The Woman in Green (1945)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Roy William Neill

Writers:

Bertram Millhauser (screenplay)
Arthur Conan Doyle (characters)

Release Date:

27 July 1945 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Temptress of Pleasure - or Mistress of Murder?

Plot:

Holmes and Watson investigate a series of bizarre and apparently unconnected murders, and the death of a possible suspect...

Plot Keywords:

Hypnotist | Investigation | Murder | Sherlock Holmes | Scotland Yard

Cast

Basil Rathbone	...	Holmes
Nigel Bruce	...	Watson
Hillary Brooke	...	Lydia
Henry Daniell	...	Moriarity
Paul Cavanagh	...	Fenwick
Matthew Boulton	...	Inspector Gregson
Eve Amber	...	Maude
Frederick Worlock	...	Onslow (as Frederic Worlock)
Coulter Irwin	...	Corporal Williams of the British Army (as Tom Bryson)
Sally Shepherd	...	Crandon
Mary Gordon	...	Mrs. Hudson

Also Known As:

Invitation to Murder (USA) (working title)
Sherlock Holmes and the Woman in Green (USA) (promotional title)

Runtime:

68 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-11 (2007) | Finland:K-18 (2009) (unrated) | Sweden:15 | UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (video rating) (1990) | USA:Approved (PCA #10779)

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

The eleventh of fourteen films based on Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional consulting detective Sherlock Holmes starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Doctor Watson.

Goofs:

Factual errors: "Edgware Road" is misspelled ("Edgeware").

Quotes:

[first lines]
Inspector Gregson of Scotland Yard: [voiceover] I won't forget that morning, not if I live to be a hundred. I counted the men as they marched out of the yard; they'd hardly slept for weeks. We of the CID had slept even less, but the nightmare that kept us awake was all the same nightmare. That's why we weren't surprised when the commissioner asked us up to the conference room for a bit of a talk. He'd talked to us plenty, we knew that, but it didn't help any to know what was ahead of us.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)

Solid, moody Holmes entry.....

......very enjoyable. Hilary Brooke is seductive, Henry Daniell is a terrific Moriarty, as always Rathbone and Bruce are tops as Holmes and Watson. Here you get to see them trailing a string of hypnotist-induced murders, reminders of the Ripper killings to a degree.

Be sure to pay attention to a couple scenes, the Sniper and the Hypnotist demo. Both are what made this series are keeper.

As always they don't pad it w/ unneeded scenes or characters, so you can get your Rathbone fix in about an hour or more. There are a few noir touches and of course, the patriotic ode to London at the end.

*** outta ****