A Study in Scarlet (1933)

Directed by Edwin L. Marin. Starring Reginald Owen, Warburton Gamble, Alan Dinehart, June Clyde, John Warburton, Anna May Wong, Alan Mowbray, Doris Lloyd, Billy Bevan, Wyndham Standing, Tetsu Komai.

Using the characters but not the plot of Arthur Conan Doyle’s first Sherlock Holmes novel, scribe Robert Florey has the sleuth investigating a secret society that inherits and shares the assets of members who croak, which makes it pretty easy to come up with motive when the trustees start getting picked off one by one. Owen’s only portrayal of Holmes—he essayed Dr. Watson on film just the year before!—which is just as well since he’s downright middling in comparison to the likes of Basil Rathbone or Peter Cushing. Drab, primitive aesthetics emphasize the mundane nature of the mystery, made even worse by all the bad “copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy” prints in circulation because of the lapsed copyright. Developed not for Owen to headline a series of Holmes quickies, but as a vehicle for Chinese-American star Wong; she receives second billing in the credits despite only being onscreen for about eight or nine minutes total.

42/100