Movie Review: Dressed to Kill (1946) directed by Roy William Neill
Three seemingly-identical music boxes have come up for auction. The first is purchased by music box collector Julian “Stinky” Emery (Edmund Breon), the second by toy shop owner Evelyn Clifford (Patricia Cameron) (though she doesn’t leave her name) and the third by Mr. Kilgour (Harry Allen), a transplanted Scotsman, as an inexpensive present for his daughter (Topsy Glyn). They all got what seemed like bargain prices. An hour later, another man arrives at the auction house eager to buy music boxes, and is frustrated to learn they’re already gone.
Stinky, as it happens, is an old school chum of Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce), partner of Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone). Stinky mentions that he was coshed and one of his music boxes stolen, a cheap French one. Holmes is immediately intrigued. Stinky’s collection includes at least one piece worth thousands of pounds, no self-respecting thief would have walked off with a lesser box. As it turns out, the French box looked very similar to the one Stinky recently purchased at auction. One with a rather peculiar melody. Interesting, but nothing Holmes can act on at the moment.
The boxes were created in Dartmoor Prison as part of a fundraising effort. The inmate who made them, Davison (Cyril Delevanti), intended that they fall into the hands of his outside confederates to reveal the location of some especially juicy loot. The gang is led by Mrs. Hilda Courtney (Patricia Morison), an attractive woman with impressive acting skills. Her accomplices are Colonel Cavanaugh (Frederick Worlock) a “gentleman” burglar, and Hamid (Harry Cording), a chauffeur/hitman who reads poetry and has unrequited feelings for Mrs. Courtney. (It’s never mentioned what happened to Mr. Courtney, if he ever actually existed.)
When Stinky is murdered (Hamid got impatient and jealous while Mrs. Courtney was trying to get the music box through seduction) and the first music box goes missing, Holmes and Watson take up the case, attempting to bring the killers to justice and solve the three-box riddle.
This was the last of the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movies. Unfortunately at some point the original print was lost and it had to be reconstructed from television cuts, thus the end credits are missing. It’s an okay story, referencing “A Scandal in Bohemia” while very much not being the same. Mrs. Courtney is clever and Holmes enjoys their spar, but she’s no Irene Adler.
My favorite part of this movie is the use of music. The music box tune is “The Swagman” though usually slightly “off” due to the plot. Holmes plays “Danny Boy” on the violin. And while of course Holmes can memorize any tune he hears if he wants to, he doesn’t have an encyclopedic knowledge of popular music, so consults ace busker (and former murder suspect) Joe Cisto (Wallace Scott) at an actor’s pub, which allows us to enjoy the music hall number “You Never Know Who You’ll Meet.”
Hamid’s interest in love poetry was an interesting touch, and I’d have liked to have more emphasis on that as part of his character.
Watson is again depicted as rather dim, but his ramblings do inspire a couple of Holmes’ epiphanies.
Content note: Murder (no blood), mild peril to a child, an oblique reference to the Holocaust. Elementary schoolers on up should be fine.
At about an hour, this is one of the lesser Holmes movies, but still quite watchable thanks to Rathbone and Bruce. A good choice for family movie night or a rainy afternoon.
