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Sherlock Holmes' Fatal Hour

Play trailer Poster for Sherlock Holmes' Fatal Hour 1931 1h 23m Mystery & Thriller Play Trailer Watchlist
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Tomatometer 1 Reviews 56% Popcornmeter Fewer than 50 Ratings
Young foreign diplomat Ronald Adair (Leslie Perrins) becomes the blackmailed pawn of devious criminal Dr. Moriarty, who threatens to expose Ronald's gambling habit if he does not make a delivery of stolen notes to France. Having been tipped off by his partner, Dr. Watson (Jan Fleming), regarding Ronald's weakness, the brilliant detective Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Wontner) soon discovers where Moriarty is holding the young diplomat, and engages in a cat-and-mouse game to trap his arch enemy.

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Sherlock Holmes' Fatal Hour

Critics Reviews

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Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews The creaky but entertaining film is noted for a great opening scene of the robbery of the Bank of England shot entirely in silhouette and almost entirely without dialogue. Rated: B Oct 27, 2010 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member No great but this is also film history for it's time. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/13/23 Full Review Audience Member ok B movie fare and another holmes' entry Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member The Fatal Hour is truly a hidden gem of a film. Authur Wotner accentuates the cerebral and neurotic sides of Sherlock Holmes to excellent effect here. Fleming, as Dr. Watson, plays the perfect straight man to the eccentric Holmes. This film also demonstrates some early artistic film touches such as the fantastically dark and shadowed opening scene and claustrophobic interior shots which work to emphasize Holmes's "armchair-detective" style. The one serious fault I had with the film was the underwhelming first encounter between Moriarty and Holmes; the scene lacks the tension one would envision between the two. But even with this disappointing scene, I found the film a real treasure. I discovered this movie on the Hulu channel American Pop Classics, and they had some other really wonderful and obscure movies as well: http://www.hulu.com/studio/American-pop-classics?sort=name Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/23/23 Full Review Audience Member Arthur Wontner as Holmes and Ian Fleming as the reliable Watson are here in the earliest example of a Sherlock Holmes movie that I have seen. And this is Wontner's first appearance as the great detective. Compared to their later portrayals, which seemed to get lazier, I liked this mystery film from earlier in the 30's. Again the time period is moved up, but the style of the early 30's didn't bother me as much as the style of the later 30's in some other films. Visually the use of shadows and striking beams of light in a few tense scenes made for more interest in the mystery. Watching Holmes slowly uncover the clues and work to outsmart his nemesis proved the script was better to begin with for this who-done-it. It still seems a little odd the way Holmes talks about Moriarty like a conspiracy theorist that everyone doubts. That seems more like a movie creation than coming from the exciting words of Arthur Conan Doyle. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Sherlock Holmes' Fatal Hour

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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis Young foreign diplomat Ronald Adair (Leslie Perrins) becomes the blackmailed pawn of devious criminal Dr. Moriarty, who threatens to expose Ronald's gambling habit if he does not make a delivery of stolen notes to France. Having been tipped off by his partner, Dr. Watson (Jan Fleming), regarding Ronald's weakness, the brilliant detective Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Wontner) soon discovers where Moriarty is holding the young diplomat, and engages in a cat-and-mouse game to trap his arch enemy.
Director
Leslie S. Hiscott
Producer
Julius Hagen
Production Co
Julius Hagen Productions
Genre
Mystery & Thriller
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Feb 6, 2015
Runtime
1h 23m
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