Basil Rathbone

In 2020, after the colonization of the moon, the spaceships Vega, Sirius and Capella are launched from Lunar Station 7. They are to explore Venus under the command of Professor Hartman, but an asteroid collides and explodes Capella. In 2020, after the colonization of the moon, the spaceships Vega, Sirius and Capella are launched from Lunar Station 7. They are to explore Venus under the command of Professor Hartman, but an asteroid collides and explodes Capella. The leader ship Vega stays orbiting and sends the astronauts Kern and Sherman with the robot John to the surface of Venus, but they have problems with communication with Dr. Marsha Evans in Vega. The Sirius lands in Venus and Commander Brendan Lockhart, Andre Ferneau and Hans Walter explore the planet and are attacked by prehistoric animals. They use a vehicle to seek Kern and Sherman while collecting samples from the planet. Meanwhile John helps the two cosmonauts to survive in the hostile land. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil In the year 2020, cosmonaut Marcia (Faith Domergue) orbits the planet Venus while five astronauts and a robot journey on the surface. Professor Hartman (Basil Rathbone) is also on hand to observe the exploration from a distance. The explorers are attacked by prehistoric beasts, and then lose their robot (and nearly their lives!) in a volcanic eruption. They discover signs of a lost civilization and an artifact indicating that the Venusians had looked human. But what of the strange singing sound they often have heard during their exploration? Do the anthropomorphic Venusians still exist? —Paul White <pwhite@bigfoot.com> and Derek Currie

Three tales of terror involve a grieving widower and the daughter he abandoned; a drunkard and his wife's black cat; and a hypnotist who prolongs the moment of a man's death. Three stories adapted from the work of Edgar Allen Poe. A man and his daughter are reunited, but the blame for the death of his wife hangs over them, unresolved. A derelict challenges the local wine-tasting champion to a competition, but finds the man's attention to his wife worthy of more dramatic action. A man dying and in great pain agrees to be hypnotized at the moment of death, with unexpected consequences. —David Carroll <davidc@atom.ansto.gov.au> "Tales of Terror" presents three adaptations of good stories by Edgar Allan Poe directed by Roger Corman. (1) "Morella": The twenty and something years old Lenora returns to the derelict house of her estranged father Locke. Her mother Morella died after giving birth to Lenora and Locke still grieves and blames Lenora for the death of his beloved wife. Lenora finds the corpse of Morella on her bed and Locke tells that he could not leave her in a coffin six feet under. Locke tries to make amends for abandoning Lenora but something supernatural happens. (2) "The Black Cat": The drunkard Montresor is an abusive man that spends the money that his wife Annabel earns working drinking wine in a tavern. He also mistreats her black cat. One day, Montresor meets the connoisseur of fine wines Fortunato Luchresi and he disputes his knowledge with him. Fortunato brings Montresor home and woos Annabel. When Montresor discovers that his wife is having a love affair with Fortunato, he plots an evil scheme to seek revenge. (3) "The Case of M. Valdemar": The wealthy Ernest Valdemar is terminal feeling great pain. He hires the hypnotizer Carmichael to relief his pain and asks his beloved wife Helene and his Dr. James to get married to each other after his death. However Carmichael controls his mind and Valdemar dies but his soul stays trapped in his body. Carmichael tells Helene that he let Valdemar go only if she marries him but his attitude brings tragic consequences. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Frank Skeffington is an old Irish-American political boss, running for re-election as mayor of a U.S. town for the last time. In a New England town, aging Frank Skeffington, descended from poor Irish immigrants, is conducting his fifth and last political campaign for Mayor - he thus far being undefeated - before he serves his last term leading into retirement from politics, he surrounded by his longtime campaign team. Despite his success rate largely from support of the Irish immigrant population in seeing one of their own doing good, Frank does have his detractors, not only the blue bloods of the town, but those that see him operating under an old boys network of doing favors for friends and every one of his actions having a self-serving political motivation. And there are others, including Frank's son, Frank Skeffington, Jr., who couldn't care less about politics, Jr. absorbed with his own fun-loving existence. A microcosm of the political division can be seen by the Caulfield household: non-political Adam Caulfield, a sportswriter for the Morning News newspaper and Frank's nephew, supports his uncle in liking him both as a man and