ChikPapa Very disappointed :(
Animenter There are women in the film, but none has anything you could call a personality.
ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.
Jerrie It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...
biorngm Review - Prelude to Murder a/k/a Dressed to Kill Splendid film, meeting all the requirements in a Holmes mystery, noir prevalent, deductions continue through the story, each providing additional information until the very end with a resolved case. The villainous played by Patricia Morison was perfect in the role, beautiful woman, excellent actress, all contributing to the story. There was sufficient detail provided with each scene to watch Holmes carry out his meticulous search for all relative clues of the crimes committed. The opening at Dartmoor Prison sets the stage, explained later with John Davidson informing his confederates of the plates' location for fear of someone discovering the location prematurely. Stinky killed, Thompson run over by a cab, Kilgour's daughter robbed, and the attempt on Holmes' life were plenty of reasons to catch these thieves and murderers. Obviously the criminals would stop at nothing to get their hands on the stolen currency plates, well played during the movie. Holmes having Joe Cisto identify the song, Watson referring to his days learning the piano by asg numbers and Watson quoting Samuel Johnson all lead to Holmes conquering the criminals and seeing the stolen plates are returned to The Bank of England.
Eric Stevenson The Basil Rathbone "Sherlock Holmes" films have finally come to a conclusion. I it that this wasn't a very epic one, but a good one nonetheless. The best parts of this movie involve the villains. It's simply great to see these colorful characters with so much personality. It's a shame they fade away in the second half, but they luckily show up again. Rathbone is as good as ever as Sherlock. There's no sense of finality with this installment. They may have tried to make further movies. A character as legendary as Sherlock Holmes deserves great actor portrayal like this.This is one of the most interesting plots as it involves three music boxes that will display a secret message all put together. Holmes himself doesn't appear until 8 minutes in the movie, which is fairly long for this series. As a series with such short installments and many entries, they really do all seem like episodes of a TV show. I enjoy reviewing TV show episodes and am glad this structure was used. The series may have ended, but there are so many incantations, he will never be missed. ***.
AaronCapenBanner Roy William Neil directed, and Basil Rathbone & Nigel Bruce star as Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, all for the last time, as this proved to be the end of the series. Plot involves a crook in prison who had stolen unrecovered money plates of England and hidden them in three music boxes, which were sold at auction, prompting the murders of two of the buyers, as someone desperately wants possession of all three for nefarious reasons. Patricia Morison costars as a ruthless female criminal who is dressed to kill... Not bad finale has an interesting plot and good cast, though some clichéd silliness as well. Still, this was a reasonable send-off overall.
TheLittleSongbird Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Code isn't quite among the best of the series like Hound of the Baskervilles, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Scarlet Claw but it is better than Pursuit to Algiers(my personal least favourite of the series) and Voice of Terror. Neither of them are bad films though, even the weakest have entertainment value, but none are masterpieces nor did they try to be so. The story takes a little too much time to get going, things get more interesting once Holmes arrives on the scene, the film does end rather abruptly and agreed Holmes does make a few dumb and uncharacteristic mistakes here(like with the poorly guarded box). Basil Rathbone is excellent as Holmes as always, distinguished, cunning and authoritative. Nigel Bruce gives his all to Watson, while at times too much of a bumbling idiot he brings some joviality to the proceedings. Patricia Morrison is an elegant and calculating female nemesis too, and the ing roles are well-taken. Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Code is solidly made and directed, they don't try to be too fancy but neither do they take a cheap route and they do give off a good atmosphere. The music score is appropriately eerie and doesn't overbear the mystery at all, the dialogue is snappy and amusing with a few suspenseful elements and once it gets going the story- with a good if daft idea- is fun with some nice twists and turns. The climax may be somewhat too easy but it's also very exciting, while the Holmes comforting Mrs Hudson and Watson imitating a duck scenes are nice too. All in all, not a high note end to the entertaining Rathbone-Holmes films series but hardly a sour note either. 7/10 Bethany Cox
