Terror by Night

source: Terror by Night

*** Slight Spoilers Ahead *** Terror By Night is a movie I have seen four times now that I have it on DVD. There is one thing I am learning from my growing DVD collection and it is this: always watch a film twice before you write a review of it! Terror By Night directed by Roy William Neill is a case in point. This movie is more impressive with each viewing. I look at my comments on Terror By Night after seeing it the first time and I cringe! Terror By Night did not impress me much the first time I saw it. It seemed to be a predictable and rather boring tale of murder on a train made without much suspense, action or character development. As I said before, watch a film twice before you write a review of it. Terror By Night is growing on me. It is more interesting each time I watch it and I am glad I have it in my DVD collection. The humor is great. The insight into the behavior and actions of the characters upon subsequent viewings enhances the film. I agree with another reviewer who noted that the film is better upon a second viewing. The conclusion and solving of the crime is surprising which increases the watchability of Terror By Night the more familiar I become with the film. I am beginning to appreciate the performances by the actors and the proficiency of the director Terror By Night seemed like a movie I would only watch once when I first saw it. Now it has become a movie I look forward to seeing again and I understand the affection other reviewers have for the quality of this Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce Sherlock Holmes entry.

Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) are hired by Roland Carstairs to travel with him and his mother on a train from England to Edinburgh. His mother is in possession of the Star of Rhodesia--an expensive and beautiful diamond--and Roland wants to make sure Holmes is there to protect it. In short order Roland is murdered and the Star is stolen. Holmes has to figure out who on the railway car killed him and stole the diamond. One of the better Holmes & Watson movies done for Universal. It moves VERY quick (it runs under an hour) and has a very ingenious plot. To be honest I had guessed who had done it before it was revealed--but I still didn't know why. Rathbone is excellent as Holmes and Bruce unfortunately plays Watson as an idiot--BUT he surprisingly does help quite a bit in getting the killer at the end. The acting is pretty good by everybody else if a little broad (we're to suspect all of them so they ALL act suspicious). Unfortunately we get the incredibly annoying Inspector Lestrade (Dennis Hoey) in this too. He's an even bigger idiot than Watson and his "comic" relief is downright painful. Still a fast-moving pretty good murder mystery. Perfect late-night viewing.

Terror by Night is directed by Roy William Neill and written by Frank Gruber. It's based on characters created by Arthur Conan Doyle, loosely using ideas from the stories The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax, The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, The Adventure of the Empty House and the Sign of Four. It stars Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Alan Mowbray, Dennis Hoey, Renee Godfrey and Vivian Vedder. Music is by Hans Salter and cinematography by Maury Gertsman. Plot finds Sherlock Holmes (Rathbone) hired to protect Lady Margaret Carstairs (Mary Forbes) and her precious diamond, the Star of Rhodesia. Who along with her son Roland (Geoffrey Steele), is aboard the express train from London to Edinburgh. It seems that the presence of the diamond on board this train is known by many characters, both good and bad. Holmes and his trusty companion Dr. Watson (Bruce), will need to keep their wits about them. The thirteenth and penultimate film in the Rathbone/Bruce Sherlock Holmes series, Terror by night is a considerable improvement on the one before it, Pursuit to Algiers. Like that film, this one is also set mostly on a passenger vehicle, but where the boat premise wasn't utilised for great drama and mystery previously, here on board a speeding train it is. Clocking in at under an hour in running time, film does have the feel of a TV episode, but the characters are interesting and the twists and turns in the plot are most welcome. Picture also sees more of Lestrade; true enough he's more inept than ever, as is Watson, but they keep the comedy on the high heat till the story veers into mystery solving time. Here there's also enjoyment to be had in trying to guess who the villain is; OK, so you don't have to be Einstein to figure it out, but the mystery unfolds with some wily Holmes trickery and some Dr. Watson gusto. 7/10

This is not the best of the Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce pairings but nonetheless this is one of the most fun mystery movies to watch. Terror by Night is one of those I put on late at night to watch curled up on the sofa with a cat by my side. The rhythm of the train and the steadfast bond between Holmes, Watson and Lestrade creates one of the most relaxing murder mysteries ever put on film. The deliberate pace may not please all, but to those with a taste for it this is the mystery equivalent of a good house wine.