uncle, while Adam's wife, Maeve Caulfield, has the same impression of Frank as her wealthy father, Roger Sugrue, who grew up in the same working class neighborhood as Frank and who sees Frank working on graft. Adam's boss, the Morning News Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Amos Force, has always opposed Frank, and mounts a concerted campaign for those in the anti-Frank camp to rally around his strongest opponent, political neophyte Kevin McCluskey, despite McCluskey's inexperience showing at every turn. As he can see the times changing in terms of the way political campaigns are run and covered with the onset of more electronic media such as television and radio playing a bigger part, Frank brings in Adam as an observer journalist of his campaign to witness the changing times, what Frank sees as his last hurrah before his means of operation to win elections will no longer suffice. —Huggo An aging politician tries to get re-elected one last time in the changing world of the 1950s when TV started to play a bigger part in politics. Based loosely on the career of multi-term Boston Mayor James Michael Curley, this film examines the good and evil inherent in politics and all the things that go into an election. Tracy's uphill battle to stay in office is set against the political machinery that preyed on ethnic hatred and old-time money. —Ed Lorusso

During the main titles, Danny Kaye, dressed as a jester, sings the clever song, Life Could Not Better Be, with lyrics that are apropos to the actors or technicians who are being introduced. A narrator introduces the film while the audience sees a cadre of horsemen riding along the English coastline: "This is the story of how the destiny of a nation was changed by a birthmark, a royal birthmark, on the royal posterior of a royal infant child." Roderick the Tyrant had killed all of the royal family except for a baby boy who survived and has been cared for by a group in the forest. This band of loyalists to the throne is lead by a Robin Hood-type outlaw, the Black Fox (Edward Ashley). The scene changes to the castle where King Roderick (Cecil Parker) is considering an alliance with Griswold of McElwaine in which the King would offer his daughter, Gwendolyn (Angela Lansbury), as Griswold's bride. Gwendolyn is completely opposed to this arrangement. Back in the forest, the audience is led to believe the Black Fox is singing "(You'll Never) Outfox the Fox." He is assisted by a band of midgets, all in Black Fox outfits. However, soon the real Black Fox arrives and we learn that the person who was impersonating the Black Fox is Hubert Hawkins (Danny Kaye), a former carnival entertainer, and the midgets are his pals from the carnival. When the Black Fox reprimands Hawkins for wearing his clothes, he responds that he is only trying to improve the morale of the troops. Maid Jean (Glynis Johns), who is a Captain in the Black Fox's band of outlaws, enters to announce that a group of recruits is arriving. The Black Fox orders Hawkins to get the child - the royal child. Hawkins retrieves the infant and holds the baby on his shoulder to reveal the royal birthmark - the purple pimpernel - for the recruits to see so they will know the Black Fox and his gang are fighting to restore the rightful heir to the throne. The Black Fox orders Hawkins and the Captain to transport the baby to the Abbey in Dover for safekeeping. Hawkins disguises himself as an old man, while Jean transforms from the Captain into a lovely young maiden. They conceal the baby in a fake wine cask. When the King's men stop them on the road, Hawkins claims he is Foutzingdale, the wine merchant, and Jean is his granddaughter. After safely eluding the King's forces, a thunderstorm forces Hawkins and Jean to spend the night in a woodman's hut. Hawkins sings "Baby, Let Me Take You Dreaming," as a lullaby for the baby. Since there is only one straw bed, Hawkins and Captain Jean share it. Hawkins has always been attracted to Jean and she now warms to him. They kiss, but Jean resists. She says, "We daren't think of ourselves until our fight is won." Jean reveals to Hawkins the existence of a secret tunnel leading from the forest to the castle. The problem is it is locked at both ends and the key is in the King's possession. However, if they could get someone inside the castle that could access the King's chambers and retrieve the key, it could be opened so the Black Fox's forces could launch a surprise attack against King Roderick. Suddenly, their planning is interrupted by a stranger entering the hut seeking shelter. He introduces himself as Giacomo (David Carradine; Giacomo is pronounced "Jockamo"), "King of Jesters and Jester of Kings." He is headed for King Roderick's court to become his jester. Jean knocks out Giacomo so Hawkins can become the jester. The wicked Sir Ravenhurst (Basil Rathbone) has hired Giacomo as jester because he is also an assassin. So Hawkins assumes the identity of Giacomo and