Finally: all 14 Rathbone films, restored, in one place.

Basil Rathbone reigned for 50 years as the very embodiment of Sherlock Holmes. The script writers were very fond of having him say “Elementary, my dear Watson”, a phrase he never uttered in Doyle’s original works. In any event, Rathbone has been dethroned definitively by Jeremy Brett. Nonetheless, the 14 Holmes films he made are a celluloid treasure that demands to be preserved.

Luckily, restorations carried out at UCLA have brought us 12 of these films in virtually pristine condition. The other 2 (the first of the series, including the estimable “Hound of the Baskervilles”, are obviously also in very good shape. Rathbone is of course a marvelous physical presentation of Holmes – as Brett would be later. The latter did a better job of bringing out Holmes’ eccentricities. In these films, Nigel Bruce is cast as a bumbling, almost doddering Dr. Watson, a characterization markedly at odds with Doyle’s. He plays this role with commendable sincerity.

The films are spread out, 3 (or 2) to a disc, over 5 DVDs. Despite the awkwardness of the storage box, the presentation is otherwise quite good. There are useful commentaries attached to some of the films and all the films have subtitles available. Alas, the latter are done by someone whose literacy is somewhat challenged, and they exhibit more than the usual number of howlers. A good number of obvious (but not common) words and names are very badly misspelled, sometimes to the extent that the meaning of the dialogue is mangled. The prints are invariably crisp and clean, the sound clear. We may also be supremely grateful that Rathbone isn’t saddled with the silly “deerstalker” one often seems on other actors but not on Doyle’s Holmes (nor on Brett’s).

Most usefully, the films are presented in the order in which they were made. The first 2, “Hound of the Baskervilles” and “Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” (both from 1939), are properly set in Victorian times. When the series resumed in 1942 with “The Voice of Terror”, World War II was in full swing. It was only to be expected that the setting would be moved to the 1940s and the plots should relate to the war. This feature became less prominent as things turned against the Nazi thugs. In fact, of course, although Holmes didn’t die until 1957, he did very little during the war, coming out of retirement only in extremis. (See Baring-Gould’s biography of the great detective.)

None of the films features a Doyle story as written, but some are “based” on works by Doyle. The perils (in terms of quality) of modernizing, updating, and rewriting the works of the original author can readily be seen by comparing the more scrupulously faithful versions in which Jeremy Brett appeared. However, Rathbone carries the ball magnificently and gives these bastardized versions more gravitas than they probably deserve.

Probably the worst feature of the rewriting process is (as mentioned) the rôle of Dr. John Watson. In these films, Nigel Bruce plays not only Holmes’ foil, but the great detective’s fool. The writers go out of their way to portray Watson as gullible, bumbling, vain, and foolish. This is entirely at odds with Doyle’s portrayal. Not that Watson is a paragon of brilliance, but he is a fine doctor, brave, resourceful, and in every way a partner in Holmes’ endeavors. The filmwriters’ clumsy attempts at comic relief are entirely demeaning – not only to Watson but to Bruce as well. Nevertheless, to his great credit, the veteran actor bumbles bravely through 14 scripts.

Toward the end of the series of films – say, the last 5 (1945-46) – the dramatic impulse of the scripts weakens and we’re faced with things like the potboiling “Woman in Green”. An exception is “Pursuit to Algiers”, which is a rather taut little thriller more like the earlier efforts. (Which, as a bonus, offers a neat game of “spot the king” … fun, if fairly easy.)

On the whole, I recommend this set. Especially at Amazon’s usual used prices, this set will be significantly cheaper than the same films purchased separately. And the packaging – however awkward – is a great improvement over 14 separate cases.