Sherlock Holmes in Washington

Rather tedious. And implausible--why would the threatened spy deem putting the microfiche in some anonymous bimbo's handbag better than any other place within reach? Also the director's a bit heavy-handed with the tantalizing availability/ubiquity of the matchbook (which also leads us to the non-stop smoking--I swear, it started to look like a relay team after a while). However, the final confrontation between Rathbone and George Zucco is pretty good.

There isn't a mystery. In fact, there isn't anything unpredictable about the story at all.- Rathbone is great, but given little to actually do. This is the first of these old Sherlock Holmes films I've seen so while Nigel Bruce has some funny lines, I was mostly confused as to why he was portrayed as being so, so, so stupid.

Not much suspense, little mystery, and not very clever. Zucco is a complete waste with little to say or do (unlike in '39). There is some clever humor however and Nigel Bruce gets the best out of it overall. Maybe if they spent more time on a plot than praising Washington D.C. this would be worth more than a DVR'ing.

One of the best Sherlock movies. Except for the awkward bits of propaganda, it contains few of the flaws apparent in some of the other films. Watson isn't nearly as idiotic as usual, mysteries are doled out generously (if perhaps resolved a bit too quickly), and it's delightfully suspenseful. The Macguffin is casually passed around a party in a scene that's downright Hitchcockian. There's even a few genuinely funny moments, that thankfully don't involve Watson being an imbecile. Quite fun.

Not too propaganda-heavy. They didn't even give the unidentified villains stereotypical accents (they finally mention the main bad guy was a Kaiser agent). The spy part was probably the weakest plot holes and least believable, with the weak guy somehow being an international secret agent who decides to leave his matchbook with a random stranger instead of keeping it on him without fanfare. Fav scene: I hate it, but the director certainly loved to pass the MacGuffin around.

Neill gets the pacing spot on (there are no flat spots). It's in the matchbook, not it's behind the stamps, alas it's in the matchbook after all! I could not take my eyes off the matchbook whenever it was on screen, and the scene in which it passed from one toff to the next made for gripping viewing. Not only do Mr Holmes and Dr Watson revel in the novelty of visiting the U.S.A - "Flash Gordon, huh! Seems a very capable fella, huh." - but they make for some fabulously hammy propoganda.

Suspenseful Sherlock Holmes as he goes to Washington to find out what's happened to a spy. I can definitely see the Hitchcock influence people talk about. It's got the classic thriller ingredients to increase the detective story's appeal. And while I'm not the biggest fan of bringing Sherlock into World War II problems, it's doesn't get in the way of a good mystery.

Almost always improbable, which is crippling to a story about the World's Greatest Detective. There is one saving grace, and it's a scene where the item under chase is dismissively passed around at a party, with the Elite being none the wiser.

best one in the first 5 films.

Not bad would have been better without the almost sickening propaganda.

A couple great scenes - the opening train car, the matchbook at the party - but it suffers from its propaganda elements.

61.500

Dull wartime fluff, with Watson being borderline mentally handicapped. It's nice to see Clarence Muse pop up, the film's black humor about the hidden placement of the microfilm is fun, but it's a lot of dragging and damnable luck.

Unfortunately, Rathbone provides an acceptable wrapper around a propagandist short stretched into a film. Doesn't do justice to Rathbone (although he was never my ideal Holmes) the scriptwriter or the original characterisation of Holmes. Plenty of holes in the plot and although there are some sparks between Holmes and Watson, this is a mistake overall

A pretty good plot and good atmosphere. Holmes and Moriarty have some nice exchanges here.