarty appears and explains that he faked the phone call so he could talk to Holmes. He then leans one of the chairs back, obviously signaling someone. Holmes sees an open window in an empty house. When Moriarty leaves, Watson arrives. Holmes explains what Moriarty did, notices that a window shade that was shut in the empty house is now open and tells Watson to investigate. Inside the empty house Watson, looking through the window, believes that he sees a sniper shoot Holmes in his apartment. Holmes then appears at the house and explains that he put a bust of Julius Caesar there because of the bust's resemblance to his own face. Holmes realized that as soon as he sat there, Moriarty would have him killed. The two discover a hypnotized discharged army officer shot at the decoy. Seeing the ex-officer in the state he was after the attempted killing, and have him state emphatically "she" ordered him to shoot, Holmes now knows it was hypnotism behind the finger murders. Inspector Gregson (Matthew Boulton) takes the sniper, a hypnotized ex-soldier, away, but the sniper is later killed on Holmes's doorstep. Holmes now realizes that Moriarty's plan involves: 1) killing women and cutting off their forefingers, 2) making rich, single men believe they have committed the crime, 3) using this fake information to blackmail them, and 4) counting on the victims being too terrified to expose the scheme. Holmes explains how the scheme works where the severed finger is placed on the person to be blackmailed, waking the person is told of things occurring to him while he was under hypnosis, and not knowing he was under hypnosis, pays the blackmailer. The person blackmailed thinks he may have committed the actual crime during some actual lapse in sanity. With hypnosis behind these crimes, Holmes and Watson are anxious to pursue Holmes suspicions which lead to the hypnotist, and inevitably, to the criminals. Moriarity enters Lydia's house, encounters the doctor performing the finger removals, goes to Lydia, informing her Holmes and Watson have just left for Mesmer Club, the hypnotists meeting place, for a demonstration. He insists Holmes' insatiable curiosity will get him to follow Lydia back to her house for his final meeting. Dr. Watson is subject to hypnosis at the direction the host Onslow, who proceeds to prove to the audience hypnotism works. As Watson returns to his chair, newly educated on the subject, Lydia enters Mesmer Club, and sees the hypnotist performance and Holmes sees her. They agree Dr. Onslow's demonstration was not a serious display where she accepts Holmes' invitation for a drink at Pembroke House. He discusses a case he is working on that has him baffled. Holmes befriends Lydia (Hillary Brooke), whom he had seen with Sir George at a restaurant, suspecting that is she in cahoots with Moriarty. She takes him to her house, where he is apparently hypnotized. Moriarty enters and has one of his men cut Holmes with a knife to verify that he is hypnotized. He then tells Holmes to write a suicide note (which he does), walk out of Lydia's apartment onto the ledge, and jump to his death. Watson and the police then appear and grab the criminals. Holmes then reveals he was never really hypnotized, but secretly ingested a drug to make him appear as if he had been hypnotized and also insensitive to pain. Moriarty then escapes from the hold of a policeman and jumps from the top of Lydia's house to another building. However, he hangs onto a pipe which becomes loose from the building, causing him to fall to his death. This is the third Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes film in which Moriarty dies. In all three films, he falls to his death. He is always presumed dead until he turns up in the next film.

After a valuable pearl with a sinister reputation is stolen, Sherlock Holmes must investigate its link to a series of brutal murders. After a pearl with a sinister reputation for causing misfortune to its owners is stolen from a museum by a master criminal - because of Sherlock Holmes' show-boating - he is naturally obliged to find it. Soon, he learns of a series of brutal murders that seemed to have been committed by a malevolent man mountain known only as the Creeper. Now, Holmes must deal with the seemingly overwhelming menace of this man and his boss in order to retrieve the pearl. —Kenneth Chisholm <kchishol@execulink.com> After recovering the famous Borgia pearl from shipboard thieves, Sherlock Holmes is held responsible for its theft. While visiting the museum where it goes on display, Holmes shows the curator how easily it could be stolen by simply cutting the electrical wires. During that demonstration, Giles Conover, a well-known thief, snatches the pearl and runs off. He's soon caught but the pearl is nowhere to be found. Soon after, homes are being broken into with the occupants having their backs broken. There also seems to be a large amount of china broken in the process. After several such break-ins, Holmes realizes that several similar pieces of porcelain, all of a bust of Napoleon, are found at each house. Realizing its significance, he sets a trap for the thief. —garykmcd

