Ninth entry in the fourteen movie series starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. It’s loosely based on Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1904 story “The Adventure Of The Six Napoleons.” Dennis Hoey is Inspector Lestrade and Mary Gordon makes a brief appearance as Mrs.Hudson.
The valuable Borgia Pearl is coming to London via a ship to Dover. Master crook Giles Conover’s partner Naomi Drake (Evelyn Ankers) manages to steal it. She convinces an elderly clergyman to take a camera through customs for her. She’s says she’s afraid they’ll open it an expose the film. She figures they won’t question a clergyman.
Giles is waiting in a cab. He opens the camera. No pearl. Just a note from Sherlock Holmes. Some clergyman. That night at the museum Holmes is shown the security system. Holmes finds a flaw and turns off the electricity. An employee takes the opportunity to steal the pearl and go out through a window. It was Giles. Holmes has egg on his face.
Giles is caught but the pearl is missing and Lestrade has to release him. Now a military man is murdered. His back is broken and there’s smashed china everywhere. Holmes thinks it looks like the work of The Creeper (Rondo Hatton). Lestrade says it can’t be because he’s dead.
Now an elderly woman is murdered in the same manner. Holmes discovers both murdered people had newly cast busts of Napoleon. He tracks down the shop where the busts came from. The girl behind the counter looks familiar.
This is a good entry in the series.
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