Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

bkoganbing Baker Street purists won't have too much to quarrel about with this adaption of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Six Napoleons. Because of a master criminal's haste to get away, six people who bought busts of Napoleon Bonaparte are marked for death unless The Pearl Of Death is found.Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce are on the trail of another master criminal, in the Sherlock Holmes stories, Professor Moriarty's second in command Giles Conover. Conover is played with a quiet menace by British colony regular Miles Mander.What Mander is after is the Borgia Pearl which with its connection to the Borgias has as bloody a history as the fabled Star Of India. Rathbone already pulls a double switch on Mander and his lovely accomplice Evelyn Ankers. But later through a bit of Holmes own hubris Mander steals the Borgia Pearl from the British Museum. But he doesn't have it long. Pursued by the police fresh from the theft Mander ducks into a pottery shop and hides the pearl in some fresh plaster busts of Napoleon, in one of six of them which are later sold.Now he's on a mission to recover his loot and it's a bloody mission because Mander brings along in tow the Hoxton Creeper, a giant of a man who can and does snap people's backs to kill them. The creeper is played by Rondo Hatton and he brings this Holmes feature into the realm of Gothic horror. In fact Dr. Watson's knowledge of forensic medicine is called into play here when he correctly identifies Hatton's known method of homicide.One of the better Basil Rathbone films from the Sherlock Holmes series.

dougdoepke Solid Holmes entry. The suspense remains on high throughout as Holmes races to find the great pearl before criminal mastermind Giles Conover (Mander) gets it. Director Neill keeps things moving briskly, along with good suspenseful use of the hulking, sadly mis-shapen Rondo Hatton, surely one of filmdom's most tragic and unforgettable figures. It's also one of Rathbone's best performances as the masterful detective. Note his level of intensity at appropriate moments, establishing an air of intellectual authority that's completely convincing. I would think this is one of the performances that made him the definitive Holmes.On the downside: Miles Mander, in my view, is a little too undistinguished to measure up as a Holmes archrival and intellectual competitor. Too bad they couldn't get a Lionel Atwill or a George Zucco for the Conover role. On the other hand, Evelyn Ankers shows some uncommon versatility as Conover's icily beautiful assistant. That opening scene of her, the old man, and the disappearing pearl is one of the most intriguing set-ups of the series. Nigel Bruce's Watson gets a rare extended comedic scene showcasing his superb talents as an absent-minded bumbler. Too bad the series didn't leave the comic relief to him instead of overloading with the fitfully funny Inspector Lestrade (Hoey). Anyway, it's a very well-crafted and suspenseful 69 minutes of series entertainment.

ctomvelu1 Very loosely based on "The Six Napoleons," this flick finds Holmes and Watson on the trail of a missing black pearl. Holmes gets it away from the bad guys and then loses it back to the bad guys. The story is a direct filch from Wilkie Collins' "The Moonstone," the first English language detective novel. The pearl is cursed and has caused rivers of blood to flow as it changes hands over he centuries. Holmes even says he would rather see it dropped to the bottom of the ocean at one point. The villain (Mander) is dull as dishwater, but his female cohort (Keyes) is another matter. She wears more disguises than Holmes ever dreamed of as she attempts to track down the pearl after her boss loses it. Some of the music was lifted from the score for "The Wolfman," and Keyes just happened to be the love interest in that movie. See if you can spot Holmes' entrance in this one.

Scarecrow-88 This time a sought after Borgia Pearl is the object of desire, worth snapping the lumbar vertebrae of many unfortunate victims' backs at the hands of the sinister Creeper(Rondo Hatton), working for a lecherous thief, the devilish, elusive Giles Conover(Miles Mander). Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are out to discover why innocent people are found dead, their china dishes broken all over the crime scenes. A Borgia Pearl was stolen by Conover in a daring heist actually caused when Holmes himself proved to the museum curator that his security system was flawed, inadvertently assisting the conniving con artist who almost got away with it. Conover had to get rid of the pearl temporarily and Holmes & Watson soon discover that it was hidden in one of six plaster busts of Napoleon..it's essential that Holmes get to the bust containing the pearl before Conover and The Creeper do, or else another victim might be targeted. Of course, Holmes must contend with Scotland Yard's Inspector Lastrade(Dennis Hoey), who is assigned to the rash of serial killings, having to tolerate his temperament and obtrusive attitude. Along the way, Holmes' life is in danger because he poses a threat to Conover's plans. Universal Studio's regular Evelyn Ankers has a substantial supporting role as Conover's lovely partner-in-crime, Naomi Drake, who uses aliases and disguises to secure information for her protégé. Hatton's The Creeper is quite an effectively spooky villain, barely seen but quite established thanks to director Roy William Neill's superb methods of building his presence until his reveal late into the film. Rathbone is more intense in this film, because of his treatment by authoritative figures and the press who blame him personally for the loss of the pearl, and Bruce's lovable Watson almost gets his best friend killed when Conover attempts to kill the Baker Street sleuth with a book containing a springing dagger. Mander, as Conover, has a very wily villain which contends with Moriarty as one of Holmes' more despicable and challenging foes. The Universal Studios production values add immensely to the beautiful look of the film and this cast couldn't be much better. Macabre plot, to boot.