Sherlock Holmes encounters his most formidable foe since Professor Moriarty in "The Spider Woman," among the best of Universal's Holmes series. A number of mysterious "pajama suicides" baffle police, while Holmes is away fishing in Scotland with Doctor Watson. Feeling light headed, Holmes faints and falls from a cliff into a rushing stream; newspapers scream "Sherlock Holmes Dead!" Watson and Mrs. Hudson clean out Holmes's rooms at 221B Baker Street, and even Inspector Lestrade mourns the master sleuth. Of course, not all is as it seems, and Basil Rathbone has opportunities to illustrate his gift for disguise, perhaps one too many for the unwitting Doctor Watson.
Betram Millhauser's screenplay, which references several Conan Doyle stories, is witty and well written. With more humor than usual, Holmes verbally spars with his nemesis, especially during one delicious interplay in which both he and his foe know the identity of the other, but pretend otherwise. Watson's mistaking a visitor for Holmes in disguise provides another amusing highlight. Featured front and center in the first two Universal films, the still waging World War has been banished to only a passing reference in the cartoon faces of Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo used as targets in a shooting arcade, and Holmes offers no patriotic speeches to inspire the audience. The fifth in Universal's Holmes series is all about Sherlock Holmes.
One key to the film's success is Gale Sondergaard, an Oscar winner for "Anthony Adverse," who is perfect as the spider woman of the title. A lesser actress might have chewed the scenery, but Sondergaard suggests evil with the lift of an eyebrow, a quick glance, or a toothy grin. A woman of obvious intellect and guile, Andrea Spedding, the spider woman, charms her victims and captivates the audience; Sondergaard is missed whenever off screen. Vernon Downing, who played one of the convalescing officers in "Sherlock Holmes Faces Death," returns as Spedding's accomplice in crime, Norman. Both Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, perhaps challenged by Sondergaard, rise to the occasion and are in top form as Holmes and Watson; the reliable Dennis Hoey and Mary Gordon are back as Inspector Lestrade and Mrs. Hudson, respectively. Roy William Neill once again helms, and Charles Van Enger, who shot "Sherlock Holmes Faces Death," also returned to film this entry in the series with the appropriate atmosphere. Stir a witty script with Rathbone and Bruce in fine form, add a clever plot, season with several close brushes with death, garnish with a diabolical villain and the result is "The Spider Woman," a top entry in the Sherlock Holmes series.
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