Customer Reviews

Colonel Warburton's Madness & Other Mysteries: The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the second eagerly awaited installment of the new-to-CD series presenting volumes 7 - 12 of the Basil Rathbone / Nigel Bruce radio plays in their immortal roles of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson.

In this 6-CD set, the titles are as follows:

1 - Case of the Out-of-Date Murder & Waltz of Death
2 - Colonel Warburton's Madness & the Iron Box
3 - Scandal in Bohemia & the Second Generation
4 - In Flanders Fields & the Eyes of Mr. Leyton
5 - The Tell-Tale Pigeon Feathers & Indiscretion of Mr. Edwards
6 - Problem of Thor Bridge & Double Zero

Lovingly restored (including commercials from its sole sponsor, Petri Wine), Rathbone and Bruce will take you on a nostalgic time warp back to the era of classic 1940's radio mysteries. In our estimation, it is an excellent follow-up well worth waiting a year for since the first installment, "The Unfortunate Tobacconist," was released in 2003.

Although most of the stories aren't movie-caliber material, all of the mysteries are relatively easy to follow and are of excellent storytelling quality. Further, Rathbone and Bruce gave wonderfully energetic performances that can make you easily visualize the action as it progresses, especially if you are readily familiar with the classic film series they appeared in as the same beloved characters.

An added bonus is some behind-the-mike-info about how the Sherlock Holmes radio shows were produced.

Side notes:

1. The packaging this time is less elaborate: it is lightweight cardboard instead of plastic CD cases.

2. Some of the Petri commercials get to be rather tedious (if not,overbearing) -- you may want to fast-forward through some or even most of them.

3. According to the packaging, there were 213 episodes over the course of eight years featuring Rathbone and Bruce. Hopefully, that means there will be several more CD compliations to come!

Overall, we heartily recommend "Colonel Warburton's Madness & Other Mysteries" to mystery fans of all ages.

I wouldn't listen to the previous post if I were you. This series was extremely popular to arm chair dective fans through World War II. You feel yourself thrown back in time as Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) brings the listeners back as he accounts his adventures with Sherlock Holmes. The actors and characters are brilliant!! I have been listening to the audio tape version of these for years before bed. I have heard these stories over and over for years and still enjoy them.

Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce are famous if not THE MOST famous duo to portray Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Luckily, fans are able to not only enjoy them in the movies, but in audio stories as well.

I have just purchased the two DVD collections of these, even though I have the audio cassette versions because I love them so much. These stories put you back to victorian London and you feel as though you are actually IN the story!

I will continue to listen to these over and over again and I suggest everyone purchase these. I am hoping they put out every episode on DVD (my tapes are getting a bit old!) PURCHASE THESE!!! You won't be sorry!

"Colonel Warburton's Madness" is the second of the four available CD collections of Sherlock Holmes radio episodes from 1945/46 starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. Unlike its predecessor, "The Unfortunate Tobacconist", this collection contains two adaptations of actual Conan Doyle stories.

"The Case of the Out of Date Murder" is a fun if predictable story which gets the collection off to a good start. "The Waltz of Death", set in Vienna, is another good story, although somewhat depressing due to the number of victims. At the story's climax Holmes arguably goes much too far in using a young American woman as bait to trap the killer.

"Colonel Warburton's Madness" is based on one of the "unrecorded adventures" mentioned by Watson in the Conan Doyle stories. It starts out well but ultimately becomes rather silly, with Holmes having to bribe a little girl into letting him borrow her dog -- a scene which demonstrates how much more innocent than ours was the time in which these programs were made. "The Iron Box" makes clever use of a calendrical conundrum also exploited by W.S. Gilbert in the plot of "The Pirates of Penzance".

"A Scandal in Bohemia" is an adaptation of Conan Doyle's first short story concerning Holmes, the story which also features **the** woman, Irene Adler. Rathbone's interpretation of Holmes' attitude toward Adler is interesting: rather than sounding infatuated with her or irritated that she outwits him, Rathbone's Holmes seems to become far more cheerful and jolly than usual at the thought that a woman like Irene exists. "The Second Generation", which aired the week after "A Scandal in Bohemia", is an excellent sequel to that story set twenty years later and featuring Irene Adler's daughter.