heads for the castle, while Jean and the infant king continue their journey to the Abbey. However, Giacomo's wagon loses a wheel, so he is delayed on the road and Jean runs afoul of the King's men who are scouring the countryside for the fairest wenches in the land. Therefore, Jean and the wine cart with the precious baby hidden inside arrive at the castle before the new Giacomo has finished repairing his cart. Once at the castle, Jean whistles a secret signal. A blacksmith responds to the signal and takes the child to safety. When Giacomo finally arrives, he sings "My Heart Knows a Lovely Song," which includes the whistle signal. When Giacomo hears the signal returned, he thinks it came from Lord Ravenhurst. Meanwhile, Princess Gwendolyn is fretting to the witch, Griselda (Mildred Natwick), about being forced to marry Griswold. Griselda reassures her that she is destined to wed someone else. When Griselda witnesses the arrival of Giacomo, she tells Gwendolyn he is her intended. Ravenhurst introduces Giacomo to the King. Their conversation about the Italian court is a classic Danny Kaye tongue-twister that ends with, "Yes! The Duchess dove at the Duke just when the Duke dove at the Doge. Now the Duke ducked, the Doge dodged, and the Duchess didn't. So the Duke got the Duchess, the Duchess got the Doge, and the Doge got the Duke!" The King is on his way to select a wench from those who have been recently rounded up by his men. Ravenhurst convinces the King to allow Giacomo to make the appropriate selection. During all of this, the blacksmith is desperately trying to identify himself to Hawkins as his contact. Shortly after Giacomo is shown to his room, the blacksmith comes there, but is interrupted by the arrival of Griselda. Using her evil eye, she hypnotizes Giacomo. He can be brought in and out of this trance by the snap of a finger. She sends him to make love to the Princess. The blacksmith, who has been hiding behind a curtain, has overheard everything. Meanwhile, Jean has made her way to the King's chamber and has found the key to the secret tunnel. As she is leaving, she runs into Giacomo, who is under Griselda's spell. Jean, unaware of the trance, gives the key to Giacomo. When the King arrives, he thinks Jean is Giacomo's choice from the wenches and immediately takes a fancy to her. Giacomo continues to the Princess' chamber. Gwendolyn discovers the key and assumes he has secured it for their escape from the castle. She keeps the key and gives him her silk handkerchief. In several instances, finger snaps bring Giacomo in and out of the trance with comic results. When he leaves Gwendolyn, Giacomo goes to Ravenhurst's chamber, where again finger snaps cause hilarious results. At one instant he is Ravenhurst's assassin-for-hire, at another he is in Griselda's trance as the super confident romancer, and at another he is Hawkins, the scared former carnival performer. When he leaves Ravenhurst, he returns to his room where Griselda puts him to sleep. Meanwhile, Jean is being dressed by ladies-in-waiting for her presentation to the King. She sends the attendants away when she hears the whistle signal from the blacksmith. She tells him to take the baby to the jester. Once Giacomo awakens, he is the jester again. When he arrives at the King's banquet room, he sees Jean seated next to the King. During this sequence, there is great deal of confusion: the blacksmith delivers the baby to Giacomo in a basket, Ravenhurst confuses Giacomo by talking about Plan 1 and Plan 2 in the assassination attempt, and Gwendolyn tells him to meet her at midnight at the north gate. When he finally realizes that the infant king is in the basket, he diverts everyone's attention away from the basket by singing "The Maladjusted Jester." During his performance, Griselda puts poison pellets in three flagons. Just as Jean retrieves the basket and is stopped by some guards, Giacomo proposes a toast to the King. As the guards turn to participate in the toast, Jean gets away. Sirs Brockhurst, Finsdale and Pertwee fall over dead when they drink from the poisoned flagons. Ravenhurst is very impressed by Giacomo's tactics. A page announces the arrival of Sir Griswold (Robert Middleton) at the castle. Jean hands the baby off to the blacksmith again. Griswold enters and accepts the terms of the alliance, but Gwendolyn tells her father she loves someone else and refuses to marry Griswold. She has presented her loved one with her silk handkerchief. Giacomo is arrested and they find Gwendolyn's silk handkerchief stuffed in his blouse. The King throws Giacomo, or whoever he is, in jail. When Ravenhurst learns that Giacomo is an impostor, he suspects he is the Black Fox. He recommends the King knight the jester so he can legitimately joust Sir Griswold. The winner, which should be Griswold, would marry Gwendolyn. The King quickly agrees. It usually takes years to attain knighthood, but Giacomo is rushed through the tests with comic ease. Jean