This is an interesting film as Holmes investigates why a trio of murdering thieves are after cheap and poorly made music boxes.
One of the thieves is a beautiful woman named Hilda Courtney (Patricia Morison) who proves to be the most deadly of all. It seems the three music boxes contain a code for something very valuable, and Courtney and her partners want it at any cost.
Morison makes for a very fetching villain and one of the most evil Holmes and Watson ever have to face. This is one of the most known Holmes films thanks to it falling into the public domain and being on about every label that ever was.
When this film was restored bu UCLA they did not find any surviving 35mm film elements for the opening credits and so they had to use a 16mm print and then make it look as close as possible to the original. There is a slight variation in quality, but it still looks great.
If you've seen any of the PD prints and enjoyed them, I recommend you check this out and see how it should look. The film is a great way to end the Holmes series.
The rest of the cast includes Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson, of course along with Edmund Breon, Frederick Warlock and Mary Gordon as Mrs. Hudson.
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