In 1939, with the winds of war reaching U.S. audiences, escape to a kinder, cozier period of Hansom cabs and gaslight was a profitable gamble. In fact, Fox's two films were the first to attempt placing Holmes in his literary period. By 1942, Universal thought the setting would be too dated, and decided to modernize the story. Would the audience accept the retirement of Holmes' deerstalker and cape for a more contemporary outfit? The studio was nervous, but the general audience didn't mind the change and the series was a great success, following on the heels of the Fox films and the radio version of the franchise.
The Scarlet Claw, however, did not impress critics of the day. Howard Barnes of the Herald Tribune (May 20, 1944) was bored: "Basil Rathbone plays Holmes with a rather tired approach to the project of solving several murders in a village near Quebec. Nigel Bruce...does almost nothing to enliven the proceedings."
But the cast and crew were enthusiastic about the project, perhaps enlivened by the fact that this was the one and only time that the series' well-regarded producer-director Roy William Neill co-authored a Holmes screenplay. In Basil Rathbone: His Life and His Films, the film's editor, Paul Landres, recalls: "Everybody involved was very excited about this film because we all knew that it was far superior to anything else in the series."
The tiny hamlet of La Morte Rouge is a perfect setting for Holmes and Watson, with the marshes of the Canadian countryside standing in for the moors of Britain. As the duo search for the key to a series of grisly murders, the parade of village characters they encounter could be found in any English pub. With its quaint setting and gothic-style murders, The Scarlet Claw feels more authentic than most of the other films in the Universal series, many of which have Holmes wrestling with wartime themes.
The creepy atmosphere of the film is underscored by the unforgettable image of the glowing figure that menaces Holmes in the mist, the work of Academy Award-winning special effects treasure John P. Fulton, who was a studio mainstay until his death in 1966.
For Rathbone, the success of Holmes was a mixed blessing, and ultimately, an unwelcome burden. In his biography In and Out of Character, he recalls feeling trapped by the role, "more completely 'typed' than any other classic actor has ever been or ever will be again." What's more, Holmes' superman abilities eventually alienated Rathbone from the character he brought to life: "[T]here was nothing lovable about Holmes....It would be impossible for such a man to know loneliness or love or sorrow because he was completely sufficient unto himself....One was jealous of his mastery in all things, both material and mystical....Yes, there was no question about it, he had given me an acute inferiority complex!"
Producer: Roy William Neill
Director: Roy William Neill
Screenplay: Edmund L. Hartmann; Roy William Neill; Paul Gangelin (story); Brenda Weisberg (story); Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (characters)
Cinematography: George Robinson
Art Direction: Ralph M. DeLacy, John B. Goodman
Music: Paul Sawtell (uncredited)
Film Editing: Paul Landres
Cast: Basil Rathbone (Sherlock Holmes), Nigel Bruce (Doctor Watson), Gerald Hamer (Potts), Paul Cavanagh (Lord Penrose), Arthur Hohl (Emile Journet), Miles Mander (Judge Brisson), Kay Harding (Marie Journet), David Clyde (Sergeant Thompson), Ian Wolfe (Drake), Victoria Horne (Nora).
BW-85m.
by Emily Soares
