'' is the fourth film in the
Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series of
Sherlock Holmes movies. Released in 1943, it combines elements of the
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle story,
The Dancing Men .
Holmes races against the
Nazis and ultimately his arch-nemesis,
Professor Moriarty , to protect the "Tobel Bombsight" (analagous to the real-life
Norden Bombsight ).
The climax of the film is when Holmes is captured by Moriarty and given his choice of deaths. Holmes opines that it would be curious to have the blood drawn from his body and slowly fade away. Moriarty has a fully equipped operating theater, so Holmes's idea is soon implemented. A large IV needle, a long rubber tube, and a five-gallon bottle are set up to siphon Holmes's blood out of his body. Fortunately for Holmes, it takes over an hour to die this way, which gives his friends time to find and rescue him: Dr Watson raises the blood bottle above Holmes and reverses the siphon flow. Color returns to Holmes's face (barely visible in this black-and-white film), and he wakes up. Moriarty's scheme is foiled again.
This film is one of several made during
World War II . It is an immense anachronism. The stories of the canon were set in the Victorian era, and Holmes was clearly a Victorian gentleman:always elegantly dressed and spoken, and rarely armed.