approaches the King in his chamber while his dressers are grooming him. She gets him to dismiss his attendants and while she combs his hair, she retreives the key to the secret tunnel. The King also reveals to her the plans to knight the jester so he can be killed in the fight with Griswold. As soon as she gets away from the King, Jean gives the key to the blacksmith to get it to the Black Fox so he can attack. Just before the knighting ceremony, Jean warns Giacomo/Hawkins about the plot and urges him to run. He doesn't get away, however, and the ceremony begins. It is speeded up with hilarious results to allow the tournament to commence before it can be delayed by a storm that is brewing. Immediately upon being knighted, Hawkins is challenged to a duel to the death by Griswold. Gwendolyn expects Giacomo to be killed, so she warns the witch that if he dies, she dies. Therefore, Griselda puts poisonous pellets in the vessel with the pestle. One of Griswold's men overhears the plot and informs his master. In a scene full of tongue-twisting confusion, the "Vessel with the Pestle (or The Pellet with the Poison)" routine begins. Lightning hits Giacomo's suit of armor making it magnetic. During the hilarious joust, Griswold's weapon sticks to Hawkins' shield, so Hawkins pulls him off his horse and wins the joust. When he is proclaimed the winner, Ravenhurst accuses him of being the Black Fox and Jean as being his accomplice. They are arrested and taken to the castle for judgement. In the forest, the Black Fox and his men prepare to sneak inside the castle, but the secret passage collapses. The Black Fox immediately summons Hawkins' midget friends to infiltrate the castle first. As Hawkins and Jean stand trial, the midgets attack. Jean runs to raise the drawbridge so the Black Fox and his men can attack. Hawkins engages Ravenhurst in a sword fight. Griselda hypnotizes him again into believing he is a great swordsman. In the hilarious scene that follows, finger snaps cause him to alternate between a cowardly carnival performer and a master swordsman. Eventually, with the help of Jean, Hawkins bests Ravenhurst. Once the usurpers of the throne are defeated by the Black Fox and the army of midgets, the rightful King is revealed by the distinctive birthmark - the purple pimpernel. Hawkins embraces Jean and sings a reprise of "Life Could Not Better Be." As the film ends, Gwendolyn and Griswold can be seen in the crowd holding hands.

In Paris, a young woman runs away from a reform school, joins a pickpocket academy, and finds herself falling for the handsome diplomat she's been blackmailed into stealing from. A young female escapee from a reform school joins a pickpocket academy in Paris. She is caught red-handed on her first attempt at stealing by an upper class man. He recruits her to do him a favor at a society party where she meets and falls in love with a young, handsome, rich diplomat. Whether or not she can land him is another story. —Gary Jackson <garyjack5@cogeco.ca>

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 gentlewoman is found dead with her throat torn out, the villagers blame a supernatural monster. But Sherlock Holmes, who gets drawn into the case from nearby Quebec, suspects a human murderer. While attending a conference in Quebec City, Sherlock Holmes and his good friend, Dr. Watson, are drawn into a murder investigation in the nearby village of La Mort Rouge. Holmes had received a letter from Lady Penrose asking for his assistance as she feared for her life. It was too late, however, as she had already been killed by the time he received it. Her throat was torn out and the local villagers are spreading rumors about monsters and evil spirits as being the cause. Holmes doesn't believe any of that and sets out to find the killer. He believes that Lady Penrose's past as an actress may have something to with her death. As others in the village are attacked, Holmes believes the killer is among them, impersonating a local villager as he goes about his business. —garykmcd A village in Canada has an old legend about a phantom that years ago killed three villagers. Many residents are afraid that the monster has come back because some of them have seen strange luminous shapes and some sheep were found with their throats slashed. Their worst fears seem to be confirmed when Lady Penrose is found killed in the same way. Meanwhile, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are in Quebec attending a meeting of the Royal Canadian Occult Society where they are involved in a sharp debate with Lord Penrose about his village's legend. Not long after Lord Penrose receives word of his wife's death, Holmes receives a letter that the dead woman had written before she died, begging for his help and protection. When Holmes goes to the village to investigate, he finds himself hunting a determined murderer who is also a master of disguise. —Snow Leopard

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.

