Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943)

“Yes, I shall write a monograph some day… on the noxious habit of accumulating useless trivia. ” – Sherlock Holmes

Number of Times Seen – 1 (3 Oct 2019)

Brief Synopsis – Sherlock Holmes and Watson are sent to Washington DC by the British government in order to retrieve secret documents before they fall into enemy hands.

My Take on it – This is a film that I came across not long ago and was curious to see how they would adapt the character and persona of Sherlock Holmes to become involved in the War effort during World War II.

Holmes does a great job working for the Allied side as they try to do their best to stop the onslaught of the German War machine even in the United States via means of espionage.

The way that Holmes’ approach to things is modernized works really well here in establishing how this character might act in an anachronistic time with more advanced technology at his disposal than in the original Arthur Conan Doyle stories.

The biggest problem here is that the story is a bit too simplistic which doesn’t allow for things to get to a deeper level and instead it all feels a bit too superficial which is a bit disappointing.

Basil Rathbone is once again great as the famed sleuth and finds a way to keep things quite believable the entire way through despite being displaced in time.

Bottom Line – Clever adaptation of Holmes to the “present” and allows him to fight for The Allies as they try to put a stop to the German war machine. The way that they manage to “modernize” Homes approach to things work here in allowing us to see how he might have acted if her were placed in these kind of situations. The story itself is a bit too shallow and doesn’t allow for us to really get into a plot that is more than superficial which is a slight disappointment. Rathbone is once again great as the famed sleuth and makes things quite believable the whole way through.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – The “V for victory” match books were for war bonds and were not fictional. (From IMDB)

Rating – BAFTA Worthy (6/10)