Product Details

• Actors: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Patricia Morison, Edmund Breon, Frederick Worlock
• Directors: Roy William Neill
• Writers: Arthur Conan Doyle, Frank Gruber, Leonard Lee
• Producers: Roy William Neill, Howard Benedict
• Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: FOCUS FILMS
• DVD Release Date: February 13, 2001
• Run Time: 72 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000056T5D
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #450,063 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Dressed to Kill" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

From the Studio

This movie has the redoubtable Basil Rathbone consummately playing the legendary character he immortalised on the silver screen- Sherlock Holmes. Experience the excitement of viewing the famous duo of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce in the last of the Sherlock Holmes series.

THE PLOT: A well handled script, backed by awe inspiring performance provides a fantastic showcase to see exactly how this crafty mastermind works his way through puzzling conspiracies. Here is a complete review of the film included in this incredible DVD! In the last of the series, set in Dartmoor and London's antique auction rooms, giving viewers a glimpse of London in the 1940's, Holmes is pitted against a female adversary, played by Patricia Morison. A criminal, John Davidson, has stolen and hidden the plates for £5 notes from the Bank of England. Their hiding place is contained in a cipher located in three identical music boxes made at Dartmoor Prison and auctioned in London. In the meanwhile, Stinky, or Gilbert Emery, visits Watson to tell him of a strange theft. Stinky collects music boxes and someone has stolen a cheap one, leaving the expensive boxes behind. When the innocent purchasers of the boxes are murdered, including Watson's old friend, Holmes and Watson investigate. Holmes is captured by the thieves and left in a vacant garage, hanging from a beam, his hands bound, while a poisonous gas fills the room. He emerges triumphant for his (Rathbone's) last bow on the screen.

About the Actor

Basil Rathbone was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1892, but 3 years later, his family was forced to flee South Africa because his father was accused by the Boers of being a British spy at a time when Dutch-British conflicts were leading to the Boer War. The Rathbones escaped to England, where Basil and his two younger siblings, Beatrice and John, were raised by their mother Anna Barbara, a violinist, and their father Edgar Philip, a mining engineer. From 1906 to 1910, Rathbone attended Repton School, where he was more interested in sports than studies, but discovered his interest in the theater. After graduation, he wished to pursue acting as a profession, but his father disapproved and suggested that his son try working in business for a year, hoping his son would forget about acting. Rathbone accepted his father's suggestion and worked as a clerk for an insurance company--for exactly one year. Then he contacted his cousin Frank Benson, an actor managing a Shakespearean troupe in Stratford-on-Avon.

Rathbone was hired as an actor on the condition that he work his way through the ranks, which he did quite rapidly. Starting in bit parts in 1911, he was playing juvenile leads within two years. In 1915 his career was interrupted by the First World War. During his military service, Rathbone became a second lieutenant in the Liverpool Scottish, 2nd Battalion, working in intelligence, and received the Military Cross for bravery. In 1919, released from military service, he returned to Stratford-on-Avon and continued with Shakespeare but after a year moved onto the London stage. The year after that he made his first appearance on Broadway and his film debut in the silent film Innocent (1921).

For the remainder of the decade, Rathbone alternated between the London and New York stage and occasional appearances in films. In 1929 he co-wrote and starred as the title character in a short-running Broadway play called "Judas". Soon afterwards, Rathbone abandoned his first love, the theater, for a film career. During the 1920s, his roles had evolved from the romantic lead to the suave lady-killer to the sinister villain (usually wielding a sword), and Hollywood put him to good use during the 1930s in numerous costume romps, including Captain Blood (1935), The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, & Observation of David Copperfield the Younger (1935), A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Anna Karenina (1935), and The Last Days of Pompeii (1935), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Tower of London (1939), The Mark of Zorro (1940), and others. Rathbone earned two Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet (1936) and as King Louis XI in If I Were King (1938).

However, it was in 1939 that Rathbone played his best-known and most popular character, Sherlock Holmes, with Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson, first in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939) and then in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939), which were followed by 12 more films and numerous radio broadcasts over the next seven years.

