The Pearl of Death

Plot synopsis:
Master criminal Giles Conover (Miles Mander) steals the famous "Borgia Pearl" from the Royal Regent Museum under the very nose of Holmes and Watson, but when caught the pearl is not found on him and he is released.
Later, Holmes hears of an apparently motiveless murder. An elderly Colonel is found with his back broken amid a pile of smashed china. Holmes takes an immediate interest in the case as the unusual method of killing is that of "The Hoxton Creeper" (Rondo Hatton), known to be Conover's right-hand man.
Another murder occurs, of a little old lady, also surrounded by smashed china. Conover makes two attempts to kill Holmes, who surmises that Conover is desperately trying to recover the stolen pearl.
After a third killing Holmes finds the common feature of each: a bust of Napoleon. Conover, when being pursued by the police, had fled through the workshop where they were being made, and hid the pearl inside one of six identical busts.
Holmes tracks down the vendor of the busts and find out that one is still unaccounted for, as does Conover's accomplice Naomi. Conover and The Creeper arrive at the house of the owner of the final bust, only to find that Holmes has taken his place. Overpowered, Holmes convinces The Creeper that Conover will double-cross him, and the Creeper turns on Conover and kills him, after which Holmes kills the Creeper, before the police finally arrive. Holmes smashes the final bust and recovers the pearl "with the blood of five more victims on it".
Holmes is shown as unusually (for him) impatient with Lestrade's inclination to come to the wrong conclusions in this entry, even shouting at him because of his inability to grasp the situation on a couple of occasions. For his part, Lestrade is shown taunting Holmes and obviously enjoying it.

Tags: murder

Review:
While searching for THE PEARL OF DEATH, Holmes & Watson encounter a master criminal and his terrifying backbreaking thug.This vivid & suspenseful film makes a welcome addition in the series of movies highlighting the exploits of Baker Street's most famous inhabitants.
Apparently he hated being exploited, but this was to end sadly with his sudden death in 1945.Movie mavens will recognize an uncredited Billy Bevan as a meal-bearing constable.This film was loosely based on Conan Doyle's short story The Adventure of the Six Napoleons.
The plot of this film is great, and it follows Sherlock Holmes as he makes a rare blunder which leads to a rare and valuable pearl being stolen from a museum.
His mannerisms and facial expressions as he realises the trouble that his showboating has brought are priceless, and a highlight of the series on the whole.Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce make for a great on-screen duo as Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick, Dr Watson and they are joined by the inept police sergeant; Lestrade, and that only increases the comedy element of the movie.
This one is a bit of a step down, but on a par with earlier films like Sherlock Holmes Faces Death and The Spider Woman...and on a much higher level than the first three flag-waving WWII propaganda films.This entry is based on the Arthur Conan Doyle story, The Six Napoleons.
Another good Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce Holmes film, one of the most entertaining of this series.
William Neill, who was responsible for the film noir classic "Black Angel", "The Pearl Of Death" is based on the Arthur Conan Doyle story "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons".
This impressive character is mostly appearing off-screen or in the shadows, and yet his presence alone makes "The Pearl of Death" the most unsettling of all Sherlock Holmes movies.
Mander is a good villain but somehow you never feel like he could overcome Holmes but Hatton as the Creeper has walked onto the set from a horror film or something and is far too ghoul-like to be just a dangerous criminal.That said, this is enjoyable none the less and fans of this Holmes series will like this.
Despite the too-short length and the out-of-place patriotic speech, Pearl of Death is one of the better entries of the RKO series(Scarlet Claw being the best, Hound of the Baskervilles and Adventures of Sherlock Holmes are even better but they were 20th Century-Fox distributed).
Nigel Bruce is amusing as Watson, and he does bring some loyalty to counterpoint with Rathbone's Holmes, though the character can be too much of an idiot in this series and at times that is true here.
In conclusion, an entertaining and atmospherically effective Sherlock Holmes mystery, Hatton's Creeper makes the film.
All the usual ingredients that made this franchise so rewarding are here, mystery at every turn, a perpetual sense of adventure, and of course the quite wonderful chemistry between Basil Rathbone's Sherlock and Nigel Bruce's Dr Watson.
Hatton is perfectly cast as he was always effective as the muscle character, check out In Old Chicago 1937 for another memorable little turn.I always find with the Holmes series that the films are only as good if their villains are memorably bad, I like the villains here, and come the (obviously) inevitable finale I feel that you can't possibly feel let down.
