Terror by Night (1946) - film review

Roland Carstairs engages Sherlock Holmes to guard his mother’s priceless diamond, the famed Star of Rhodesia, during a train journey from London to Edinburgh.  There has already been one attempt to steal the jewel and Carstairs is sure the thieves will try again.  It is a view shared by Scotland Yard, who send Inspector Lestrade to assist Holmes.   Sure enough, it isn’t long before disaster strikes – Carstairs is killed and the diamond is stolen.  Holmes suspects this is the work of a dangerous and highly intelligent crook, Colonel Sebastian Moran, an accomplice of the late Professor Moriarty...

Although it perhaps owes more to Agatha Christie than to Arthur Conan Doyle, Terror by Night is one of the more satisfying entries in the series of Sherlock Holmes films made by Universal in the 1940s, and a vastly superior film to the one that preceded it, Pursuit to Algiers (1945).  In spite of its tight production budget and restricted sets, the film is a taut and compelling mystery thriller, lightened by some effective downplayed comedy.

Having already played Holmes and Watson in a dozen films and numerous radio episodes, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce would be forgiven for growing bored with their roles, but there is no sign of that here.  Rathbone is as sharp and focussed as ever whilst Bruce’s amiable, bumbling Watson continues to be a delight.  Aficionados of Conan Doyle’s work will easily spot the references to his original Sherlock Holmes stories, The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle and The Adventure of the Empty House, amongst others.

With judicious use of stock footage and imaginative lighting and camerawork in the confined interiors (virtually all of the action takes place in a railway carriage), Terror by Night is a slick and atmospheric production.  The screenplay is one of the best in the series, with slightly more sophisticated humour than the tedious slapstick seen in earlier films.  Incredibly, even Inspector Lestrade manages to redeem himself, having made a complete fool of himself in every previous film he appeared in.  (A more cynical viewer might imagine that not long after having made his arrest at the end of the film, Lestrade was overpowered by the crooks and ended up being thrown off the Forth Bridge. This could explain Dennis Hoey’s absence from the next – and final – film in the series...)

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