Main Cast: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Hillary Brooke, Henry Daniell, Paul Cavanagh
Release Year: 1945
Country: US
Run Time: 68 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
Based on Conan Doyle's The Adventure of the Empty House, this "Sherlock Holmes" entry finds Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) trying to solve the case of the "Finger Murders". Several beautiful women have been found slain, all with their right forefingers severed from their hands. The police are prepared to write off the killings as the work of a madman, but Holmes deduces that there's a sane motive behind it all. Sure enough, the trail of evidence leads to Holmes' perennial nemesis Professor Moriarity (Henry Daniell), who is in league with lissome female criminal Lydia (Hillary Brooke). Though it isn't sporting to reveal Moriarity's nefarious scheme here, it can be noted that The Woman in Green comes to a nailbiting conclusion as a hypnotized Holmes wanders precariously along the ledge of a penthouse! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
The main problem with Universal's otherwise generally delightful Sherlock Holmes thrillers is that most armchair sleuths often are miles ahead of the supposedly so-eminent detective. And so it is with The Woman in Green, the solution to whose conundrum is never too taxing. Happily, this entry also features the unflappable Basil Rathbone matching wits with Henry Daniell, perhaps his only equal in unflappable Hollywood cool. You can cut the chill between these adversaries with a knife this time around and not even the bumbling Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) is able to ruin the built-up tension. As for Hillary Brooke in the title role, she is as statuesque and unruffled as ever. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Matthew Boulton - Inspector Gregson; Eve Amber - Maude Fenwick; Frederic Worlock - Onslow; Tom Bryson - Williams; Sally Shepherd - Crandon; Mary Gordon - Mrs. Hudson; Billy Bevan - Street Peddler; Olaf Hytten - Norris; Percival Vivian - Dr. Simnell; Harold de Becker - Shabby man; Tommy Hughes - Newsman
Credit
John B. Goodman - Art Director, Martin Obzina - Art Director, Vera West - Costume Designer, Melville Shyer - First Assistant Director, Roy William Neill - Director, Edward A. Curtiss - Editor, Hans Salter - Composer (Music Score), Mark Levant - Musical Direction/Supervision, Jane Huizenga - Production Designer, Virgil E. Miller - Cinematographer, Roy William Neill - Producer, Russell A. Gausman - Set Designer, Ted Von Hemert - Set Designer, John P. Fulton - Special Effects, Glenn E. Anderson - Sound/Sound Designer, Bernard B. Brown - Sound/Sound Designer, Bertram Millhauser - Screenwriter, David D. Martin - Technical Director
When several women are murdered and their forefingers severed, Holmes and Watson are once again called into action, but Holmes is at first, baffled. Widower Sir George Fenwick (Paul Cavanagh), after a romantic night alone with his girlfriend Lydia Marlowe (Hillary Brooke), is hypnotized into believing that he is responsible for the crimes. He is certain that he is guilty after he awakes from a stupor and finds a woman's forefinger in his pocket. His daughter comes to Holmes and Watson without realizing that Moriarty's henchman is following her. She tells Holmes and Watson that she found her father burying a forefinger under a pile of soil. She has dug up the forefinger and shows it to them.
Fenwick is then found dead, obviously murdered by someone to keep him from talking. Holmes theorizes that Moriarty, who was supposed to have been hanged in Montevideo, is alive and responsible for the crimes. Watson is then called to help a woman who fell over while feeding her pet bird. He leaves, and minutes later, Moriarty appears and explains that he faked the phone call so he could talk to Holmes. He then leans one of the chairs back, obviously signaling someone. Holmes sees an open window in an empty house. When Moriarty leaves, Watson arrives. Holmes explains what Moriarty did, notices that a window shade that was shut in the empty house is now open, and tells Watson to investigate.
Inside the empty house Watson, looking through the window, believes that he sees a sniper shoot Holmes in his apartment. Holmes then appears at the house and explains that he put a bust of Julius Caesar there because of the bust's resemblance to his own face (Holmes realized that as soon as he sat there, Moriarty would have him killed). Inspector Gregson takes the sniper, a hypnotized ex-soldier, away, but he is killed a little while later on Holmes's doorstep.
Holmes now realizes that Moriarty's plan involves:
1) killing women and cutting off their forefingers,
2) making rich, single men believe they have committed the crime,
3) using this fake information to blackmail them, and
4) counting on the victims being too terrified to expose the scheme.
He makes friends with Lydia, whom he had previously seen with Sir George at a restaurant, suspecting that is she in cahoots with Moriarty. She takes him to her house, where he is apparently hypnotized. Moriarty enters and tells Holmes to write a suicide note (which he does), walk out of Lydia's apartment onto the ledge, and jump to his death.
Watson and the police then appear and grab the criminals. Holmes then reveals he was never really hypnotized, but secretly ingested a drug to make it appear as if he had been. Moriarty then escapes from the hold of a policeman and jumps from the top of Lydia's house to another building. However, he hangs onto a pipe which becomes loose from the building, causing him to fall to his death.
