THE SPECKLED BAND (1931)

Except for the sacrilege of giving Sherlock Holmes at least three secretaries and a computerised office this is a pretty traditional Holmes tale which, allowing for the dramatic embellishments called for by the script, sticks pretty close to the original Arthur Conan Doyle short story. Massey is a rather good Sherlock and certainly gives the impression of actually working at mentally solving the crime. Although the print of the film viewed was pretty awful with obvious leaps in the action where scenes and dialogue are missing the film has some nice visual touches with excellent sets. With the exception of Massey the acting in just what you would expect from an English film of the early sound years, although Lynn Harding does a fair stab at rivalling Tod Slaughter as a melodramatic villain - six years later Harding would play another Holmes villain in SILVER BLAZE, a rather duller outing for the great detective which was distinguished only by the presence of Arthur Wontner whose Holmes bears a remarkable similarity to the original Sidney Paget Strand Magazine illustrations. Rating **