Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

alexanderdavies-99382 "Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon" is the first truly effective Holmes film from "Universal" studios. Lionel Atwill makes for a brilliant Professor Moriarty and his is the best interpretation by far. The confrontation between Holmes and Moriarty is great. The plot has a fair degree of intrigue and atmosphere, the low lighting accounting for this. I have always been entertained by this 1942 film, its running time of 65 minutes whizzes by. The story of "The Dancing Men" is slightly borrowed for this film but that was the beauty of the Basil Rathbone films. The scriptwriters knew how to create a film around an Arthur Conan Doyle story. Dennis Hoey is on hand as the bumbling Inspector Lestrade. Although there is rivalry between he and Holmes, they do realise that they can depend on each other when there is danger afoot. One of the best of the modern run.

SnakesOnAnAfricanPlain Sherlock and Watson's second wartime adventure. This time the forced patriotism isn't as prevalent which gives way to an interesting story that uses the wartime backdrop to great effect. Holmes, once again played by the phenomenally good Rathbone, helps a scientist with a Secret Weapon to escape Switzerland without running foul of Nazis. Once back in England, the scientist develops his weapon for the British government but an old nemesis of Holmes' is back to wreak havoc. The film has the typical but always amusing banter between Holmes and Watson, with Lestrade also given a number of key scenes to play off the pair. The mystery itself is a bit up and down at times. We are told the answer before Holmes or Moriarty work it out which means they are playing catch-up with us. Also with the short running time there is no time for any character development. It is all exposition. Character was particularly important here, as one could argue against the scientist's choices in how he deals with the situation. A fun and fast paced entry.

victorsunstar Tonight I am watching ( for genre ) Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon. 1943 colorized version. It stars "Razzle Backbone" as Sherlock Holmes and he rescues a supposed bomb sight expert professor from Austria and during the British test flight and use of his bomb sight in the bomber... They have him cranking a Bessler photo enlarger up and down with cuts to a view screen of the cross hairs of the sight on the bombing test target below....Guess that they was hard up for a bomb sight prop so someone ran down to the Universal studios photo lab and uh, borrowed an enlarger. This ranks right up there with plumes of smoke floating upwards from Buck Rogers loudly buzzing rocket ship... fun...

ShootingShark During WWII, Sherlock Holmes manages to smuggle a key scientist out of Switzerland. The scientist promises his revolutionary bomb-sight design to the Allies, but before long he has been kidnapped by the evil Professor Moriarty …This is the first of eleven Sherlock Holmes movies directed by the talented Neill, and is one of the best. It showcases many of the most enjoyable features of the series; Rathbone in a variety of disguises, breathless plotting, great B-movie supporting players (in this case Atwill and Herbert), fiendish villains, dank fog-shrouded sets and bewildering clues. Rathbone's seemingly never-ending energy propel it forward, his hawkish stare and quiet intelligence more than compensating for the sometimes lacklustre production values. This film marks the first of Hoey's sextet of agreeable appearances as the flat-footed Inspector Lestrade. Very loosely based on the Arthur Conan Doyle short story Dancing Men.