And there's another thing the scenes of all crimes have got in common: around all the victims, whole heaps of broken china are scattered...A very intriguing, entertaining case, with many unusual features: Holmes, the great, PERFECT detective, makes a vital mistake for the first time without which the whole story wouldn't even have happened; the ending is made up of a very cunning psychological trick instead of the usual chase scene; and another thing: Evelyn Ankers, who usually played the frightened heroine in Universals thrillers and horror movies, gets an opportunity here to show MUCH more of her talent in various disguises, and most of all, as the reckless femme fatale fit for any Film Noir of the time!
Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) allows arrogance to get in the way of common-sense, disarming a museum's alarm system to highlight its inadequacies, and giving criminal mastermind Giles Conover (Miles Mander) the ideal opportunity to make off with a legendary pearl in the process.
Conover is quickly apprehended, but not before he has had a chance to stash the valuable gem inside a plaster Napolean bust.In order to restore his tarnished reputation, Holmes sets out to locate the missing gem, following a trail of broken bodies and smashed crockery left in the wake of Conover's murderous henchman, a massive brute known as The Hoxton Creeper (Rondo Hatton), who is also looking for the pearl, snapping the back of anyone unlucky enough to have purchased one of the ornaments.I have mixed feelings about The Pearl of Death: as perversely satisfying as it is to see London's greatest sleuth make a complete ass of himself for a change, I find it hard to accept that Holmes's mistake, a result of his pomposity, ultimately results in several innocent people being snapped like a twig by The Creeper; likewise, I struggle with the absurd level of buffoonery displayed by both Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) and Inspector Lestrade (Dennis Hoey)—while admittedly funny, it's extremely hard to swallow that they could really be that stupid.In the end, it is Rondo Hatton's Hoxton Creeper that qualifies this film as essential viewing: born with the disfiguring condition acromegaly, which causes enlarged features, Hatton's ominous physical presence makes him a truly menacing foe, one guaranteed to send a chill down the spine (immediately before snapping it!)..
One of the better Sherlock Holmes entries starring Basil Rathbone, 'The Pearl of Death' features a mystery/horror storyline rather than the clumsier adventure/spy narratives which the films in the series were increasingly reverting to.A pearl is stolen from a museum as Holmes is inspecting the safety arrangements - "Electricity - the High Priest of false security" he warns whilst being shown the high-tech system.
The pearl is stashed away and ends up hidden inside one of six busts of Napoleon which are then sold on by an antique shop.This is one of the best entries in a series of films which I have a soft spot for - admittedly the storylines are usually implausible, cliched and sometimes jingoistic, but the films are great fun to watch so long as you enter into their spirit.That said, 'The Pearl of Death' has the usual bumbling stupidity of Dr Watson and Inspector Lestrade which, whilst slightly amusing at first, soon becomes a needless irritant which gets in the way of the plot.
I'm sure Holmes would be better served by aides of comparable intellect to compliment him more, instead of the Shaggy and Scooby Doo-types he is lumbered with.With a genuine physical threat in the shape of The Creeper played by Rondo Hatton and a fast-moving pace throughout, 'The Pearl of Death' will be well appreciated by fans of the series..
For those who have a hard time remembering which of the Rathbone-Bruce Sherlock Holmes pictures is which, this is the one with Rondo Hatton as "the creeper".
This interesting, entertaining Sherlock Holmes feature has everything that you hope to see in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series.
The two stars, plus Dennis Hoey as Lestrade, have good camaraderie and dialogue with each other, the story is quite interesting, and the villains are well-acted by Miles Mander and Evelyn Ankers.The story takes the basic premise of Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Six Napoleons" and adds considerable extra material to flesh out a full-length feature that works very well.
Rondo Hatton also gets a couple of menacing moments.Roy William Neill had a very good feel for these stories, adjusting the original characters and setting to make them work nicely as (then) contemporary adventures.
Sherlock Holmes' reputation is tarnished when he arrogantly turns off a museum's security system to prove a point, inadvertently allowing notorious criminal Giles Conover (Miles Mander) to steal the priceless Borgia pearl.
The busts are sold to different customers and now Holmes and Watson try to find the one with the pearl before Conover or his confederates do.The seventh of Universal's exceptional Sherlock Holmes series starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.
Miles Mander is a fine foil for Rathbone, lovely Evelyn Ankers is a great villainess, and Rondo Hatton makes his Universal debut as the Creeper.