The master sleuth hunts his archenemy, Professor Moriarty, who is planning the crime of the century. When Sherlock Holmes arrives in court moments too late to give evidence against Professor Moriarty, the professor is acquitted. Soon afterward, he develops a scheme for stealing the crown jewels from the Tower of London. In order to get Holmes involved, he persuades a gaucho flute player to murder a girl. —Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>

The movie opens with the Universal Pictures globe and star logo and theme song; Title and credits follow. The scene opens with a view of the small village of Frankenstein and the castle high on a hill in the background. An "Eingang Verboten" sign warns all to stay away from the castle, but Ygor (Bela Lugosi) stares out from a second story window. The village council meets to discuss a matter regarding the Frankenstein heir. While Inspector Krogh (Lionel Atwill) looks on, the Burgomaster (Lawrence Grant) informs the assembled, "The old Baron Frankenstein gave me this chest of papers to deliver to his son, and deliver it I shall." The other Burghers (Gustav von Seyfferitz, Lorimer Johnston, and Tom Ricketts) express their opposition to any further association with the Frankensteins who have brought death and disrepute to the village. The Burgomaster assures his colleagues he agrees with their sentiments, but he intends to meet with the Baron's son at the train station and give him his father's papers, as promised. Elsa von Frankenstein (Josephine Hutchinson) tucks her young son's blanket around him on the train. Young Peter (Donnie Dunagan) is anxious to see his nanny, Amelia, again. Elsa joins her husband, Wolf (Basil Rathbone) in the adjoining railway compartment. She notes, as she looks out the window, "What a strange-looking country." Wolf replies, "Not much like America, is it?" It is a dark scene of dead trees. The pair are excited about their new life, joking about what the castle is like. Elsa speculates about a haunted room, and Wolf assures her, "Yes, there's sure to be a haunted room. The castle itself is supposed to be haunted...because of the things my father did there." The tone turns somber as Wolf recounts the story of the creation of the creature and the death and destruction that followed, all as the result of the blunder by his assistant, Ygor. It is pouring rain when the train pulls into Frankenstein. Wolf is greeted by the Burgomeister, the members of the council, and most of the inhabitants of the village. When Wolf tries to explain that his father was a great man and that he is sorry for the tragedy that followed, the villagers wander away. A car takes the family to the castle. The servants assist the family inside. Peter runs to see his nanny, Amelia (Emma Dunn). Benson (Edgar Norton) takes the Baron's coat. Amelia takes Peter upstairs to bed. Elsa expresses her mixed emotions about the castle then walks upstairs to join Amelia in putting Peter to bed. Wolf asks about the new servants. Benson tells the Baron that the servants are Tyrolean, "None of the people of the province would serve here, no matter what I offered to pay them." Wolf walks into the library with Benson. He sees a portrait of his father on the wall. The Baron opens the box of papers and reads the note his father left for him, "Herein you will find my faiths, my beliefs, and my unfoldments. A complete diary of my experiments, charts and secret formulas. In short, the sum total of my knowledge, such as it is. Perhaps you will regard my work with ridicule or even with distaste. If so, destroy these records. But if you, like me, burn with the irresistible desire to penetrate the unknown, carry on, even though the path is cruel and tortuous, carry on. Like every seeker after truth, you will be hated, blasphemed and condemned." Out in the rain, Ygor stares in at the Baron in the library. Up in Peter's room, the little boy says his prayers as Amelia and his mother look on. Elsa goes to her room and prepares for bed. In the village the wagon with the Baron's crated goods is stoned by the villagers. Inspector Krogh pays a visit to the castle. He meets with the Baron. [Note: The manipulation of his wooden arm was beautifully parodied by Kenneth Mars in Young Frankenstein.] Krogh tells the Baron he will be protected while in the castle, "As long as you continue to live in this place, you're in danger." The Baron demands proof of the monster's reign of destruction. He is unaware of Krogh's encounter, but is told by the Inspector himself. While cleaning his monocle, Krogh recounts his childhood encounter with the monster and the loss of his arm, "One does not easily