Sherlock Holmes investigates a series of so-called "pajama suicides". He knows the female villain behind them is as cunning as Moriarty and as venomous as a spider. Sherlock Holmes takes on a case that the press has dubbed the pajama suicides. Eminent men are going to bed in the safety of their own homes, with everything seemingly being normal, only to commit suicide in the night. Holmes fakes his own death in the hopes of giving him a freer hand in the investigation and is convinced that a woman, a female Moriarty as he describes her, is behind the deaths. The dead men were all eminent and very wealthy. He impersonates a wealthy retired Indian military officer in the hope of drawing out the woman and he soon meets Adrea Spedding but she quickly sees through his disguise and proves herself to be the challenge Holmes predicted she would be. She is a worthy adversary and soon traps him setting him up in a carnival shooting gallery that seems to assure his death. —garykmcd Alarmed by a series of baffling suicides of prominent gamblers popularly dubbed "The Pyjama Murders" by the newspapers, Holmes fakes his own death and assumes the identity of Rajni Singh, a retired Indian military man with a paralyzed arm. After losing a large sum in a casino and writing a bad check to cover his losses, he appears to try to take his own life. He is prevented by the mysterious and sophisticated Adrea Spedding with an offer of a loan with his life insurance policy as collateral. Shortly thereafter, there is an attempt on his life with a rare but deadly spider with the only other clue a child's footprint. A resurfaced Holmes consults experts on spiders in an effort to solve the mystery. —Gabe Taverney (duke1029@aol.com)

Dr. Watson () is staying at Musgrave Manor to assist with several ex-soldiers suffering from different battle psychoses who are rooming there. When the owner of the manor Dr. Sexton () is attacked and wounded by an unknown assailant, Watson summons Sherlock Holmes () to the house to detect who the culprit is, and as soon as they arrive another dead body turns up. As Holmes and Watson uncover more clues Sally Musgrave () is required by family tradition to recite the Musgrave Verse for a ritual performed at a funeral. Believing that the clue to the identity of the murderer is located in the Musgrave Verse, Holmes finds language referring to Chess among the rhyming lines and pulls together the inhabitants of Musgrave Manor to determine what the secret of Musgrave Manor is and what it means to the murderer. When another dead body is discovered in a cavern deep beneath the main floor of the house Holmes makes a bold move to draw the killer out into the open and defeat him.