THE PEARL OF DEATH (Universal, 1944), produced and directed by Roy William Neil, the seventh installment to the studio's own "Sherlock Holmes" mystery series, minus "Sherlock Holmes" in the title, resumes its winning combination of Basil Rathbone (Sherlock Holmes) and Nigel Bruce (Doctor Watson) in another exciting entry.
While Universal's own Evelyn Ankers, last seen in and killed off in SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE VOICE OF TERROR (1942), offers some fine assistance assuming different characters in numerous disguises, it's Rondo Hatton, billed as "The Creeper," who, minus disguises or hideous make-up, who's the one getting most of the attention even with his very limited on-screen appearance to leave some lasting impression.The story opens on a ship bound for Dover where one of its passengers, Naomi Drake (Evelyn Ankers) arranges for a steward to have James Goodram (Holmes Herbert), secretly carrying an Borgia pearl, leave his stateroom long enough for her to enter and steal the priceless gem worth $50,000 to be displayed at the Royal Regent Museum.
With Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and assistant, Doctor Watson (Nigel Bruce) returning the pearl to the museum, it is stolen soon after Holmes disconnects wires to the security system proving its flaw when electricity is turned off.
Blamed for his blunder, Holmes, along with Inspector Lestrade (Dennis Hoey), in an attempt to locate the pearl's whereabouts, are soon baffled by a series of violent killings from buyers of plaster busts of Napoleons that are taking place.
With victims found with broken backs surrounded by smashed dishes of china, Holmes, believing the pearl concealed in one of the six sold Napoleon busts, does his best to be one step ahead of the ringleader and his murderous accomplice, The Creeper (Rondo Hatton), before any more murders involving the cursed pearl is to take place.As with the previous installment of THE SCARLET CLAW (1944), THE PEARL OF DEATH wonderfully blends mystery with horror.
Miles Mander comes a close second in a Professor Moriarty-type villain best described by Holmes as one capable of: "Crime without motive, robber without a clue, murder without a trace." And last but not least, Rondo Hatton, whose character is well concealed through much of the story until that very moment, the creepy creeper, described as one with the strength and arms of a gorilla.
Others featured in the cast are Charles Francis (Francis Digby); Ian Wolfe (Amos Hodder); Richard Nugent (Bates); Harry Cording (George Gelder); Billy Bevan (The Constable); and, of course, Mary Gordon in her recurring role of Mrs. Hudson for two very brief scenes.THE PEARL OF DEATH should rank among the favorites of Holmes series devotees and certainly one worth recommending to anyone new to these films featuring those reliables of Rathbone and Bruce, who, by this time, have become so type-cast in their roles.
Because of a master criminal's haste to get away, six people who bought busts of Napoleon Bonaparte are marked for death unless The Pearl Of Death is found.Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce are on the trail of another master criminal, in the Sherlock Holmes stories, Professor Moriarty's second in command Giles Conover.
In fact Dr. Watson's knowledge of forensic medicine is called into play here when he correctly identifies Hatton's known method of homicide.One of the better Basil Rathbone films from the Sherlock Holmes series..
Yet another solid entry in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series of Sherlock Holmes movies.This one will be of interest to fans of classic horror films as it features appearances of genre stars Evelyn Ankers (The Wolfman/Ghost of Frankenstein) and Rondo Hatton (House of Horrors/The Brute Man).The story involves the theft of the "Borgia Pearl" from the Royal Regent Museum and a series of murders that occur soon after the heist.Mysteriously, each murder victim is found with their backs broken and their bodies surrounded by smashed china and plaster.It's up to Holmes and Watson to piece together (literally) the clues to find the location of the invaluable "Pearl of Death" before the bad guys do.Fast paced and entertaining.Loosely based on the Arthur Conan Doyle Holmes story, "The Six Napoleons"..
This film is quite strange, because for once we actually see Sherlock Holmes, the most intelligent detective in literary history (played fantastically, as always, by Basil Rathbone) making a mistake that leads to a precious pearl being stolen.
But, in a moment of arrogance, he disables the alarm at the museum when he points out the security faults and the pearl is stolen again by some arch-villain who fails to impress and probably wouldn't even say boo to a goose in real life.The usual questions and snooping around follow with Lestrade acting like a moron and Watson bumbling around in the background.
"The Pearl of Death" is one of my favourite "Sherlock Holmes" films with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.