forget, Herr Baron, an arm torn out by the roots." Krogh explains that there have been six mysterious deaths in the village and all are unsolved. Despite the Baron's insistence he needs no protection, Krogh assures him he will respond to any call for assistance. Upon his exit, Krogh is introduced to Elsa who invites him to dinner. Up in his room, young Peter sleeps through the thunder and lightning. Ygor spies on the boy from a hidden room behind a wooden panel. The next morning, Peter joins his parents at breakfast. Wolf walks over to the remains of the laboratory to explore it. The lab is a shambles of broken equipment. He peers down into a bubbling lake of sulphur-laden mud. Ygor pushes a stone down towards the Baron, but it misses its mark. Wolf orders Ygor down at the point of his rifle. When Wolf threatens to turn Ygor over to Krogh, Ygor explains he is already dead. He tells the Baron he was hanged once, which left him with a broken neck and he was declared dead. Ygor opens a door of stones and takes the Baron down into the bowels of the lab into the family crypt. To his amazement, the Baron sees the monster (Boris Karloff) lying on a slab. He thinks it is just the dead body of the creature and touches its hand. When the hand moves, the Baron recoils and exclaims, "He's alive!" Ygor explains the creature is sick, struck earlier by lightning. Ygor explains that the creature is, in a way, the Baron's brother and he wants him cured. Wolf is intrigued by the challenge. The village council demands to know what is going on at the castle. Krogh tries to reassure the council and agrees to bring in Ygor to explain his role at the castle. The Baron has rebuilt the lab with his own and repaired equipment left by his father. He hauls the monster up to the lab and places it on the table. Later, the Baron and Benson arrive at the lab to begin work. The Baron carries his father's notes in the case, but Ygor refuses to let Benson into the lab. The Baron assures Ygor that his help is required and vouches for his servant's discretion. The Baron examines the creature while Benson records the notes. Wolf is amazed by what he discovers, especially that two bullets are lodged in the creatures heart, yet it still lives. Ygor is questioned by the village council and the Burgomaster. Ewald Neumuller (Michael Mark) asks Ygor, "Has he asked you to rob and graves? To get him a body?" The council threatens Ygor to cooperate or they will see a better job of executing him for his crimes. Lang (Lionel Belmore) served on the first jury and with Neumuller found Ygor guilty and sentenced him to death. Ygor is dismissed and returns to the castle. The Baron and Benson discuss the process that gave the creature life--namely cosmic rays, "These rays are actually the source of life itself." Returning to the lab, the Baron is torn between his impulse to destroy the monster and his scientific quest to restore it back to conscious life. The Baron fires up the electrical equipment and restores the creature for a few seconds, but it lapses back into coma. Krogh stops by the castle and enjoys tea with the Baroness. She explains that her husband is engaged with an experiment, but she has no details. The Baron, back from a walk, joins the pair for tea. Peter joins the family and asks about Krogh's arm. He mentions being awakened from a nap by a giant. His mother and Amelia attribute it to an active imagination, but the Baron and Krogh register surprise and concern on their faces--one knows and the other suspects this is not the imagination of a child, but reality. The Baron carries his son back to his room and asks about the giant. His son's description of the giant so alarms the Baron that he bolts from the room. Krogh confronts the Baron on his way back to the lab. Wolf discovers the lab table empty, the monster gone, and searches for it calling for Ygor the whole time. Up from the sulphur pit the creature crawls and grabs the Baron. It reacts to its own reflection in a mirror. Ygor finally joins the pair and explains, "You make him well with your lightning. After you go, he get up and walk. Now he's all right again." Ygor reassures the creature that the Baron is a good man, and instructs the Baron never to touch him again. Upon his return to the residence, the Baron informs Benson that the creature is alive and admits to a cold fear of it. Ygor spies on the Baron and overhears the Baron's plan to continue his experimental work and send his family away for their own safety. Ygor plans to use the monster to extract a little personal revenge. He sends the creature after Herr Neumuller. The creature follows his wagon and waylays the