Product Description

The master detective Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and his faithful cohort Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) are back, preserved and digitally restored in 35mm to original condition by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. This newly restored version of the classic film includes the period war bond tag and studio logo and credits from its original theatrical release. Filled with ominous shadows and interesting camera angles, the visual beauty of the film in 35mm is stunning. Includes: Sherlock Holmes and The Scarlet Claw Sherlock Holmes and The Spider Woman Sherlock Holmes and The House of Fear Sherlock Holmes and the Pearl of Death

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30651 in DVD
• Brand: MPI
• Released on: 2003-11-25
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Black & White, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 4
• Running time: 275 minutes

Amazon.com
Here are four strong entries (each beautifully restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive) from the peak of Basil Rathbone's prolific, seven-year run as a definitive Sherlock Holmes for the big screen. Three of these films were released in 1944 alone, beginning with the gripping Pearl of Death, a then-contemporary update (set in the World War II years, as with most of the Rathbone-Holmes features) of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Six Napoleons."

A reluctant Holmes agrees to help a London museum recover a stolen, rare pearl. But the investigation takes a strange turn when the great detective and his sidekick, Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce), find their mystery linked to a series of odd murders involving the destruction of porcelain china. Typically, "Pearl of Death" has its share of inside jokes for true Sherlockians, including Holmes's declaration, "If I'm wrong, I'll move to Sussex and raise bees." Of course, that's exactly what Doyle's most famous character did upon retirement.

The Scarlet Claw is an original screenplay with elements loosely inspired by Doyle's "The Adventure of the Dancing Men." A skeptical Holmes and Watson attend a meeting of the Royal Canadian Occult Society in Canada, but are soon looking into a killing spree attributed to a fanciful marsh monster. Fantastic events are soon supplanted by an even stranger horror concerning a master actor bent on revenge.

The Spider Woman employs details of Holmes's apparent death and resurrection between "The Final Problem" and its follow-up, "The Adventure of the Empty House." But the movie takes a different direction when a bizarre series of late-night "pajama suicides" finds Holmes probing the involvement of a femme fatale. Of the quartet of features in this set (all produced and directed by the energetic Roy William Neill) Spider Woman has the most vivacity and familiar textures from Doyle's canon.

Finally, "The House of Fear," adapted from "The Five Orange Pips," is a chamber mystery concerning successive murders of the members of an elite club, the Good Comrades. On film, the tale seems a bit ludicrous, but its conclusion is among the most startling in the Rathbone films. There's also a fair amount of comedy between Watson and Inspector Lestrade's bumbling ways. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

At Last ...The Scarlet Claw!!!!
Lets be thankful that we are going to soon be treated to restored versions of these classics. I have purchased versions of the Scarlet Claw that were nearly inaudible and blurred. And it has been out of print for some time.

So I am writing this pre-review to express my Great Expectations and excitement over the upcoming DVD release of the 14 Sherlock Holmes movies made by Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.
For those of us who have loved and worn out our VHS versions of these films, I am sure that I speak for many of us in expressing incredible anticipation and near shock that someone has finally recognized the need to release a "restored version" of these timeless classics.
We are told that they have been "Preserved and restored in 35mm by the UCLA Film and Television Archive." This is marvelous and I have already pre-ordered Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 from MPI Home Video.
I so hope that the entire 14 movies, are ultimately released in restored condition. Especially the rarest of them, "The Scarlet Claw" which has rarely been shown on televison and only been available on VHS sporadically.
To me and many others I know, Basil Rathbone is the definative Holmes. Not just because he looks alarmingly similar -as much as is humanly possible- to Sidney Pagets drawings of Holmes from the Strand Magazine illustrations, but mostly we love Rathbone because he portrayed the same Holmes that we as readers get through the buffer of Dr. Watson explaining away not magnifying Holmes' shortcomings.
Jeremy Brett chose to amplify every negative aspect of Holmes' personality that in the written versions Watson explained away. Rathbone's Holmes has been demeaned visciously over the past years and hopefully the respect and dignity that he gave his portrayals will be seen in all their accuracy and glory with these new digitally restored releases. ... these will have to be the best quality versions of these classics ever released...so for all of us who have cursed the incomprehensibly awful releases of these films over the years...our time has almost come. Show your support for this effort by ordering a restored version of American Film Histroy.
Much Thanks to UCLA, MPI, and Whoever was ultimately responsible for the idea of doing this!!!!

Good and Bad News
I am also waiting with delight at the release of these classics. The bad news is the two 20th Century Fox films (the first films Rathbone/Bruce made as the duo) have not been restored - THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES/ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES were not made by Universal and were not part of the restoration project at UCLA. This is why chronologically they are not being released first, as the visual condition of these two titles are not as good as the restored Universal dozen. I don't know if any cleaning/remastering has been done on the two Fox titles though.

Great Restoration Process
After viewing the films in volume 2 of this collection, I have to say that they did a terrific job in restoring these classics. What makes this volume especially good is the fact that the best of the Rathbone/Bruce series are contained in it. The film The Scarlet Claw is presented the best I have seen it ever. The visuals and audio are extremely crisp and clear. Unfortunately, as in the first volume, the DVD extras could have been better (however, there is an interesting short on how the restoration process was done that I thought was good). That issue aside, I believe that most people will want this collection for the availability of these films for the first time in over 10 years.