5/5 It's Elementary, this is a Must Purchase!
  by E. Hornaday (Lawrenceville, NJ United States)
MPI Home Video has made a terrific decision here, combining all of its previously released DVD boxed sets of this classic 14-film series into one affordable package. It is a must buy for any Sherlock Holmes fan, or anyone who enjoys classic mysteries, who does not already have all of these wonderful films.

When these were first released on DVD it was truly a cause for celebration, as it represented the completed painstaking restoration of all 14 classic films by Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.

The UCLA Theatre Archives did an award-winning job in restoring and thus preserving these great films from 35mm master copies into the digital format, sometimes literally being forced to piece together the celluloid remnants that they found.

It took the archivists several years to complete the entire project, but was well worth the wait. The result is that the black and white images seem as fresh today as when the films were released to theatres more than 40 years ago. The archivists deserve a hearty thanks from all movie fans concerned with preserving America's classic cinema heritage for future generations to enjoy.

This boxed set includes a facinating feature on what it took to restore the films. Well worth watching, it's wonderful that it's included.

Atmospherically, "The Hound of the Baskervilles" is arguably the best of the 14 Holmes films, and the only one based specifically on a Conan Doyle story. It, and "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," are the only two "period" films in the series and run longer, the remainder taking place in then modern-day England and America of the late 30s and early 40s and run about 90 minutes each.

Because the "regular" series was made during World War II, there are many references to it, as well as some facinating patriotic drum beating on the part of Holmes that concludes many of the films.

In both "Hound" and "Adventures," Holmes dons his deerstalker cap, popularized by original Strand Magazine illustrator Sidney Paget who made the image synonymous with the great detective. It is interesting to note that in the first of the non-period films in the series, Holmes reaches for his handy deerstalker, but is stopped by Watson. "Holmes," Watson said, "you promised." Leaving the deerstalker on the peg, Holmes grabs a "modern" hat instead.

Rathbone is especially sharp in "Hound of the Baskervilles," and is partnered by Bruce, who plays a bumbling Watson throughout the 14 films that was not Conan Doyle's vision of the great sleuth's biographical "Boswell." Nonetheless, the pairing is hugely entertaining and satisfying.

The creation of the moor, the sinister grimpen mire and truly terrifying hound remains fantastic and does much to engender this story as one of Conan Doyle's most popular with modern-day
readers and viewers alike.

The final scene represents the only reference any of the 14 films made to Holmes' "seven-percent" cocaine habit as Rathbone asks Bruce to retrieve "the needle." The scene, criticized as too risque by 1939 audiences, caused the film's producers to make a conscious decision to omit any additional mention of Holmes' recreational drug use in future outings.

All of the films are really enjoyable and bear up wonderfully well under repeat viewings. For me, two of the best films of the "regular" series are The Scarlet Claw, where a village believes the supernatural is at work killing people, and Sherlock Holmes Faces Death, where Holmes must solve the riddle of the Musgrave Ritual.

Not matter your age, these films deliver hours of enjoyment, and thanks to the UCLA Theater Archives and MPI, will for generations to come. I only wish that Rathbone and Bruce had lived to see their great work released to new audiences in this pristine DVD condition.

5/5 14 Rathbone-Bruce flicks complete on 5 excellent 5-star DVDs but in clumsy 1-star box
  by Rudolf Schmid (Kensington, CA)
Philip St. John Basil Rathbone (13 June 1892, Johannesburg--21 July 1967, New York) and William Nigel Bruce (4 Sep. 1895, Ensenada--8 Oct 1953, Santa Monica) starred in 14 Sherlock-Holmes films as, respectively, Holmes and Watson. The first two films (1939) are period pieces whereas the last 12 (1942-46) are contemporary ("modern").

"The complete Sherlock Holmes collection" is a 6/06 reissue on 5 DVDs of a 14-DVD set (in 5 boxes) previously issued by MPI 10/03-4/04. The reissues by MPI, which involve restorations of the 1942-46 films, have been critically acclaimed. This review thus just compares the 2006 and 2003-04 sets of reissues (this review also supplements the previous two reviews by R. Smith, 7/18, and E. Hornaday, 4/10):

OVERVIEW: 2006 reissue = 14 films on 5 DVDs (see below for track listing) in 1 box 1 1/4" wide VERSUS 2003-04 reissue = 14 films on 14 DVDs in 5 boxes totaling 4 3/8" wide.

DVD CONTENT: Same in both reissues except the 2006 box set has for "Dressed to kill" an added (i.e., unfortunately, not on the earlier issues) commentary by actress Patricia Morison and Holmes scholars David Gregory and Richard Valley.

BOOKLET/INSERT AND TEXT CONTENT: The 2006 box set has 2 pages of text besides the front cover. The 2003-04 reissues have 5 booklets ("production notes") written by Richard Valley, 8 pages each for "Hound" and "Adventures," 16 pages each for volumes 1-3. Although there is some overlap material, these 64 pages have many pictures and have much information on the 14 films, including cast listings.

