Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 22-July-07
Spoiler Rating: Medium

Terror by Night (1946)

If there is one movie setting that almost always works, it's a train. Who can resist its rhythmic romantic promise of travel, new faces in narrow corridors, and private lives unfolding just one thin panel away? Doesn't it seem like an elegant throwback to an erstwhile age? A train is simply a wonderful place for cinematic adventure, especially when it happens that one of the transient neighbors is a desperate criminal. Small wonder, then, that at least one Sherlock Holmes picture is a classic railroad whodunit.

"Terror by Night" is relatively tame as far as Holmes mysteries go; it doesn't give the hero much opportunity for brilliant deduction (through no fault of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who didn't write it). Nevertheless, the setting and stars make it more than watchable. This is one of the many outings of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, the cream of the crop. Rathbone brings a confident air, an athletic build, and the merest hint of humor to his portrayal of the genius detective, while Bruce bumbles like the best of them as he fashions Dr. Watson into a comic sidekick.

Indeed Watson amuses as the quintessential English good ol' boy (circa 1945, although the train nicely diminishes the impact of the updated timeframe). As Holmes and Inspector Lestrade (Dennis Hoey) investigate the poisoning of an aristocrat and the theft of an enormous diamond called the Star of Rhodesia, Watson gets tipsy and plays cards with a long-lost buddy (Alan Mowbray). The suspects in their car include two rail employees, a tarty woman delivering her dead mother to a final resting place (Renee Godfrey, god-awful), a short-tempered mathematics professor (Frederic Worlock), and a Scottish couple with a secret, along with the diamond's owner (Mary Forbes). En route to the truth Holmes nearly gets pushed off the moving train and concludes that the crime (or crimes, since more murders follow the first) reveal the hand of his second-most diabolical nemesis, Colonel Sebastian Moran. The way he says the name suggests the big leagues of lawlessness, so while "terror" might be an overstatement, the movie feels worthy of the legendary Holmes.

Copyright © 2007 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.