"In Flanders Fields", set during World War I, caters to the somewhat warped attitudes of wartime audiences. It is rather disturbing to hear Holmes refer to Germany as "a nation of barbarians". "The Eyes of Mr. Leyton" begins with a sequence cribbed directly from the opening of Conan Doyle's "The Man With the Twisted Lip", and can scarcely be regarded as co-existing with that story in the same fictional continuity. It does, however, boast a highly suspenseful sequence in which Holmes seemingly vanishes in London's East End and Watson is unable to find him.

A story featuring Mycroft Holmes, Inspector Lestrade and a former member of the Moriarty gang, and in which Mrs. Hudson plays a far more proactive role than usual, might be expected to be an exercise in pandering to the desires of the Holmesian fan audience. In fact "The Tell Tale Pigeon Feathers" is one of the most ingenious and satisfying Holmes pastiches I have encountered. As with some other episodes, the second half is less strong than the first half, but this is still an excellent story. "The Indiscretion of Mr. Edwards" is a bizarre tale that plays much more strongly than usual on Watson's reputation as a ladies' man, even though it reminds us that Watson is married -- at a point in time when he is possibly not married in the Canon! Holmes' blind faith in Mr. Edwards' innocence, although ultimately justified, seems somewhat out of character, and Watson's willingness to take a fall for "Edwards" to avoid scandal is rather repellent to modern sensibilities.

"The Problem of Thor Bridge" is an excellent adaptation of one of Conan Doyle's best stories. Some of the changes from the original are quite interesting: the 1940's American radio audience was apparently felt to have a stronger sense of sexual morality than the 1920's readership of "The Strand", and thus the passage in which Conan Doyle makes clear, in restrained, tasteful language, that Gibson asked his children's governess to become his mistress is replaced with the statement that he asked her to marry him while knowing his wife would not grant him a divorce. The denouement also demonstrates a greater concern with gun safety on the part of the writers than Conan Doyle apparently had. "The Double Zero" is a forgettable, predictable story set in the boringly cliched setting of a gambling casino.

As with the other installments in this series, the sound is far better than might be expected given the age of the recordings. "Colonel Warburton's Madness" is not artistically perfect Holmes, but it is fun listening.

More unedited Radio Broadcasts from the late 30's and 40's with Rathbone and Bruce at their best. Originally released on Cassette many years ago but now for the first time on CD. Highly recommended.

I love this collection of radio broadcasts! Rathbone and Bruce are in fine form here. Their chemistry is marvelous! The stories are certainly good fun and I truly had a most enjoyable time with set. I'm very glad to have this. It's a blast!

Innocent, romantic, and informative; that's just the narrative between the stories which were abosulutely great. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce seem more tangible to my generation when I hear their performances of the Master and his Boswell.

Finally it comes to CD, I wore the audiocassettes out, if you like using your imagination, turn down the lights and enjoy the two truest performers who ever graced a radio or soundstage. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce the only Holmes and Watson, like George Reeves was Superman and Clayton Moore was the Lone Ranger.
Excellent sound, stories are interesting, clever and can be heard again and again!!!! Highly recommend!!

I am so happy I found these old Sherlock Holmes Radio shows on CD at Borders / Amazon...

I have enjoyed them for years on cassette...but they are so worn now...

Still, however I search for more...

I have to believe there must be more of these Shelock Holmes Radio Shows out there...

I am under the impression they were aired weekly in the 40's with what I was told ...very few reruns...

So...If you or anyone can clue me in???

And again...The "Splendid Service" I received from Borders / Amazon was greatly appreciated...


James J. Liden

As a piece of history this CD set is of some interest, the ads are amusing, as are the informal chats with Nigel Bruce as well as some of the trivia about the production of the shows, but that's it.

J S Thompson who wrote a customer review of this audio series, you should be ashamed of yourself - you never mentioned that the scripts were unmitigated rubbish. Conan Doyle would have been grateful that due to his dying in 1930, he never had the misfortune to hear such tripe. The mysteries are so pathetic it's as though a retarded monkey, trying for Shakespeare, totally failed and spewed this out instead.

Please lovers of literature - avoid this pap, it is truly excruciating, the only mystery is that someone had the gall to present this to the listening public.

The title of the set is Colonel Warburton's Madness. This story is so weak it made me want to puke. My wife couldn't bring herself to continue listening to it and read a magazine instead. Give this set to someone you hate, as long as you can work out a way to force them to listen to it.