Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon

"Suspense! Thrills! Adventure!"

1942 1h 8m EN

😐

6.4

MID

⭐

6.5

IMDB

★6.4TMDB · 150★6.5IMDB · 7,187

MysteryThrillerCrime

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

In the midst of World War II, Sherlock Holmes rescues the Swiss inventor of a new bomb-sight from the Gestapo and brings him to England, where he quickly falls into the clutches of the evil Professor Moriarty.

“Suspense! Thrills! Adventure!”

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Cast

Basil Rathbone
Sherlock Holmes
Nigel Bruce
Doctor Watson
Lionel Atwill
Professor Moriarty
William Post Jr.
Dr. Franz Tobel
Kaaren Verne
Charlotte Eberli
Dennis Hoey
Inspector Lestrade
Holmes Herbert
Sir Reginald
Mary Gordon
Mrs. Hudson

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Roy William Neill
Writers: Edward T. Lowe Jr., Scott Darling, Arthur Conan Doyle
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Tight 68-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

84 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Roy William Neill, shot by Lester White. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Frank Skinner. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Otto Ludwig shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce and Lionel Atwill carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Suspense! Thrills! Adventure!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Roy William Neill directs. Lester White behind the camera. Frank Skinner scores. Otto Ludwig cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Tight 68-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.
284 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
3Part of the "Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
4Directed by Roy William Neill, shot by Lester White. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Frank Skinner. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Otto Ludwig shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce and Lionel Atwill carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Suspense! Thrills! Adventure!".
9IMDB entry: tt0035317 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 15 themes, including "london, england", "kidnapping", "switzerland", "world war ii".

The technical file

Cinematography: Lester White
Original score: Frank Skinner
Editing: Otto Ludwig
Costume design: Vera West
Runtime: 68 min · 1h 8m
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1942)
IMDB rating: 6.5/10 · 7,187 votes
MPAA: Approved

Part of

Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) Collection

A series of fourteen films based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories was released between 1939 and 1946; the British actors Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce played Holmes and Dr. John Watson, respectively. The first two films in the series were produced by 20th Century Fox and released in 1939. The studio stopped making the films after these, but Universal Pictures acquired the rights from the Doyle estate and produced a further twelve films. Although the films from 20th Century Fox had large budgets, high production values, and were set in the Victorian era, Universal updated the films to the contemporary era of the Second World War, and produced them as B pictures with lower budgets. Both Rathbone and Bruce continued their roles when the series changed studios, as did Mary Gordon, who played the recurring character, Mrs. Hudson.

Also by

Roy William Neill

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2022-06-26
★ 7/10
Though with possibly not the most authentic Germanic accent you’ll ever have heard, “Holmes” (Basil Rathbone) still manages to smuggle Swiss scientist “Tobel” (William Post Jr.) back to London where we learn that he has developed a game-changing bombsight that could turn the war in the allies favour. He’s a bit of an enigmatic chap, this man, and declines all the security offered him so it’s no great shock that barely a day after his arrival, he has been kidnapped. Fortunately, he had the foresight to split his apparatus into sections and now the race is on between the detective and his stalwart “Watson” (Nigel Bruce) against their most formidable antagonist yet - “Prof. Moriarty” (Lionel Atwill). Determined to track down his nemeses, “Holmes” heads off into the fog to find the prisoner, but his foe has already anticipated many of his movements so it is lucky that “Watson” and the much less hapless than usual “Lestrade” (Dennis Hoey) are on hand to help thwart this dastardly plan for not just the nation, but for their friend, too. This has a much more overt wartime message to it, with the Nazis the real evil that would benefit from this ultimate act of treachery. Along the way there are some secret compartments, some bumps on the head and quite an ingenious method of attempted murder facing our duo, and it’s an easy hour of mystery to watch. I really do wish they’d stop referring to Britain as England, though!

Production companies