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(More customer reviews)MPI Home Video has made a terrific decision here, combining all of its previously released DVD boxed sets of this classic 14-film series into one affordable package. It is a must buy for any Sherlock Holmes fan, or anyone who enjoys classic mysteries, who does not already have all of these wonderful films.
When these were first released on DVD it was truly a cause for celebration, as it represented the completed painstaking restoration of all 14 classic films by Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.
The UCLA Theatre Archives did an award-winning job in restoring and thus preserving these great films from 35mm master copies into the digital format, sometimes literally being forced to piece together the celluloid remnants that they found.
It took the archivists several years to complete the entire project, but was well worth the wait. The result is that the black and white images seem as fresh today as when the films were released to theatres more than 40 years ago. The archivists deserve a hearty thanks from all movie fans concerned with preserving America's classic cinema heritage for future generations to enjoy.
This boxed set includes a facinating feature on what it took to restore the films. Well worth watching, it's wonderful that it's included.
Atmospherically, "The Hound of the Baskervilles" is arguably the best of the 14 Holmes films, and the only one based specifically on a Conan Doyle story. It, and "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," are the only two "period" films in the series and run longer, the remainder taking place in then modern-day England and America of the late 30s and early 40s and run about 90 minutes each.
Because the "regular" series was made during World War II, there are many references to it, as well as some facinating patriotic drum beating on the part of Holmes that concludes many of the films.
In both "Hound" and "Adventures," Holmes dons his deerstalker cap, popularized by original Strand Magazine illustrator Sidney Paget who made the image synonymous with the great detective. It is interesting to note that in the first of the non-period films in the series, Holmes reaches for his handy deerstalker, but is stopped by Watson. "Holmes," Watson said, "you promised." Leaving the deerstalker on the peg, Holmes grabs a "modern" hat instead.
Rathbone is especially sharp in "Hound of the Baskervilles," and is partnered by Bruce, who plays a bumbling Watson throughout the 14 films that was not Conan Doyle's vision of the great sleuth's biographical "Boswell." Nonetheless, the pairing is hugely entertaining and satisfying.
The creation of the moor, the sinister grimpen mire and truly terrifying hound remains fantastic and does much to engender this story as one of Conan Doyle's most popular with modern-day
readers and viewers alike.
The final scene represents the only reference any of the 14 films made to Holmes' "seven-percent" cocaine habit as Rathbone asks Bruce to retrieve "the needle." The scene, criticized as too risque by 1939 audiences, caused the film's producers to make a conscious decision to omit any additional mention of Holmes' recreational drug use in future outings.
All of the films are really enjoyable and bear up wonderfully well under repeat viewings. For me, two of the best films of the "regular" series are The Scarlet Claw, where a village believes the supernatural is at work killing people, and Sherlock Holmes Faces Death, where Holmes must solve the riddle of the Musgrave Ritual.
Not matter your age, these films deliver hours of enjoyment, and thanks to the UCLA Theater Archives and MPI, will for generations to come. I only wish that Rathbone and Bruce had lived to see their great work released to new audiences in this pristine DVD condition.
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The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection stars Basil Rathbone as the legendary Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as the venerable Dr. John H. Watson. The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection is comprised of all 14 classic films on 5 discs: "THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES: ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES,""SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE VOICE OF TERROR,""SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE SECRET WEAPON,""SHERLOCK HOLMES IN WASHINGTON,""SHERLOCK HOLMES FACES DEATH," "SHERLOCK HOLMES IN THE SPIDER WOMAN," "SHERLOCK HOLMES THE SCARLET CLAW," "SHERLOCK HOLMES IN PEARL OF DEATH," "SHERLOCK HOLMES HOUSE OF FEAR," "SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE WOMAN IN GREEN," "SHERLOCK HOLMES PURSUIT TO ALGIERS," "SHERLOCK HOLMES TERROR BY NIGHT," SHERLOCK HOLMES DRESSED TO KILL."
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