SUMMARY OF PROS AND CONS OF 2006 BOX SET:

PROS: (1) much less expensive--$129.99 list ($119.99 Amazon in 7/06) versus $249.90 list ($224.95 Amazon in 7/06); (2) takes about 3" less shelf space; (3) more convenient to shuffle only 5 DVDs than 14; (4) added commentary for "Dressed to kill."

CONS: (1) no booklet insert and thus almost no information on the films included--a major deficiency; (2) appearance rather stark, with only 1 picture of Rathbone on the box (a pic of Bruce should also have been included); (3) flimsy cardboard case with 5 slim clear plastic DVD holders that fold out clumsily with the aid of a cloth puller and that are awkwardly hinged with only cellophane tape (and thus becoming easily unhinged, that is, DVD trays 1-4 separating from tray 5).

TRACK LISTING (dates from IMDb, times by reviewer):

DVD #1:
Introduction by restorer Robert Gitt (2003)--TT0:4:38
(film 1) The hound of the Baskervilles (Mar. 1939)--TT1:19:38 (13 scenes), with commentary by David Stuart Davies
(film 2) The adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Sep. 1939)--TT1:21:37 (13 scenes), with commentary by Richard Valley
(film 3) Sherlock Holmes and the voice of terror (Sep. 1942)--TT1:05:17 + 12-second war-bond trailer (11 scenes)

DVD #2:
(film 4) Sherlock Holmes and the secret weapon (Jan. 1943)--TT1:08:23 + 12-second war-bond trailer (12 scenes)
(film 5) Sherlock Holmes in Washington (Apr. 1943)--TT1:11:20 + 12-second war-bond trailer (13 scenes)
(film 6) Sherlock Holmes faces death (Sep. 1943)--TT1:07:54 + 12-second war-bond trailer (12 scenes), with commentary by David Stuart Davies

DVD #3:
(film 7) Sherlock Holmes and the spider woman (Jan. 1944)--TT1:02:00 + 12-second war-bond trailer (12 scenes)
(film 8) The scarlet claw (May 1944)--TT1:13:48, but no war-bond trailer (11 scenes), with commentary by David Stuart Davies
(film 9) The pearl of death (Aug. 1944)--TT1:08:29 + 12-second war-bond trailer (12 scenes)

Note: From "The scarlet claw" onward "Sherlock Holmes" was dropped from the titles to appeal to a wider audience.

DVD #4:
(film 10) The house of fear (Mar. 1945)--TT1:09:06, but no war-bond trailer (14 scenes)
(film 11) The woman in green (June 1945)--TT1:07:32 + 12-second war-bond trailer (12 scenes), with commentary by David Stuart Davies
(film 12) Pursuit to Algiers (Oct. 1945)--TT1:05:05 (12 scenes)

DVD #5:
(film 13) Terror by night (Feb. 1946)--TT0:59:40 (13 scenes)
(film 14) Dressed to kill (May 1946)--TT1:11:50 (13 scenes), with commentary by actress Patricia Morison and Holmes scholars David Gregory and Richard Valley
Additional bonus material:
(a) Photo galleries 1-5 (each TT0:2:35 with same musical background): gallery 1 = of Hound; gallery 2 = of Adventures; galleries 3-5 = of films 3-6, 7-10, 11-14, respectively
(b) Theatrical trailers (6, not restored--for films 7-10, 13, 14--TT0:7:05)
(c) Footage of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle--TT0:1:15. Note: This is from a summer 1927 Movietone film of Conan Doyle (1859-1930) and is much abbreviated. The film is TT0:11:45 on the 2001 DVD of "Terror by night" by Focus Films.

FINAL COMMENT: The 2006 box set crams 3 films on one DVD (e.g., DVD #1 with 232 min.). Some compression may be involved, but film quality seems equal to the 2003-04 issues with only one film per DVD.

1/5 Fun films, but TERRIBLE package...
  by C. Williamson (USA)
I always thought these DVDs were greatly overpriced, no matter what the format, but when I found the set for $79.99 at a warehouse retailer, I finally succumbed. Even at that price, these are STILL overpriced. The box is rubbish, the plastic cases secured by one thin piece of tape that disengaged as soon as I opened the box. No booklet of chapters, nothing except a self-congratulatory essay about the restoration. And HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES does indeed freeze up at about 1:08 on one machine, and freezes but then keeps playing on another. Unforgivable. Extremely shabby treatment of classic films. One star is pretty rough, but I'm sick to death of nickel-plated packages being priced like gold. When Warner puts out box after box of brilliantly reissued and well packaged classic films at less than half the cost of this on-the-cheap package, it's time to complain, and loudly. Note: I'm not criticising the films; I'm criticising the packaging and the price.

