The Woman in Green (1945)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

An original story I guess which drew a little from The Final Problem. For my humble opinion, the story itself is excellent, it's very dark, and would almost work today, fitting the bill for today's demand for the dark and grizzly. The aspects of it I enjoyed, as I say I liked the story, I loved the hypnotism theme, that was cleverly done, the knitting needle etc. The scene showing the young lady going to her room at the beginning was genuinely terrifying. On the downside it's one of the very few entries in the series I find extremely dull, it feels quite slow, it plods along, lacking a little pace and imagination. The usual female villain has become a little bit of a cliché, she's beautiful, sinister and able to seduce him (seemingly.) Henry Daniell was not my favourite Moriarty by any stretch, I found him to be very wooden, although Hillary Brooke was great as Lydia. It's worth watching, but unlike Spider woman and The scarlet Claw it's not easily one to watch regularly. 6/10

Hillary Brooke blesses this movie with her ineffable ease and subtlety, while Holmes watches for the public good. The movie is stylish and enjoyable (despite the absurd script, with some quite stupid subject matter, though it began well, with forebodings of a Ripper copycat), and Henry Daniell as Moriarty is vastly superior to the workmanlike Rathbone; Moriarty gives dignity to every scene he's in. Now to be fair, even in the stories, the mastermind was unlike all the rest, a less good idea of the author, but here Rathbone gets saddled with an over-the-top script, and the movie feels like another episode in one of the '60s TV series. Rathbone's role resembles a Dr. Who, with that unmistakable proletarian drive, an intellectualized proletarian, with none of the _reclusiveness nor the intensity (that gave him a certain eeriness) of the literary Holmes, Rathbone's Holmes is unintellectual and even a bit placid, save for the occasional bursts of energy, another person altogether, although, at Lydia's home, he looks a bit like Poe, the writer; but otherwise, his Watson is almost better. Rathbone is a good actor, here he is simply out-shined, surpassed by others in the cast.Genre-wise, it's not a mystery movie, but a melodrama, albeit a 'Universal' picture, immeasurably helped by some of the actors (H. Brooke, Daniell, Bruce). Apart from the script (a pure love letter to '40s melodramatic rubbish), it's an exciting movie, nicely crafted, with fine cast, production values, and directing; that is: they each stood for their rights, and worked with what they had, and got through.

Now, how many times have we seen Professor Moriarty 'die' before our own eyes? And now we learn that he's allegedly been hanged in Montevideo a year ago - and yet, when an eerie murder series starts in London, with the victims all being young women from completely different backgrounds, and from their bodies always being one finger missing, instead of a 'homicidal maniac', as Watson suggests, Holmes again is sure that his literally... indestructible arch-enemy is at his diabolical work again...His investigations lead him to believe that hypnotism is involved (which makes Watson even more disbelieving...) - and he finally decides to let himself be 'hypnotized' as well by that mysterious 'woman in green' who's obviously collaborating with Moriarty...A clever and rather creepy plot, some pretty suspenseful moments; but otherwise, especially for those who've seen many 'Sherlock Holmes' adaptations, more or less routine stuff: Holmes against Moriarty - once again...

Woman in Green, The (1945) *** (out of 4) Eleventh film in the Basil Rathbone series has him once again playing Holmes and this time trying to crack the mysterious case of women being murdered and having their right forefingers cut off. With the help of Watson (Nigel Bruce) the two put the pieces together and they of course lead to Moriarty (Henry Daniell). This here is certainly one of the better entries in the series as we get a pretty dark and morbid story to mix in with the great performances. Neill does a terrific job directing the picture and I love the visual look that he gives the film. There are a lot of dark shadows that give the film an unmistakable atmosphere that really helps the storyline. Having a serial killer used in the film isn't all too shocking but the fact that he's cutting off the victim's fingers just gives the film a darker edge that many other mysterious from this era don't have. As to be expected, Rathbone is terrific as Holmes and it certainly hadn't ran out of gas with the character. As always what makes Rathbone so great in the role is that we actually believe he's this intelligent man who could solve anything thrown his way. Bruce is also up to his usual high standards and Hillary Brooke makes for a great femme fetale as she has an extremely dark and sexy look to her that perfectly fits her character. Daniell also makes for a very good Moriarty as he's strong enough of an actor where we can believe him to be this wise villain.