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Dressed to Kill (1946)
Country of Origin: USA
Year of Production: 1946
Running Times: 71 mins 31 sec (UK - video (1992))
71 mins 58 sec (UK - theatrical) 72
mins
Format: black and white 35mm
Ratio: 1.37:1
Sound: mono
CREDITS
PRODUCTION
Production Company: Universal Pictures
Executive Producer: Howard Benedict
Producer: Roy William Neill
SCRIPT
Script: Leonard Lee, Frank Gruber
Story: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
DIRECTION
Director: Roy William Neill
Assistant Directors: Justin Cox, Melville Shyer
PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Maury Gertsman
EDITING AND POST PRODUCTION
Editor: Saul A. Goodkind
MUSIC
Musical Director: Milton Rosen
Music: William Lava, Charles Previn, Hans J. Salter, Paul Sawtell, Frank
Skinner, Richard Hageman (all uncredited)
Songs: Jack Brooks (uncredited)
SOUND
Sound: Glenn E. Anderson, Bernard B. Brown
Sound System: Western Electric Recording
MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Jack P. Pierce
Hair: Carmen Dirigo
Costume Designer: Vera West
VISUAL EFFECTS
Matte Artist: Russell Lawson
DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Art Directors: Martin Obzina, Jack Otterson
Set Decorators: Russell A. Gausman, Edward R. Robinson
MISCELLANEOUS
Dialogue Director: Raymond Kessler
CAST
Basil Rathbone (Sherlock Holmes)
Nigel Bruce (Dr John H. Watson)
Patricia Morison (Hilda Courtney)
Frederick Worlock (Colonel Cavanaugh)
Harry Cording (Hamid)
Carl Harbord (Inspector Hopkins)
Patricia Cameron (Evelyn Clifford)
Holmes Herbert (Ebeneezer Crabtree)
Edmund Breon (Julian 'Stinky' Emery)
Topsy Glyn (the Kilgour child)
Delos Jewkes (Joe Cisto)
Mary Gordon (Mrs Hudson)
Ian Wolfe (Commissioner of Scotland Yard)
Leyland Hodgson (the tour guide)
Lillian Bronson (tourist wife - uncredited)
Tom Dillon (Detective Sergeant Thompson - uncredited)
Charlie Hall (Hilda's cab driver - uncredited)
Olaf Hytten (Alfred the auction house bookkeeper - uncredited)
SUMMARY
A convicted thief has hidden stolen Bank of England
printing plates and is using the tunes of three musical boxes to offer
clues as to their whereabouts. The boxes are sold on and when their
new owners start to turn up brutally murdered, Holmes and Watson are
called in to investigate.
CAPSULE REVIEW
The Universal series ended with a slight rally in
the shape of the entertaining if preposterous Dressed to Kill. The plot
seems vaguely reminiscent of The
Pearl of Death (1944) but again
Rathbone and Bruce manage to keep the whole thing lively and watchable.
But by now even Universal were forced to admit that the game was no
longer afoot and this was to be the last of their Holmes series.
AVAILABILITY
UK
Theatrical Distributor: General Film Distributors
Video Distributor: Orbit Media (SVC0005)
DVD Distributor: Orbit Media (HSC0050)
USA
Theatrical Distributor: Universal Pictures Company Inc
Video Distributor: Madacy Entertainment; Celebrity Duplicating; United
American Video; VCI Home Video
Laserdisc Distributor: Republic (LV 27155 (1991)); 3M (M 17)
DVD Distributor: BFS Entertainment and Multimedia; Platinum Disc Corporation;
Koch Full Moon Releasing
CENSORSHIP HISTORY
Finland
Rating: K-16
UK
Rating: A (1946); U (1992)
TIMELINE
1946
April
26: UK - rated A by the BBFC (for theatrical release)
June
Day Unknown: UK - theatrical release
7: USA - theatrical release
1947
May
15: Finland - theatrical release
1954
December
13: USA - television broadcast (on CBS)
1959
September
3: UK - television broadcast (on Granada Television)
1960
May
26: UK - television broadcast (on Rediffusion)
1987
January
1: USA - video release (Celebrity Duplicating)
1992
July
30: UK - rated U by the BBFC (for video release)
1995
January
15: USA - video release (Madacy Entertainment)
June
28: USA - video release (Madacy Entertainment)
1998
October
12: USA - video release (United American Video)
2000
July
7: UK - television broadcast (on BBC2)
October
9: UK - DVD release (Orbit Media (HSC0050))
November
21: USA - DVD release (Koch Full Moon Releasing)
28: USA - video release (VCI Home Video)
2001
May
7: UK - video release (Orbit Media (SVC0005))
June
5: USA - video release (Front Row Video)
October
9: USA - DVD releasde (BFS Entertainment and Multimedia)
September
19: USA - DVD release (Platinum Disc Corporation)
November
9: USA - television broadcast (on CTNSD)
ALTERNATIVE TITLES
Il mistero del carillon - Italian title
Prelude to Murder - working title
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Code - UK title
Sherlock Holmes in Dressed to Kill
Sherlock Holmes - Jagd auf Spieldosen - German title
LINKS
SEQUEL TO
The Hound
of the Baskervilles (1939)
The
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939)
Sherlock
Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942)
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret
Weapon (1942)
Sherlock
Holmes in Washington (1943)
Sherlock Holmes
Faces Death (1943)
Spider Woman (1944)
The Scarlet Claw
(1944)
The Pearl of Death
(1944)
The House of Fear
(1945)
Pursuit to Algiers
(1945)
The Woman in Green
(1945)
Terror by Night
(1946)
REFERENCES
PERIODICALS
Monthly Film Bulletin vol.13 no.151 (July
1946) p.99 (UK)
credits, review
Motion Picture Herald vol.163 no.8 (25
May 1946) p.3007 (USA)
credits, review
Sight and Sound vol.2 no/6 (October 1992)
p.68 (UK)
note
BOOKS
Universal Horrors by Michael Brunas, John
Brunas and Tom Weaver (Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co (1990))
credits, review
KEYWORDS
Sherlock
Holmes; sequels; musical boxes; banknote printing plates; criminals
Last Updated:
10 August, 2009
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