Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon
About Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon
Disguised as a bookseller, Sherlock Holmes gets Dr. Franz Tobel and his bombsight out of a Gestapo trap in Switzerland and flies him to London. Tobel will supply the sight to the RAF only if he builds it himself, splitting the work among scientists he alone names, and he leaves their names in a dancing-men cipher. Professor Moriarty, working for the Germans, kidnaps him and kills three of the scientists. Holmes, Dr. Watson, and Inspector Lestrade follow a trail of luminous paint. Moriarty escapes the raid, then drops through a trap door Holmes has left open.
Cast & crew
More about Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon
Roy William Neill directed for Universal. Howard Benedict produced. W. Scott Darling and Edward T. Lowe Jr. wrote the story, and Edmund L. Hartmann the screenplay. Lester White photographed it, Otto Ludwig edited, and Frank Skinner wrote the music. It is the fourth of the fourteen Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce Holmes films. The only piece taken from Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" is the cipher.
Background
Released in the middle of the Second World War, with a Swiss bombsight as the prize between Britain and Germany.
In film history
The fourth modern-dress Holmes film with Rathbone and Bruce, and one of the four in that series now in the public domain.
Making
Universal updated Holmes and Watson to the Second World War and set Moriarty working for Nazi Germany.
Look
Lester White photographed it.
Music
Frank Skinner wrote the music.
Preservation
Public domain in the United States. A restored version is listed at 68 minutes.
Notes
- Los Angeles opened it on December 25, 1942. The general United States release was February 12, 1943.
- Lionel Atwill plays Moriarty, William Post Jr. plays Tobel, Kaaren Verne plays Charlotte Eberli, Dennis Hoey plays Lestrade, and Mary Gordon plays Mrs. Hudson.
- The bombsight is tested on Salisbury Plain.
- Holmes disguises himself as Ram Singh, one of Moriarty's old men, to search Soho.
- At the end Charlotte is Mrs. Tobel, and Holmes quotes John of Gaunt's speech from Richard II while RAF bombers leave with the sight.
- It is one of four films in the Rathbone-Bruce series that are in the public domain in the United States.
Scenes
- Holmes, dressed as a bookseller, sends the Gestapo after decoys and drives Tobel to an RAF plane.
- Moriarty falls through the open trap door.
Influenced by
- The Adventure of the Dancing Men (Arthur Conan Doyle)
Also available
- Internet Archive (secret_weapon)
- Wikimedia Commons (Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1943).webm)
