This was one of the first Universal Holmes films I ever saw. I believe I was ten at the time, and the film kept my attention fixed on the screen from start to finish. Fifteen years later, it still has much the same effect.
Without doubt the most gruesome entry in the series, The Woman In Green presents us with a shocking series of murders. The bodies of young women are being found all over London, their right forefingers inexplicably severed and absent...as if the killer (who is compared more than once with Jack the Ripper, invoking Holmes's Victorian roots) is taking them with him as morbid trophies of his senseless crimes. When Sherlock Holmes is called in to assist Scotland Yard, however, he soon finds method in the madness...and the ultimate criminal mastermind pulling the strings.
The story is an original, but pulls key moments from The Final Problem and The Empty House in order to punctuate the action...and very effectively. Rich in atmosphere, with magnificent performances all around, I would actually rate this film at 7½ stars...placing it just below the best entry, The Scarlet Claw. Rathbone's Holmes is in top form, Bruce's Watson manages to be sensible at least half the time, and Henry Daniell's Moriarty (cited by Rathbone as his favorite of the three Professors who played opposite him) is a sinister delight to watch...cold, calculating, and emotionally anemic, he is the perfect counterpoint to Rathbone's Holmes.
On the technical side, the film is on a par with most of the series...very capably made, despite the less-than-ideal circumstances. Roy William Neill and company showed amazing skill and tenacity in producing as many Holmes films as they did, in such a short span of time, with extremely limited resources...and this is one of their finest efforts.
Without doubt the most gruesome entry in the series, The Woman In Green presents us with a shocking series of murders. The bodies of young women are being found all over London, their right forefingers inexplicably severed and absent...as if the killer (who is compared more than once with Jack the Ripper, invoking Holmes's Victorian roots) is taking them with him as morbid trophies of his senseless crimes. When Sherlock Holmes is called in to assist Scotland Yard, however, he soon finds method in the madness...and the ultimate criminal mastermind pulling the strings.
The story is an original, but pulls key moments from The Final Problem and The Empty House in order to punctuate the action...and very effectively. Rich in atmosphere, with magnificent performances all around, I would actually rate this film at 7½ stars...placing it just below the best entry, The Scarlet Claw. Rathbone's Holmes is in top form, Bruce's Watson manages to be sensible at least half the time, and Henry Daniell's Moriarty (cited by Rathbone as his favorite of the three Professors who played opposite him) is a sinister delight to watch...cold, calculating, and emotionally anemic, he is the perfect counterpoint to Rathbone's Holmes.
On the technical side, the film is on a par with most of the series...very capably made, despite the less-than-ideal circumstances. Roy William Neill and company showed amazing skill and tenacity in producing as many Holmes films as they did, in such a short span of time, with extremely limited resources...and this is one of their finest efforts.