Unfortunately, Rathbone provides an acceptable wrapper around a propagandist short stretched into a film. Doesn't do justice to Rathbone (although he was never my ideal Holmes) the scriptwriter or the original characterisation of Holmes. Plenty of holes in the plot and although there are some sparks between Holmes and Watson, this is a mistake overall

Not much suspense, little mystery, and not very clever. Zucco is a complete waste with little to say or do (unlike in '39). There is some clever humor however and Nigel Bruce gets the best out of it overall. Maybe if they spent more time on a plot than praising Washington D.C. this would be worth more than a DVR'ing.

A pretty good plot and good atmosphere. Holmes and Moriarty have some nice exchanges here.

Rather tedious. And implausible--why would the threatened spy deem putting the microfiche in some anonymous bimbo's handbag better than any other place within reach? Also the director's a bit heavy-handed with the tantalizing availability/ubiquity of the matchbook (which also leads us to the non-stop smoking--I swear, it started to look like a relay team after a while). However, the final confrontation between Rathbone and George Zucco is pretty good.

One of the best Sherlock movies. Except for the awkward bits of propaganda, it contains few of the flaws apparent in some of the other films. Watson isn't nearly as idiotic as usual, mysteries are doled out generously (if perhaps resolved a bit too quickly), and it's delightfully suspenseful. The Macguffin is casually passed around a party in a scene that's downright Hitchcockian. There's even a few genuinely funny moments, that thankfully don't involve Watson being an imbecile. Quite fun.