Horrorfest 2018: The Scarlet Claw

Now let’s go back to Sherlock Holmes with 1944’s THE SCARLET CLAW, directed by Roy William Neill. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce return as Holmes and Watson in this installment, which is apparently considered the best of the series, though it didn’t seem necessarily better or worse than the other 4 I’ve seen. They all seem good to me.

This one resembles the first film, THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, in several ways, except Holmes gets a lot more screen time as Holmes and Watson travel to France to investigate murders attributed to a ghostly monster who haunts the swamps.

Of course Holmes does not believe in ghosts, so he sets about trying to track down the REAL reasons behind the mysterious goings-on as Watson hits the pub. Without giving too much away, I will say the villain is appropriately creepy, the effects used to make him glow are also creepy, and Holmes’ methods of capturing him, while reminiscent of BASKERVILLE, are still fun to watch.