man. It stages a wagon accident while Ygor plays a mournful tune on his flute. The Inspector joins the Baron and Baroness for dinner. Fritz (Perry Ivins) serves dinner in Benson's absence. A caller, one of the Inspector's men, tells Fritz that there has been an accident in the village. Krogh departs and Wolf goes to find Benson. Ygor tells the Baron that Benson came to see the creature then ran away. Krogh attends a coroner's inquest. The doctor explains that Neumuller must have fallen asleep and fallen off his wagon. The wheels crushed his legs and chest. The widow, Frau Neumuller (Caroline Francis Cooke) is present and distraught. Krogh dismisses the council of Burghers and tells them he will make out the death certificate with Dr. Burgher (an uncredited Clarence Wilson). Krogh suggests the neck and heart be examined. Ygor is waiting outside the shop of Emil Lang, he is the town apothecary. Back at the castle, Wolf and his wife retire for the night. Elsa asks about Benson, and then admits to being afraid. Ygor plays his flute while the creature walks to Lang's shop. In shadow we see the creature kill Lang. The next morning the angry villagers assemble and then walk to the castle. Krogh stops at the castle to inquire on the whereabouts of Benson. Wolf explains that his wife and son will be leaving for, "a slight holiday." Krogh explains that another mysterious death has occurred and that the Baron and his family should stay put at the castle. The mob arrives at the castle gate. As the crowd mills about outside, the Inspector and the Baron go inside to talk. Krogh goes up to see Peter in his room and asks about the giant. Peter shows Krogh a watch the giant gave him. It is Benson's engraved pocket watch. When Amelia returns the three walk downstairs for some hot chocolate. Elsa starts to suspect strange goings on. Krogh is called away and Wolf returns to the lab. He discovers the cave just off the sulphur pit and finds the sleeping monster. He picks up a rock and attempts to dispatch the creature but is stopped by Ygor. Ygor admits to having Neumuller and Lang disposed of by the creature. Meanwhile the ugly crowd outside the castle gate gets more unruly. Krogh returns to the castle. He finds the Baron in the Library playing darts. He explains, "My business tonight is official, not social." The Baron continues to throw darts at the board while the Inspector tells of another death--this time it is Lang. Wolf sarcastically asks if it was his father's creation, or perhaps one he whipped up. Finally, Krogh admits, "I promised your arrest to the villagers to keep them quiet...for the moment." He also admits searching the laboratory, but found nothing incriminating. He suspects Benson is dead and plans to hold the Baron as responsible. The Baron departs to remove Ygor from the estate and Krogh goes up to Peter's room. The Baron confronts Ygor with a gun and shoots and kills the man in self-defense. Krogh finds the switch that opens the wall. He enters the passage and finds Benson's dead body. In the lab, the creature finds Ygor's dead body and mourns. Krogh returns to the library. The Baron admits to killing Ygor, "He tried to murder me with his hammer, so I shot him. What are you gonna do about it?" Krogh demands to know where the monster is located. The monster carries Ygor's body to the crypt, then departs looking for revenge. He destroys the lab then seeks out the boy via the secret passage to Peter's room. The monster attacks Amelia while Krogh and the Baron play darts. It is Krogh's turn and he pokes his darts into his wooden arm, then throws the darts one at a time at the board. Elsa discovers Amelia and that her son is missing. The creature escorts Peter to the pit. He picks the child up and holds him over the pit. Peter is unafraid. For some unknown reason the creature places Peter on the ladder, and the two climb up to the lab. Krogh climbs up the ladder and confronts the creature. It pulls Krogh's wooden arm off and brandishes same. Krogh empties his service revolver into the monster, but with no effect. The monster steps on Peter while the Baron enters the lab from above. The Baron swings down on a rope and kicks the monster into the bubbling pit. The Baron picks up his son and they look down into the bubbling and flaming pit below. At the train station the next day, the Baron and his family prepare to depart. Wolf tells the crowd, "Herewith I deed to you the castle and the estate of Frankenstein. Do with them what you will. And may happiness and peace of mind be restored to you all. Good bye." We close with the family on the train car as it pulls away from the station and the cast credits.