At a cafe in Switzerland, two Gestapo agents plot with a man disguised as an old bookseller to abduct Dr. Franz Tobel (William Post Jr.), the inventor of a new bomb sight. However, the bookseller is really Holmes (Basil Rathbone), who sends the Nazis after decoys while he and Tobel drive to a rendezvous with an RAF plane that takes them to London. They go to 221B Baker Street, where Watson (Nigel Bruce) pulls a gun on them, but Mrs. Hudson (Mary Gordon) recognizes Holmes's voice. Holmes leaves to make arrangements with government representative Sir Reginald Bailey (Holmes Herbert), and Tobel sneaks out while Watson is asleep. He goes to see his sweetheart, Charlotte Eberli (Karen Verne), and gives her a message which, if anything happens to him, she's to give to Holmes. The message is in a version of the stick-figure code from the Holmes story "The Adventure of the Dancing Men". On his way back from Charlotte's, Tobel is struck on the head, but a policeman rescues him. Back at 221B, Holmes deduces that Tobel has been with a girl, and even describes her based on clues left on Tobel's clothing. The next day, a test of Tobel's bomb sight is a huge success. Tobel will supply it to the RAF, but insists that he will arrange all production, so no one besides himself will know the secret of the invention. The authorities reluctantly agree not to interfere, and will rely on Holmes to protect Tobel unofficially. Tobel brings a gift-wrapped package to fellow scientist Prof. Frederic Hoffner (Henry Victor). It's the prototype of the part of the bomb sight he'll be producing. Three other scientists will produce the other parts, all unknown to anyone other than Tobel. Soon, Scotland Yard reports that Tobel is missing. Holmes tracks down his secret office, but all they find there is some gift wrapping and the scent of an expensive perfume. Holmes deduces that Tobel called his lady love from 221B that first night and has the call traced. When Holmes visits her, Charlotte hands him the envelope Tobel left, but now it only contains a note - "We meet again, Mr. Holmes." It must have been switched by the "electrician" who came to Charlotte's apartment. From her description, Holmes realizes that he's up against Prof. Moriarty (Lionel Atwill). Holmes disguises himself as a thug formerly in Moriarty's employ and roams Soho until an old sailor leads him to one of Moriarty's places of business. The master criminal won't back down from his plans of treason, and has Holmes put in the false bottom of a sea chest, so he can be dumped in the ocean. Meanwhile a "beggar" (Michael Mark) who followed Holmes to Moriarty's place reports back to Watson and Inspector Lestrade (Dennis Hoey). They see Moriarty's two henchmen carrying away the sea chest. Amazingly, Lestrade figures out the false bottom trick and rescues Holmes. Back at Charlotte's, he takes the sheet of paper that was underneath the one on which Tobel wrote his coded message and finds away to reveal the message from it. Watson recognizes the substitution cypher from the earlier case, but it takes Holmes to figure out the variation that Tobel used. Decoded, the message gives the names and addresses of 3 of the 4 scientists (which is enough for Holmes to deduce Tobel's entire scheme). The final name is gibberish - obviously coded differently. Moriarty has had the message longer, and has already murdered the first three scientists and taken the prototypes of their components. The final name has him stumped - as he's busy trying unsuccessfully to torture it out of Tobel. Holmes realizes that the final name and address, of Prof. Hoffner, were coded in mirror image. Not long after, Moriarty comes to the same realization, and sends men to grab Hoffner (who will be more useful alive than the others) and the final component. When the thugs return, Moriarty opens the package, only to find a note - "We meet again, Professor." Of course, the captured scientist is really Holmes in disguise. Unknown to Moriarty and his men, while they were grabbing the fake professor, the real one went to their car and attached a device that would drip luminous paint on the street. Although they are delayed by a false trail at one point, Watson and the police are able to track Holmes to Moriarty's supposedly impregnable hideout. Meanwhile, Moriarty is open about his intention to murder Holmes, but the latter mocks his lack of originality in means of death. If their positions were reversed, he says, he'd put a needle in Moriarty and start slowly removing his blood, so Moriarty would die by inches, fully conscious the entire time. "The needle to the last, eh Holmes?" says Moriarty, but of course he can't resist inflicting this very form of death on the detective. This elaborate process gives Lestrade and Watson time to arrive and rescue Holmes. Nearby, a gunfight breaks out when police attempt to rescue Tobel, and Moriarty escapes in the confusion. Holmes, though weakened, has anticipated Moriarty and has a gun on him. However, Moriarty runs through his special escape tunnel, complete with a trap door that will send anyone following Moriarty plunging sixty feet into the sewers below. As soon as he disappears, we hear a long scream and a splash. Unfortunately for Moriarty, Holmes had found the trap door and left it open. In an epilog, Holmes and his companions watch RAF bombers on their way to Germany, equipped with the new bomb sight. Charlotte is now Mrs. Tobel. Holmes waxes Shakespearean, quoting from John of Gaunt's "Sceptred Isle" speech in Richard II.

For months, London has been subjected to a German radio broadcast, "The Voice of Terror", announcing acts of sabotage. Sir Evan Barham, of the British Intelligence Inner Council, calls in the famous detective Sherlock Holmes and his partner, Dr. Watson. That same evening, Gavin, one of Holmes' agents, arrives at the detective's home, mortally wounded by a German dagger in the back. Before dying, however, he utters the word "Christopher". Holmes and Watson meet Gavin's wife, Kitty. Learning that her husband has been killed by Nazi spies, she convinces her friends to search the whole of London for the meaning of "Christopher". Holmes and Watson go to Christopher's old docks, but are captured by a group of Nazi spies led by a man named Meade. They are rescued by Kitty's friends, but Meade manages to escape. Holmes tells Watson that he believes there is a spy in the Council. Kitty, who has managed to integrate Meade's gang, tells them that Meade intends to go to Sir Evan's estate that night. As Meade hides in the darkness, Holmes and Sir Evan see a German plane attempting to land, but shots fired by Sir Evan disrupt the rendezvous. Later, "The Voice of Terror" announces a German air attack on the northeast coast of England. Sir Evan insists that British defenses be moved to this area, but Holmes warns the Council that this is a bluff, as the "Voice" always broadcasts at the same time as a German attack, not before. As a Holmes sidekick follows Meade and Kitty's trail to the south coast of England, Holmes forces the Council to go with him. With the support of British soldiers, Holmes captures Meade and a group of German soldiers stationed in an abandoned church. Holmes then announces that Sir Evan is "The Voice of Terror", and that he is in fact a German spy named Heinrich von Bork who has been posing as Sir Evan for twenty years, the real Sir Evan having been executed while a prisoner during the First World War. Holmes then informs the spies that the German invasion force has been destroyed. Meade fires a shot and mortally wounds Kitty, but is killed trying to escape. The British, standing around the murdered Kitty, vow that her death will not be in vain.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson investigate the legend of a supernatural hound, a beast that may be stalking a young heir on the fog-shrouded moorland that makes up his estate.