The House Of Fear (1945)

When the members of a small private club are being murdered one by one, an insurance agent (Gavin Muir) asks the famous detective Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) to investigate. Loosely based on the THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS by Arthur Conan Doyle and directed by Roy William Neill. This is one of the better entries in the Universal Sherlock Holmes series. The Holmes films offer more humor than the original Conan Doyle novels though I wish Inspector Lestrade (Dennis Hoey) wasn't portrayed as such a bumbling idiot. The mystery here is fairly clever, it certainly stumped me and at a brief hour and 10 minutes, the movie is compact and without any padding. The film takes place in a secluded mansion on the Scottish sea coast which allows a rich atmosphere of rain, wind, lightning and an old stately manor with secret passages. With Aubrey Mather, Paul Cavanagh, Holmes Herbert, Cyril Delevanti, Doris Lloyd and Sally Shepherd.