Travis Simpkins: The Spider Woman (1944): Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes

Saturday, December 31, 2016

The Spider Woman (1944): Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes

Directed by Roy William Neill, The Spider Woman (1944) was the seventh of fourteen Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. The plot is a combination of five works by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: "The Sign of Four", "The Final Problem", "The Adventure of the Empty House", "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot" and "The Adventure of the Speckled Band." The story finds Sherlock Holmes faking his own death, then returning to catch a female serial killer that forces her victims to commit suicide by an unknown means. Bath Rathbone is great as Sherlock Holmes. Nigel Bruce is wonderful and humorous as Dr. Watson. Gale Sondergaard co-stars as the femme fatale.