Director: ROY WILLIAM NEILL. Screenplay: Leonard Lee. Adapted by Frank Gruber from the 1904 short story "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Photography: Maury Gertsman. Film editor: Saul A. Goodkind. Art directors: Jack Otterson and Martin Obzina. Set decorators: Russell A. Gausman and Edward R. Robinson. Matte artist: Russell Lawson. Costumes designed by Vera West. Make-up: Jack P. Pierce. Hair styles: Carmen Dirigo. Music composed by Hans J. Salter, directed by Milton Rosen. Song, "You Never Know Just Who You're Going To Meet" (Jewkes) by Jack Brooks. Dialogue director: Raymond Kessler. Assistant director: Melville Shyer. Sound recording: Bernard B. Brown (supervisor), Glenn E. Anderson (technician). Sound re-recording and effects mixer: Ronald K. Pierce. Western Electric Sound Recording. Producer: Roy William Neill. Executive producer: Howard Benedict.
Copyright 13 May 1946 by Universal Pictures Co., Inc. New York opening at the Rialto: 24 May 1946. U.S. release: 7 June. U.K. release (as Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Code): 28 August 1946. Australian release: 22 August 1946. 6,460 feet. 71 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Why are thieves so anxious to steal three seemingly valueless music boxes that they fail to stop short of murder?
NOTES: Twelfth and last of the Rathbone-Bruce Sherlock Holmes series for Universal.
COMMENT: Much under-rated swansong, this entry is in fact one of the three best in the Universal "B" series, ranking just after The Scarlet Claw and Terror by Night.
True, the climax is a trifle tame, though the setting is great, but to say (as some commentators have) that production values look thin and that Rathbone's performance seems tired and dispirited, contradicts the facts.
The perfect Holmes, Basil Rathbone, still scores 100%. A spiritless portrayal? Not on your life! True, Nigel Bruce can be faulted. His performance rates lower than usual, mainly because of a mistakenly "comic" episode in which he attempts to imitate a duck!
The other support players, however, I would describe as nothing short of superlative. There's even a scene in which the talented Patricia Morison outsmarts Holmes — and us too!
And who could forget such charismatic portraits as Holmes Herbert's venal, "tinkle-tinkle" auctioneer, Edmund Breon's lecherous "Stinky", and Delos Jewkes' swaggering Cockney and his lilting song. For my money, the Jewkes sequence deserves a nomination as one if the best in the series.
And one other important item I'd like to add: Atmosphere! Thanks to driving direction, effectively noirish cinematography and some really striking sets, this splendidly bizarre "Dressed to Kill" makes for a fine finish to the best "B" series ever made!
Copyright 13 May 1946 by Universal Pictures Co., Inc. New York opening at the Rialto: 24 May 1946. U.S. release: 7 June. U.K. release (as Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Code): 28 August 1946. Australian release: 22 August 1946. 6,460 feet. 71 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Why are thieves so anxious to steal three seemingly valueless music boxes that they fail to stop short of murder?
NOTES: Twelfth and last of the Rathbone-Bruce Sherlock Holmes series for Universal.
COMMENT: Much under-rated swansong, this entry is in fact one of the three best in the Universal "B" series, ranking just after The Scarlet Claw and Terror by Night.
True, the climax is a trifle tame, though the setting is great, but to say (as some commentators have) that production values look thin and that Rathbone's performance seems tired and dispirited, contradicts the facts.
The perfect Holmes, Basil Rathbone, still scores 100%. A spiritless portrayal? Not on your life! True, Nigel Bruce can be faulted. His performance rates lower than usual, mainly because of a mistakenly "comic" episode in which he attempts to imitate a duck!
The other support players, however, I would describe as nothing short of superlative. There's even a scene in which the talented Patricia Morison outsmarts Holmes — and us too!
And who could forget such charismatic portraits as Holmes Herbert's venal, "tinkle-tinkle" auctioneer, Edmund Breon's lecherous "Stinky", and Delos Jewkes' swaggering Cockney and his lilting song. For my money, the Jewkes sequence deserves a nomination as one if the best in the series.
And one other important item I'd like to add: Atmosphere! Thanks to driving direction, effectively noirish cinematography and some really striking sets, this splendidly bizarre "Dressed to Kill" makes for a fine finish to the best "B" series ever made!