Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Watson (Nigel Bruce) continue their own efforts against the Third Reich in this 1942 film that is loosely based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Adventure of the Dancing Men story. I say loosely, but it’s really only the code that comes into play.

Holmes gets to put his disguises to work to help get a Swiss scientist, Tobel (William Post Jr.). He’s designed a new bomb sight, which can be broken down into separate parts. He and Holmes smuggle them out of the country and back to England, right under the noses of the watchful Germans.

On their arrival in England, Tobel refuses to hand over the parts directly to the government, preferring to oversee the project himself. He selects four other scientists, unknown to each other, to work on the parts separately.

But shortly after he puts that plan into action, he vanishes!

Lestrade (Dennis Hoey) is partially dumbfounded, so it’s a good thing Holmes and Watson are around.

But Holmes isn’t ready for where the case will take him. Because despite the war effort, there’s a more dangerous enemy out there, at least for Holmes…

Moriarty (played by Lionel Atwell this time around) is back.

As a film, this is another short entry in the series, just running over an hour. It moves along nicely, and while Holmes and Watson don’t always mesh with the time period, they are as Victorian as they come, while the rest of the world is at war.

Some of it works well, but it doesn’t have a vibrant spark to it. It’s not as alive as the first two films in the series. I get that these films were coming out at a time when it was meant to rouse patriotic duty for war bonds and the like, but it’s frustrating that the skimped a little on the story.

Rathbone is absolute perfection as Holmes, he’s clever, can deliver pointed remarks with class, and you have no doubt that he’s the smarted guy in the room – unless Moriarty is there – and then complications ensue.

On the whole, I am enjoying the series, Rathbone and Bruce are great together. There are some interesting works and some questionable ones. I love that everything seems to be confined to sets, and we’re already seen reuses on them. But it’s also hilarious that accents only seem to matter for some of the characters.

The series is a lot of fun, and I’m enjoying exploring them. I’ll be curious to see how the series progresses through the war years, and how it affects the storytelling. And also if Rahtbone and Bruce remain as engaging through the run. They’re wonderful now, will I think that ten films from now?