1/5 The HOUND Limps! Ridiculous!!
  by Jerry D. Murphree (O'Fallon, MO)
Of course I'm talking one star for this release, NOT the classic films -- five stars there. But same as other reviewers, my set froze on THREE different DVD players at the exact same spot on HOUND. There is no doubt in my mind that every set issued has this problem, though some rare players seem to be able to process it. What is so ridiculous is that nobody caught this in quality control!!! Are you kidding? Look at what this has cost the manufacturer and vendors by now. I returned mine (to another, lower priced seller) and got a full refund, but only after they paid shipping to and fro for another set (with the same exact problem). All this because nobody believed quality control was important. Again, HOLMES fans here -- so you have to be joking if you think they will put up with such obscene flaws. As well, I totally agree with some others that the price is absurdly high -- way too much money compared to comparable sets. And though the book style package is visually pretty neat, the quality is an embarrassment to say the least. The piece of tape hinge was a really, REALLY stupid idea -- cheap and insulting to classic film fans -- especially at this price level. And where is the booklet?? Where are the all the extras that OZ got for example?? Well, at least give us a few token features here for this rather large investment! I'm not going to touch this set until it all gets fixed -- and the price subsides tremendously. What a disappointment to fans -- Basil must be rolling over in his grave.

4/5 At last! The complete Rathbone/Holmes in one box.
  by R. C. Walker (Encinitas CA, United States)
Basil Rathbone reigned for 50 years as the very embodiment of Sherlock Holmes. The script writers were very fond of having him say "Elementary, my dear Watson", a phrase he never uttered in Doyle's original works. In any event, Rathbone has been dethroned definitively by Jeremy Brett. Nonetheless, the 14 Holmes films he made are a celluloid treasure that demands to be preserved.

Luckily, restorations carried out at UCLA have brought us 12 of these films in virtually pristine condition. The other 2 (the first of the series, including the estimable "Hound of the Baskervilles", are obviously also in very good shape. Rathbone is of course a marvelous physical presentation of Holmes - as Brett would be later. The latter did a better job of bringing out Holmes' eccentricities. In these films, Nigel Bruce is cast as a bumbling, almost doddering Dr. Watson, a characterization markedly at odds with Doyle's. He plays this role with commendable sincerity.

The films are spread out, 3 (or 2) to a disc, over 5 DVDs. Despite the awkwardness of the storage box, the presentation is otherwise quite good. There are useful commentaries attached to some of the films and all the films have subtitles available. Alas, the latter are done by someone whose literacy is somewhat challenged, and they exhibit more than the usual number of howlers. A good number of obvious (but not common) words and names are very badly misspelled, sometimes to the extent that the meaning of the dialogue is mangled. The prints are invariably crisp and clean, the sound clear. We may also be supremely grateful that Rathbone isn't saddled with the silly "deerstalker" one often seems on other actors but not on Doyle's Holmes (nor on Brett's).

Most usefully, the films are presented in the order in which they were made. The first 2, "Hound of the Baskervilles" and "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (both from 1939), are properly set in Victorian times. When the series resumed in 1942 with "The Voice of Terror", World War II was in full swing. It was only to be expected that the setting would be moved to the 1940s and the plots should relate to the war. This feature became less prominent as things turned against the Nazi thugs. In fact, of course, although Holmes didn't die until 1957, he did very little during the war, coming out of retirement only in extremis. (See Baring-Gould's biography of the great detective.)

None of the films features a Doyle story as written, but some are "based" on works by Doyle. The perils (in terms of quality) of modernizing, updating, and rewriting the works of the original author can readily be seen by comparing the more scrupulously faithful versions in which Jeremy Brett appeared. However, Rathbone carries the ball magnificently and gives these bastardized versions more gravitas than they probably deserve.

Probably the worst feature of the rewriting process is (as mentioned) the rôle of Dr. John Watson. In these films, Nigel Bruce plays not only Holmes' foil, but the great detective's fool. The writers go out of their way to portray Watson as gullible, bumbling, vain, and foolish. This is entirely at odds with Doyle's portrayal. Not that Watson is a paragon of brilliance, but he is a fine doctor, brave, resourceful, and in every way a partner in Holmes' endeavors. The filmwriters' clumsy attempts at comic relief are entirely demeaning - not only to Watson but to Bruce as well. Nevertheless, to his great credit, the veteran actor bumbles bravely through 14 scripts.

Toward the end of the series of films - say, the last 5 (1945-46) - the dramatic impulse of the scripts weakens and we're faced with things like the potboiling "Woman in Green". An exception is "Pursuit to Algiers", which is a rather taut little thriller more like the earlier efforts. (Which, as a bonus, offers a neat game of "spot the king" ... fun, if fairly easy.)

On the whole, I recommend this set. Especially at Amazon's usual used prices, this set will be significantly cheaper than the same films purchased separately. And the packaging - however awkward - is a great improvement over 14 separate cases.