Feeling that his identification with the character was killing his film career, Rathbone went back to New York and the stage in 1946. The next year he won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Dr. Sloper in the Broadway play "The Heiress," but afterwards found little rewarding stage work. Nevertheless, during the last two decades of his life, Rathbone was a very busy actor, appearing on numerous television shows, primarily drama, variety, and game shows; in occasional films, such as Casanova's Big Night (1954), The Court Jester (1955), Tales of Terror (1962), and The Comedy of Terrors (1964); and in his own one-man show, "An Evening with Basil Rathbone", with which he toured the U.S. IMDb Mini Biography By: Lyn Hammond

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Name That Tune, August 25, 2002

By 

James L. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dressed to Kill [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce star in their final film as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. This time, the duo is on the tracks of a gang stealing music boxes that mysteriously hold key information that will lead to much money. The music boxes are made in prison by a bank robber, who encodes the clues, but they are sold at an auction before his partners can buy them. There's nothing they won't do to get their hands on the boxes, including murder. There's not much new in this film that hasn't been seen in the other films of the series, although the music box angle is an interesting way of transferring information. Rathbone doesn't play this one with much energy ... maybe he was getting tired of the role, while Bruce is his usual, bumbling self. Although hardly the best in the series, fans of the duo will want to check it out.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Standard Sherlock Holmes fare, October 31, 2005

By 

Cory D. Slipman (Rockville Centre, N.Y.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dressed to Kill [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce star as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in the last of 14 feature films they collaborated on in this entertaining series made between 1939 and 1946. "Dressed to Kill was however not one of their finest flicks.

The plot revolves around a group of three music boxes constructed by an inmate at Dartmoor prison. This particular inmate stole and hid a set of engraving plates for 5 pound notes. Within the music boxes are clues designed to reveal the whereabout of the missing engraving plates.

The music boxes are put up for auction and when their purchasers start winding up murdered, Holmes and Watson begin to investigate. An old school chum of Watson's, "Stinky" Emery, a music box collector, becomes one of the victims. Soon Holmes' attention is captured by a suspicious trio, a distinguished looking retired colonel, a fetching dark haired young woman and a boorish, knife throwing cab driver. Holmes must match wits against this dangerous group to solve the mystery.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Mystery where Cheap Music Boxes are Invaluable!!, July 21, 2005

By 

Stephen Pletko "Uncle Stevie" (London, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Dressed to Kill (DVD)

+++++

(This review is for the DVD version of this movie by "FOCUSfilm" entertainment and released July 2001.)

This movie is, according to the opening credits, adapted from a story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 to 1930). This was the last movie in which Basil Rathbone played Sherlock Holmes. (This was also the first time I saw Rathbone play Holmes.)

This movie is concerned with stolen counterfeit Bank of England money plates. Of all things, cheap, identical music boxes that play an old Australian song and that were made in prison by the same inmate seem to hold the key to the plates' hidden location. Also interested in these music boxes are three of this inmate's partners in crime: Mrs. Hilda Courtney (Patricia Morison), Colonel Cavanaugh (Fred Worlock), and Cavanaugh's driver Hamid Yard (Harry Cording).

When murders start occurring, Scotland Yard is called in to investigate. As well, the super-sleuth along with his trusty sidekick Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) helps with the investigation. An attempted murder also occurs.

My favorite quotation said by Sherlock in this movie:

"The truth can only be found by the painstaking elimination of the untrue."

Basil Rathbone captures the essence of the famous gumshoe in his performance. Nigel Bruce as his bumbling aid also gives a superb and, to me, an unforgettable performance. Also, look for the fine performance of Patricia Morrison as the "femme fatales."

This movie is like a time capsule of 1940's London. As well, the background music adds to each scene.

The DVD picture quality is practically perfect. There are no distracting artifacts. However, voices at the beginning of this movie are a bit muffled but this gets better as the movie progresses.

Finally extras include a theatrical trailer, still gallery, and seven original radio broadcasts of "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (3 ½ hours) starring Rathbone and Bruce. I found these interesting.

In conclusion, this is a fun movie that I feel serves as an excellent introduction to Basil Rathbone portraying Sherlock Holmes!!

(1946; 70 min; 12 scenes; black and white; full screen)

+++++