The Spider Woman (1943)

A bizarre series of suicides referred to as the Pyjama Suicides by the newspapers stump Scotland Yard. Who else but the great detective Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) to break the case but first he must fake his own death. Cobbled together from several of the Holmes short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle and directed by Roy William Neill. Outside of the notorious Professor Moriarty, the Holmes movies from Universal rarely had a nemesis that could match wits with the detective. Here, Holmes has met his match in the "Spider Woman" (Gale Sondergaard, who else?), a clever villainess that Holmes refers to as a female Moriarty and doesn't hold back his admiration for the woman's bravado. The mystery itself is merely okay but the interplay between Rathbone and Sondergaard ups the ante. Universal was pleased enough with Sondergaard's performance to give her her own movie, THE SPIDER WOMAN STRIKES BACK (1946) which despite its title was in no way was a sequel. A pleasant diversion. With Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson, Dennis Hoey, Vernon Downing and Mary Gordon.