"The Pearl of Death" brings back Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Watson, Inspector Lestrade, and Mrs. Hudson to retrieve an enormous pearl stolen from the Regent Museum.
Ankers gives a Good Performance Donning Three Disguises, Master Villain Giles Conover also goes Incognito, as does Holmes (typically).Sherlock Makes a Big Mistake in this One, to the Delight of Lestrade and Watson is Along as Expected Comedic Relief and Adding a bit of Sleuthing.
One of the better entries in the Universal Sherlock Holmes series,which generates a good,suspense-filled atmosphere plus an interesting plot,reworked from Conan Doyle's 'The Tale of The Three Napoleons'.Rathbone and Bruce are enjoyable as ever as Holmes and Watson,with Bruce's bumbling characterisation almost totally alien to Conan Doyle's original,but he still comes over as likable,and at least it's unusual to have this different interpretation on the part.Still,aspects of the film have dated today;some of the dialogue seems awkward and stilted,as does some of the support acting,and the comic relief is not always well judged.The casting of Rondo Hatton as 'The Creeper' is also highly questionable;the actor himself suffered from the disease acromegaly after being exposed to poisonous gas during a World War I battle,which deforms bones and facial structure.Universal tastelessly exploited Hatton's condition in several other films after this before his premature death two years later.These problems aside,an entertaining,well-paced romp with much to recommend..
Basil Rathbone's sixth turn as Sherlock Holmes, with Nigel Bruce as his sidekick, Dr. Watson, is as enjoyable as the rest.
Holmes says lines that would sound ridiculous coming from another, but they work for Rathbone, as does Bruce as his partner.Another murder mystery involving some Napoleon busts and a creepy killer that breaks backs.
Basil Rathbone & Nigel Bruce return as Sherlock Holmes & Doctor Watson in this fine entry, based on the short story 'The Six Napoleons'.
Pearl of Death, The (1944) *** (out of 4) Seventh in Universal's series has a mysterious pearl stolen so Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Watson (Nigel Bruce) are on the case.
Rondo Hatton, a poor guy suffering from acromegaly, which you get when your pituitary loses its governor, is the creepiest of creepers in "The Pearl of Death." We don't even see him for most of the movie, derived roughly from Conan-Doyle's story about busts of Napoleon.
The Pearl of Death is about average for the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films I've seen so far.
The theft seems somehow related to a series of grisly murders in which the victims had their backs broken and are surrounded by smashed crockery ...This is one of the best of the great Rathbone-Bruce Sherlock Holmes movies, taken from Arthur Conan Doyle's brilliant story The Six Napoleons.
Based on "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle this film brings Rathbone and Bruce back as Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson.
Hatton is so fearsome and threatening that we know about him all throughout the film "Pearl of Death" well before he made his grand appearance in it!It's when jewelry crooks Giles Conover and his pretty assistant Naomi Drake, Evelyn Ankers, had the precious Borgia Pearl stolen from them, after they stoled it first, by an undercover, as a priest, Sherlock Holmes, Basil Rathbone, that they enlisted the services of the Hoxton Creeper to get it back for them.
Realizing that these murders were the work of the Creeper who used the smashed dishes and cups to cover up his real search for the Napoleon busts Holmes soon came to the conclusion that it was Conover who was using him to find the Napoleon bust with the Bogia Pearl hidden, by Conover, in it!***SPOILERS*** One of the better Sherlock Holmes films with Basil Rathbone as the famous detective "The Pearl of Death" did in fact have a very contrived and not too believable ending.
This time a sought after Borgia Pearl is the object of desire, worth snapping the lumbar vertebrae of many unfortunate victims' backs at the hands of the sinister Creeper(Rondo Hatton), working for a lecherous thief, the devilish, elusive Giles Conover(Miles Mander).
As a series of seemingly unrelated murders happen where each victim had their backs broken Lestrade feels they are unconnected but Holmes is not so sure...Produced & directed by Roy William Neill The Pearl of Death was the ninth out of fourteen Sherlock Holmes films featuring the duo of Rathbone & Bruce as Holmes & Watson.
Rondo Hatton who plays 'The Creeper' is one scary looking bloke, I wouldn't like to meet him in a dark alleyway that's for sure!I like these Sherlock Holmes mysteries & The Pearl of Death is pretty good although I wish there was more of a murder element rather than the recovery of a pearl.
And, equally stupid is Watson...a severe weakness throughout this series.After the pearl is stolen, the mystery as to its whereabouts is straight from the Conan Doyle story "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons".