Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror

In wartime Britain, morale is falling among the troops as a covert radio broadcast calling itself `the voice of terror' directs Nazi agents to carry out attacks and espionage. The Government calls in Sherlock Holmes to track down and stop the broadcast and, as a result, the attacks and espionage.

I have seen several of the modern set Holmes films, most recently `Sherlock Holmes in Washington'. Despite not really liking that one, I decided to give this one a stab anyway. The modern setting seems as much a way of using the films as wartime propaganda rather than as a way of improving the film or anything like that. For that reason this film struggles simply because all the changes have been made for that reason and hence, if they do act as an improvement, then it is only by chance.

The plot is reasonable but not great. It is more about getting the Nazis rather than Holmes' taking on any one foe or trying to solve a specific crime. Rathbone is still good but he looks like a modern fop in his dapper clothes and silly hairdo! Bruce is good but not used as much as he has been in other films. The Nazi's have no character and the support cast is not that strong. Of the film only the conclusion is exciting but even that basically is hinted at heavily all the way through.

Overall, this has all the stuff that I like about Holmes but the modern setting really hurts it. Instead of a good plot, an existing story is twisted to be set in WW2 and deducting is replaced by propaganda and triumphalism over a foe that is never anything more than a caricature.