We will all remember these two BELOW. The films were made in Hollywood but the casting of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce was just perfect.

ABOVE In a publicity still

I always thought that this version of ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ really suffered because of it’s lack of English locations and location filming. It was Studio bound mainly although the sets were pretty good.

It still somehow lacked that English feel that is so vital in this story but the later ones which were set much later in the forties were much more acceptable to us I think – they were shorter but somehow captured the mood

Richard Greene played Sir Henry in ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ – and shortly after this he joined the British Forces and fought in the Second World War after which his career faltered for almost a decade until he became very famous on a world scale as Robin Hood.

I really like the story ‘The Speckled Band’ but have never seen this early version. In the scene above we have Lynn Harding, and Arnold Stewart with Holmes here played by Raymond Massey.

One comment from someone who has seen the film says ‘Very bad casting. Raymond Massey looked no more like Sherlock Holmes than James Cagney’

This film has Arthur Wontner as Holmes – again a comment from the same contributor ‘ A first class actor with a strong resemblance to the character. Easily the best Holmes up to that time‘.

It was made at Twickenham Studios and released in 1934

The film above from 1991 is ‘Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady’ and in this story Holmes and Watson are older. The film’s running time is 187 minutes so over 3 hours long. The film also featured singer Engelbert Humperdinck in a straight role.

I am not sure that it did any good at the Box Office – it was a European Production with much of the filming done on the continent.

We have skipped past Jeremy Brett who was superb as Holmes with Edward Hardwicke as Dr Watson. This would require at least a full article.

However we must not forget the BBC Radio series with Carleton Hobbs as Holmes and Norman Shelley in the role of Doctor Watson

Carleton Percy Hobbs (18 june 1898 – 31 july 1978) was a British actor most famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes on radio.

Hobbs is the only one who have performed Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in radio shows :

• In 1943, he played Dr. Watson in The Boscombe Valley Mystery with Arthur Wontner as Sherlock Holmes.
• From 1952 to 1969, he played Sherlock Holmes in 75 episodes (56 stories and reruns) in the radio show Sherlock Holmes (BBC) with Norman Shelley as Dr. Watson.
• This is the longest show in the history of Sherlock Holmes radio plays. The stories recorded were created in two main batches. The first 18 stories was from 1952 to 1958, when the recordings were made for BBC Children’s Hour. The second batch spans from 1959 to 1969 and were produced for the adult listener.