FROM HER LIPS – POISON THAT BRED MURDER!

Several women in London have been found murdered, with their forefingers severed; Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) soon begins to suspect who’s actually behind it all…

Film number 11 in the Holmes series begins with a Jack the Ripper-type case, but then (somewhat disappointingly) turns out to involve extortion and hypnosis. This must be one of Moriarty’s most far-fetched ideas, but Henry Daniell is a capable villain and the film cleverly borrows ideas from several Conan Doyle stories.

Sadly, Lestrade has been replaced by a more wooden cop (Matthew Boulton).

1945-U.S. 68 min. B/W. Directed by Roy William Neill. Cast: Basil Rathbone (Sherlock Holmes), Nigel Bruce (John Watson), Hillary Brooke (Lydia Marlowe), Henry Daniell (Moriarty), Paul Cavanagh, Matthew Boulton. 

Trivia: Followed by Pursuit to Algiers (1945).