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Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

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Tuesday, June 12, 2018

The Scarlet Claw (1944)

Starring Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Gerald Hamer, Paul Cavanagh, Arthur Hohl
Directed by Roy William Neill
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson investigate the death of a reputed British actress in Canada, and learn a local legend of a monster may be connected to the crime. 

One of the most highly regarded films in the Universal Holmes series, the picture has some wonderful atmosphere, including creepy exterior scenes of boggy terrain, highlighted by the appearance of a glowing creature animated by Universal's ace special effects man, John P. Fulton.  Friend and film historian Troy Howarth points out that George Robinson, who photographed several of the Universal horror films, lensed this entry and his skills would have been appreciated on other Holmes pictures.  Along with the fine visuals, there's an equally fine mystery at back of this one, with plenty of suspects for the viewer to guess between, and well-scripted revelations of clues one by one.  The cast is quite fine as well, with Hamer as a charming but mild-mannered postman, Cavanagh as a proponent of belief in the supernatural who may have secrets he's hiding, Ian Wolfe as Cavanagh's former butler, eager to head out of town, and Miles Mander as a crippled former judge who's paranoid of being a future victim.  It's a well-polished production worthy of the acclaim it's received.

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