This was the last of the Rathbone/Bruce Sherlock Holmes films that I needed to see in order to complete the series; it's a shame that I finished with such a weak entry. The plot for this one see Holmes once again employed to help protect a valuable jewel (with a violent history, natch) from being stolen (Pearl of Death, anyone?), the gimmick being that almost the entire action takes board on a steam train travelling from London to Edinburgh. As always, Rathbone and Bruce are excellent as Conan Doyle's classic crime-fighting duo, but they are about the only good thing in this otherwise disappointing mystery: an uninspired script introduces plenty of characters as suspects and umpteen red herrings, but does very little of interest with them, and the action unfolds in a predictable manner, with several of the film's key 'twists' being obvious long before their reveal. This film also features one of the worst performances of the entire series, courtesy of Renee Godfrey as obligatory babe with a secret, Vivian Vedder; the lady might be stunning to look at, but my god she's awful in this film, every line delivered in an unconvincing accent that ranges from mid-west American to unspecific European, but never once sounding like a Londoner, as intended. 5.5 out of 10, but not good enough for me to round my rating up to a 6.

Although this Sherlock Holmes movie seems to have little to do with the Conan Doyle stories, it is a very good and watchable film. Instead of the usual Holmes brilliance in deductive reasoning, this film is more of an action picture set aboard a train traveling from England to Scotland. Some uncharacteristic things in this film are Holmes nearly falling to his death as he is stuck outside the speeding train and a fight with the bad guys at the end. The Holmes of the original stories was not exactly an action hero like he seems to be in this film. However, this can easily be forgiven--especially since the spirit of the original tales is much closer here than in most of the subsequent Universal Pictures Sherlock Holmes stories--all made during WWII. In these earlier films, Holmes often fought with Nazis and they strayed so far from the Conan Doyle version of the sleuth that they were Sherlock Holmes films in name only. Much of this return to a truer character can be attributed to the fact that this film came out in 1946--just after the war. In this film, Holmes and Watson are hired to guard a precious diamond. And, only a short time later, their employer is murdered and someone aboard the train seems to be responsible for this and the theft of the jewels. The film has a lot of twists and turns and a very nice ending. I particularly liked how Inspector Lestrade was, for once, not a total idiot and actually was an important part of the movie. Plus, Watson was also not nearly as stupid as he was usually portrayed in these films. So overall, this is a very solid B-movie detective series film that most people should be able to enjoy.

This Conan Doyle story has a big plus for a movie adaptation: the story takes place on a train. Holmes has been asked to protect a famous jewel, the Star of Rhodesia, while the owner, Lady Margaret Carstairs, takes the train from London to Edinburgh. Of course Holmes cannot prevent the theft, nor is the thief (and murderer) able to get off the train. This is why train stories are among the best settings for a whodunnit: all the suspects are in their own compartments, noone can get off the train and, unlike a whodunnit in a closed room, the detective has more freedom to interrogate the suspects one by one. Of course, the whodunnits on train trips bring their own set of cliches: you can bet that someone will try and kill the detective by pushing him or her out of the train. Sadly Terror By Night isn't without those clichés and, what's worse, gives Nigel Bruce (as Holmes's sidekick Watson) too many chances to spoil the movie by cracking unfunny jokes. Terror By Night only lasts 60 minutes, so the pace is fast enough to keep the viewer interested and the movie entertaining. The movie is in the skilled directing hands of Roy William Neill, who shot this film shortly before he died of a heart attack. Neill directed more than 100 films between 1917 and 1946, of which ten Sherlock Holmes films and movies with intriguing titles as Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man (1943) and The Good Bad Girl. Apart from helming two Holmes films (this one and Dressed To Kill) he also directed the much praised film noir Black Angel (starring Peter Lorre) in the last year he lived. At least Roy William Neill left the planet in glory, a worthy end of a man who was born on a ship off the coasts of Ireland.

Or so the trailer for Terror By Night went, also "A thrill a mile at 90 miles an hour". This means with a meagre "running" time of 57 minutes I should have had 85.5 thrills, and does this astounding feat of mathematic calculation make me Colonel Sebastian Moran?! I've always enjoyed this penultimate Rathbone Holmes film, although my daughter (Chunky Chops) has always been rather bored by it and only ever watches it again because we've usually seen the previous twelve outings in quick succession. Rathbone was certainly getting fed up with the role by now and it showed. However, it's a pleasant whodunnit, with many scenes and accents to either admire or hoot at. Universal couldn't have had a large bill for the sets, as nearly all the action is on board a train - the London to Scotland where a murder has been committed to gain possession of a privately owned huge diamond. Apart from its shortness the only other thing to slightly let TBN down for me is the climactic fight - where fantasy becomes the far-fetched involving the ultimate non-sequiteur I believe! A nice little film for the discerning viewer who paradoxically doesn't want to think too much but simply revel in the atmosphere and the 85.5 thrills of the chase!

Spoilers herein. As bad as the one the preceded it. Worse, even. There is no detection here, only a protection scheme, the ever bumbling Watson, a pretty girl (actually pretty this time), an invented nemesis, some fights and the old switcheroo. None of this bears any resemblance to what made the original stories the most popular and influential of its generation. Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.