Sherlock Holmes (1939 film series)

Universal produced them as B pictures with lower budgets and updated the films' settings to the then-present time of the Second World War, with Holmes fighting the Nazis.

Both Rathbone and Bruce continued their roles when the series changed studios, as did Mary Gordon, who played the recurring character Mrs Hudson.

In 1938, Basil Rathbone was cast as Sherlock Holmes for the 20th Century-Fox adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles; Nigel Bruce was chosen to play Dr. John Watson.

[4] Although Fox planned to make further Holmes films with Rathbone and Bruce, complications in negotiations between the studio and the estate of the character's creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, brought a premature end to the series;[5] Fox's decision to withdraw from further productions was also because the Second World War meant that "foreign agents and spies were much more typical and topical than the antiquated criminal activities of Moriarty and the like".

[8] In February 1942, following negotiations with the Doyle estate, Universal Pictures acquired the rights to the films and signed contracts with Rathbone and Bruce to continue their portrayals.

[13] While the Fox adaptations had high production values[14] and larger budgets,[15] the Universal films changed the approach of the series, and aimed "simply to be entertaining 'B' pictures".

[18] The writer David Stuart Davies concluded that Basil Rathbone was "the actor who has come closest to creating the definitive Sherlock Holmes on screen", also describing the choice as "inspired".

[19] The historian David Parkinson agrees, and wrote that Bruce's "avuncular presence provided the perfect counterbalance to Rathbone's briskly omniscient sleuth".

[57][58] The two 20th Century Fox films—The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes—had survived complete and in good condition, but those in the Universal series suffered badly over the years, as they passed through the hands of different copyright owners.