Film Music Friday: "Sherlock Holmes in the Movies."

 

Nicol Williamson as Sherlock Holmes in
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976)

A recent episode of Kansas Public Radio's Film Music Friday is on "Sherlock Holmes in the Movies," with selections ranging from The Hound of the Baskervilles and Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror to The Seven-Per-Cent Solution and Young Sherlock Holmes.

Heartbeat (1946).

Adolphe Menjou and Ginger Rogers in Heartbeat (1946)

In Heartbeat (dir. Sam Wood), Ginger Rogers flees reform school for tutoring at Basil Rathbone's school for pickpockets. She is caught in mid-theft by Adolphe Menjou, who compels her to steal a watch from diplomat Jean-Pierre Aumont, as Menjou is suspicious of Aumont's relationship with his wife. Further complications ensue as Ginger is threatened with a return to the reformatory.

Huxley's "The Gioconda Smile" (radio, 1945).

Charles Boyer and Ann Blyth in
A Woman's Vengeance (1948)

There have been several film, TV, play, and radio versions of "The Gioconda Smile" (1921) by Aldous Huxley, who was born today in Surrey in 1894. "The Gioconda Smile," listed as one of the best mystery short stories of all time, was adapted as the film A Woman's Vengeance (1948) with Charles Boyer and a 1950 play with Basil Rathbone. The story involves a man who faces questions after the death of his wife and his marriage to a much younger woman. This 1945 radio version is from the Molle Mystery Theater.

Crossroads (1942).

There's more amnesia in store in Crossroads, as diplomat William Powell is blackmailed for crimes that occurred before he lost his memory. Hedy Lamarr, Claire Trevor, and Basil Rathbone co-star.

Rathbone, Colman, Marshall, Rains: WWI regiment fellows.

"There's an east wind coming,
Watson": Basil Rathbone, left,
and Nigel Bruce in
Sherlock Holmes and
the Voice of Terror

Using primary documents, James Cronan discusses on the UK National Archives blog the WWI service records of actors Ronald Colman (injured by an exploding shell), Herbert Marshall (lost a leg), Claude Rains (gassed), and Basil Rathbone (decorated). They served in the same regiment, albeit at different times. The comments mention the war records of Nigel Bruce (Rath-bone's Watson) and Victor McLaglen.

• Part 1 of the blog post (Colman, Rathbone)
• Part 2 of the blog post (Rains, Marshall)

Christie's Love from a Stranger (1937).

Agatha Christie's "Philomel Cottage," in which a wife suspects her new husband of sinister intentions, has been adapted several times. These include a 1937 film (also known as A Night of Terror; see below) with Ann Harding and Basil Rathbone and a 1947 film with stars John Hodiak, Sylvia Sidney, and John Howard, and a screenplay by Philip MacDonald (The List of Adrian Messenger, etc.). Other versions include a play by Frank Vosper and the October 1943 Suspense episode with Orson Welles and Geraldine Fitzgerald.

Mystery-related Hirschfeld cartoons.

Truman Capote in Murder by Death

The Web site of the Al Hirschfeld Foundation features online images of the renowned cartoonist's work that reflect the entire span of his long career. Although the resource is a work in progress, those images with a mystery connection include Arsenic and Old Lace (with Boris Karloff, 1941), Basil Rathbone (as Sherlock Holmes, 1990, and in Witness for the Prosecution, 1957), The Bishop Murder Case (1929–30), Dial M for Murder (with Maurice Evans, 1953), Everett Sloane in Crime Doctor (1944), Florence Reed in The Shanghai Gesture (1928), Murder by Death (1976), and A Pin to See the Peepshow (1953).

Information, Please with Mystery.

Otr.net offers various episodes of Information, Please (moderated by Clifton Fadiman) with Basil Rathbone (September 27, 1938), Rex Stout (March 28, 1939), Baker Street Irregulars founder Christopher Morley (September 18, 1942; October 30, 1942; June 21, 1943), and Alfred Hitchcock (January 22, 1943). Go here to listen (need Real Player).

(Hat tip to PhiloBiblos)