Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942)

Country of Origin: USA
Year of Production: 1942
Running Times: 56m 22s (UK - theatrical)/62m 19s (UK - video)/65m
Length:
Format: 35mm
Colour Format: black and white
Ratio: 1.37:1
Sound: mono

DIRECTION

Director: John Rawlins

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Universal Pictures
Associate Producer: Howard Benedict

SCRIPT
Script: John Bright, Lynn Riggs
Adaptation: Robert D. Andrews
Story: His Last Bow by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Woody Bredell (real name: Elwood Bredell)

EDITING AND POST PRODUCTION
Editor: Russell Schoengarth

MUSIC
Musical Director: Charles Previn
Music: Frank Skinner

SOUND
Sound: Bernard B. Brown
Sound Technician: Robert Pritchard

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Costume Designer: Vera West

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Art Director: Jack Otterson
Associate Art Directors: Martin Obzina, Edward R. Robinson
Set Decorator: R.A. Gausman

MISCELLANEOUS
Technical Advisor: Tom McKnight

CAST

Basil Rathbone (Sherlock Holmes)
Nigel Bruce (Dr John H. Watson)
Evelyn Ankers (Kitty)
Reginald Denny (Sir Evan Barham / Heinrich von Bork)
Thomas Gomez (R.F. Mead)
Henry Daniell (Sir Alfred Lloyd)
Montagu Love (General Jerome Lawford)
Olaf Hytten (Admiral Sir John Printiss)
Leyland Hodgson (Captain Roland Shore)

UNCREDITED CAST

Rudolph Anders (Nazi)
Edgar Barrier (the Voice of Terror)
Arthur Blake (Crosbie)
Hillary Brooke (Jill Grandis)
Lon Chaney Jr (Gavin)
Harry Cording (Camberwell)
Leslie Denison (Air Raid Warden)
Mary Gordon (Mrs Hudson)
Harry Stubbs (taxi driver)

Sherlock Holmes, now living in an England in the grip of World War II, investigates a series of propaganda radio broadcasts predicting acts of Nazi terrorism on British soil. The Ministry of Defence calls on the great detective and his assistant Dr Watson to crack the case before moral suffers and the war effort is irreparably damaged.

UK
Video Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (7788)

USA
Theatrical Distributor: Universal Pictures
Video Distributor: Fox Home Entertainment
Laserdisc Distributor: CBS Fox (2178-80)

CENSORSHIP HISTORY

UK
Rating: A (1943 - with cuts); PG (1990)

1942
September
18: USA - theatrical release

1943
October
Day Unknown: UK - theatrical release
6: UK - rated A by the BBFC (for theatrical release)

1954
October
2: USA - television broadcast (on CBS)

1960
March
17: UK - television broadcast (on Rediffusion)

1990
July
18: UK - rated PG by the BBFC (for video release)

1993
March
10: USA - video release (Fox Home Entertainment)

1995
September
19: UK - video deleted (Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (7788))

2003
December
20: UK - television broadcast (on BBC2)

The world's favorite sleuths live again! Mystery that rocks a horrified nation! Murder that names its victims beforehand!

Sherlock Holmes Saves London - working title
Stimme des Terrors - German title
Voce del terrore, La - Italian title
Voice of Terror - UK title

SEQUEL TO
Hound of the Baskervilles, The (1939)
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The (1939)

SEQUELS
Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943)
Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943)
Spider Woman (1944)
Scarlet Claw, The (1944)
Pearl of Death, The (1944)
House of Fear, The (1945)
Pursuit to Algiers (1945)
Woman in Green, The (1945)
Terror by Night (1946)
Dressed to Kill (1946)

INCLUDES FOOTAGE FROM
Invisible Man, The (1933)

REFERENCES

PERIODICALS

Classic Images no.168 (June 1989) pp.52-54 (USA)
illustrated review (by Blackie Seymour)

Kinematograph Weekly no.1905 (21 October 1943) (UK)
review

Monthly Film Bulletin vol.10 p.115 (UK)
credits, review

Motion Picture Herald vol.148 no.11 (12 September 1942) (USA)
review

Sight and Sound vol.13 no.12 (December 2003) p.63 (UK)
illustrated DVD review

Today's Cinema vol.61 no.4943 (15 October 1943) (UK)
review

BOOKS

Universal Horrors by Michael Brunas, John Brunas and Tom Weaver (Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co (1990))
credits, review

KEYWORDS

detectives, Nazis, sequels, Sherlock Holmes, spies, World War II

Last Updated: 19 August, 2009