When Prince John and the Norman Lords begin oppressing the Saxon masses in King Richard's absence in 1190s England, a Saxon lord fights back as the outlaw leader of a resistance movement. Sir Robin of Locksley, defender of downtrodden Saxons, runs afoul of Norman authority and is forced to turn outlaw. With his band of Merry Men, he robs from the rich, gives to the poor and still has time to woo the lovely Maid Marian, and foil the cruel Sir Guy of Gisbourne, and keep the nefarious Prince John off the throne. —Little Pine Weasel <kristinat@cerritos.edu> With King Richard the Lionhearted away fighting wars in the Holy Land, his brother Prince John seizes the Regency. The Normans are hard on the Saxon peasants, and when Prince John learns that Richard is being held for ransom in Vienna, he taxes them beyond all reasonable limits supposedly to pay for his release. Sir Robin of Locksley, a Saxon lord, rebels against the Prince and his principal henchman, Sir Guy of Gisbourne. Declared an outlaw, he takes up residence in Sherwood Forest and begins to surround himself with those who are loyal to King Richard: Little John, Friar Tuck, Will Scarlet and all the rest. When the Prince and Gisbourne manage to capture him by staging a archery contest, it's the beautiful Maid Marion who arranges his escape. When Robin and his men learn that Richard is in England, they protect him and ensure his evil brother is removed from power. —garykmcd In the late twelfth century, King Richard the Lionhearted of England is fighting in the Holy Crusades, leaving the Regency of the Kingdom to his trusted friend, Longchamps. When Richard is captured by Leopold of Austria, Richard's brother, the treacherous Prince John, with help from his supportive Norman barons and his primary henchman Sir Guy of Gisbourne, seizes control of the Regency. Under the guise of getting money to free Richard, John, in pillaging from the Saxon commoners, uses the money instead to fatten his own coffers in gaining control of the throne. The Saxons turn to one of their own, Sir Robin of Locksley - also known as Robin Hood - who, often recklessly, fights on their behalf against Norman authority in an effort to restore what is rightfully the Saxons until Richard's return, Richard to who Robin is loyal. As such, Robin is viewed as an outlaw by Prince John and Sir Guy. Robin's refuge is Sherwood Forest, where he recruits men to fight for what he believes is right. Generally matching Robin's happy-go-lucky temperament, that band of merry men includes Will Scarlet, John Little (renamed Little John because of his hulking physical size), and Friar Tuck. Also seeing Robin and his men as outlaws is Lady Marian Fitzswalter, a Norman and a royal ward. It isn't until Marian meets Robin and sees first hand what he is doing that she changes her allegiances. Prince John and Sir Guy hope to use what they see as the growing attraction between Robin and Marian to capture Robin and sentence him to death. Robin and Marian, the latter she believes clandestinely, work against Prince John and Sir Guy until King Richard's return, when they hope all will be right with England. But the return of King Richard, if it does happen, does not automatically restore him to the throne, especially if Prince John can crown himself king in Richard's absence. —Huggo In 1191, King Richard joined the Crusades and then he is captured by the Duke of Austria. His ambitious and evil brother Prince John takes over the throne and oppress the Saxons increasing the taxes and hanging those that cannot afford to pay. The Saxon nobleman Robin of Locksley hides in the Sherwood Forest and defends the people against the tyrannic John and his right hand Sir Guy of Gisbourne and is considered outlaw. When he meets Lady Marian, they immediately fall in love with each other. But Robin Hood and his men are hunted down by Sir Guy and the notorious Sheriff of Nottingham. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

A pair of lookalikes, one a former French aristocrat and the other an alcoholic English lawyer, fall in love with the same woman amidst the turmoil of the French Revolution. Alas, an aristocrat and a barrister on the same plateau. This is the story of a revolution, a revolution that occurred in France known as the Reign of Terror. The barrister, the town alcoholic and man of disrepute, is in love with a beautiful woman, who marries the aristocrat and bears a beautiful baby girl. The baby girl is infatuated with the barrister, and he with her because of her mother. The ultimate sacrifice occurs and a man's soul goes forward. Dissipated lawyer Sydney Carton defends emigre Charles Darnay from charges of spying against England. He becomes enamored of Darnay's fiancée, Lucie Manette, and agrees to help her save Darnay from the guillotine when he is captured by Revolutionaries in Paris. —Marg Baskin <marg@asd.raytheon.ca> A disreputable barrister finds redemption through the most unlikely of friendships and in the process provides for himself both human and spiritual salvation. —Carl Schultz