In this series Sherlock Holmes seems to get captured about as often as Meg from Burst Angel.
The Holmes movie series with Rathbone hit its peak in 1944 with a couple of pretty interesting movies in a row. The first one was this one pitting Holmes against quite possibly the most diabolical femme fatale of the entire 1940s, Gale Sondergard, not to mention one of my favorite actresses probably ever. She was never in better form than here where she is front and center as the main villain.
She has a pretty interesting scheme, too, although I must admit that it makes me incredibly uncomfortable, which is one reason I don’t see this one too often and each time I do see it is like a new experience. She uses a spider to kill people for money and Holmes must stop her. This leads to some great cat and mouse between the two of them while Holmes tries to catch Sondergard and Gale has a couple of attempts made on his life including a scene that will be redone but not outdone in Dr. No and an interesting scene at a shooting gallery. Fortunately for me, this creepy movie would not be the absolute best in the series but it does come pretty damn close to it.
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