The Woman in Green (1945) - film review

London is terrorised by a serial killer who preys on young women, cutting off their right forefingers after slaying them in the most brutal manner.  The police are convinced this is the work of a madman but Sherlock Holmes divines a more sinister purpose to the murders.  His theory is confirmed when a wealthy widower Sir George Fenwick is murdered shortly after being seen burying one of the forefingers in his garden.  Holmes discovers that just before his death Fenwick was being blackmailed and concludes that he was implicated in the killings whilst under the influence of hypnosis.  Only one man in London has the villainy and intellect to conceive such a fiendish scheme – Holmes’s arch-nemesis Professor Moriarty...

The ninth entry in Universal’s series of Sherlock Holmes films sees the famous sleuth once more crossing swords with his nemesis Professor Moriarty, who was last seen falling to his death in Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1943).  Again, Moriarty has not only miraculously survived but has changed his appearance, this time adopting the guise of Henry Daniell, a distinguished character actor with an impressive series of screen credits, including a supporting role in Chaplin’s The Great Dictator (1940).  Daniell had appeared in two of the earlier films in the series: Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942) and Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943).  With his icy cold persona and subtle mortician’s menace, Daniell makes a superb Moriarty, and a worthy opponent to Basil Rathbone’s charismatic Holmes.

The beginning of The Woman in Green differs markedly from that of the other films in the series, using a voice-over narration to set the scene, in much the manner of a classic American film noir.  The tone is much darker than in the preceding films, with a chilling sense of the macabre.  This mood is sustained for a good ten minutes or so, helped by the delayed entry of Nigel Bruce’s idiotic Dr Watson and the replacement of the buffoonish Inspector Lestrade by the more sober Inspector Gregson.  Unfortunately, the film then soon reverts to the style of the others in the series, with Watson called upon to provide comic relief.

Whilst the film’s plot is an original story, it weaves in elements of two original Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle: The Final Problem and The Empty House, even appropriating some of Doyle’s memorable dialogue.  The screenplay was written by Bertram Millhauser, the last he contributed to the series, and was originally intended to be a much darker work, involving the murder of young children, with a suggestion of paedophilia.  The Hollywood censors weren’t going to allow that and insisted on changes to the screenplay.  Another thing the in-house censors objected to was the sequence where Watson, under hypnosis, was requested to drop his trousers.  In the revised version, Watson merely has to take off one of his shoes and a sock.

The Woman in Green offers some excellent performances and includes some of the best scenes in the Universal series of Sherlock Holmes films, notably the sequence where Holmes is apparently hypnotised.  However, it is hampered by an unconvincing storyline that is riddled with unnecessary plot contrivances and marred by a somewhat botched denouement.  Hillary Brooke makes a stunning femme fatale but her contribution is eclipsed, unfairly, by Daniell’s presence as Moriarty.  Although the film has its flaws, it is stylishly shot, with unusual camera angles that suggest deceit and heighten the tension.  It may not be perfect but The Woman in Green is just as enjoyable as the other films in the series, thanks mainly to the cosy rapport between Basil Rathbone’s Holmes and Nigel Bruce’s Watson.

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