Nazis, I hate these guys.

Basil Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes leaves behind the trappings of the 19th century for this 1940s adventure, based loosely on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s tale His Last Bow.

A radio broadcast from Germany is threatening destruction on England, and it gleefully predicts and calls out each moment of destruction with eerie accuracy. A security council for England has decided that there is only one option, call in Sherlock Holmes (Rathbone) and his good right arm, Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce).

And off they go on a quick, just over an hour that is predictable, not very exciting, but definitely sees our hero putting paid to a secret Nazi team working inside the UK. Their job, execute mayhem and destruction across the country, and pave the way towards a full-scale invasion.

Being only an hour, the film can’t help but move quickly and, sadly, it’s also very easy to tell how the villain is. Because you know there is someone on the high council who is feeding the information to the Nazis.

Holmes and Watson are still very enjoyable, there’s a pointed remark from Watson about Holme’s deerstalker, as if they are intentionally leaving it behind for this special adventure.

It’s not exactly a flag-waving film, but it does easily illustrate the dangerous threat that the Nazis pose to England. And it’s a wonderful idea to think that like Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones, Sherlock Holmes (definitely outside of his timeline here) is doing his part to stop the Nazis as well.

There’s a lovely leading lady, Kitty (Evelyn Ankers). Here’s the downside, she claims to be English, but she certainly can’t handle the accent, and sounds too American. They could have adapted the script for that, but they didn’t. At least she’s pretty, and also willing to do her part to stop the Nazis as well.

This is my least favorite of the series so far, and while I can appreciate why they wanted to have Holmes soundly beat the Nazis, removing the character completely from his prior established timeline does the series a great disservice.

If you want this Holmes to take place in the 40s, then set it in the 40s. Sure, you could argue the previous two could have been set in the 40s. But what do I know.

It’s not horrible, but it’s certainly not as solid as the other films. Let’s see what happens in Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon.