The Scarlet Claw

A small village in Canada. A light is seen at night in the marsh and the villagers say it is a creature. A woman is found with her throat torn out. Sherlock Holmes is at a meeting in Quebec at the time; her husband asks for his help but the letter arrives late. Holmes and Watson go to the village. Nobody talks. There is another death. Holmes does not believe in the creature; he works out what left the marks and shows that it is a tool. The killer lives in the village and knows how to change his appearance. Roy William Neill directs. Basil Rathbone plays Holmes and Nigel Bruce plays Watson; Gerald Hamer and Paul Cavanagh are in the cast. It is an American production, made in 1944. The film is part of Universal's Sherlock Holmes series and is counted among its best entries. It was not adapted from a Conan Doyle story; the screenplay was written for the film. The premise recalls The Hound of the Baskervilles and the resemblance is plain. The atmosphere is its strongest side; the fog, the marsh and the night scenes were built in a studio. The narrative starts its mystery as supernatural and ties it to a mechanical explanation. The series had moved Holmes into the present; this film keeps the war in the background. There is a quotation Holmes reads at the end that refers to the wartime mood. Its limit is the production; it is short, the narrative simple, and the characters thin. Who it is for: viewers who like classic Sherlock Holmes films and atmospheric crime pictures. Who it is not for: it is old, simple, and the ending easy.