The Pearl of Death (1944)

"I don't like the smell of you - an underground smell, the sick sweetness of decay.", 26 May 2006

The Pearl of Death is about average for the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films I've seen so far. It's not as good as something like The Scarlet Claw, but I thought it was better than some of the others I've seen. Rathbone and Nigel Bruce give their usual solid performances. However, I found that a little bit too much of the focus was on Bruce. That's not always a bad thing, but here he really didn't have much to do. Watching him paste clippings in a book for several minutes isn't the most entertaining thing in the world. My only complaint with the supporting cast is I would have liked more Evelyn Ankers. Other than that, they're fine. The story is good and it's nice to see Holmes fail on occasion as he does in the beginning of The Pearl of Death. In fact it's an incredible change of pace to see Holmes make such a gargantuan mistake that ends up costing several people their lives.

7/10