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[Note: I felt that "Sherlock Holmes Faces Death", the previous entry in the series was a bit "meh", so I'm skipping it]

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Plot: A series of unexplained suicides shocks London. Sherlock Holmes interrupts his vacation to visit London's casinos under disguise, believing that the mastermind behind the murders is a woman who preys on desperate gamblers.

Comments: What a great little film! It's too soon to decide if this one is the best film in the series, but if not it must come very close. It's also one of the shortest Holmes films, barely running over one hour, which may explain why it's so packed with twists and surprises. The beginning alone already packs a punch, with Holmes falling to his (staged) death into a river, to Watson's horror. Only a few minutes later he re-appears, in a scene directly lifted from "The adventure of the empty house". The following scenes have him gambling under the disguise of an Indi prince (!), stalking his prey and... being unmasked almost inmediately. And the adventure has just begun.

The fast pace definitely helps this time, but the individual scenes are also terrific. An assasination attempt followed with a shootout in a rooftop (yes, Holmes uses a gun this time), an amusing visit to an enthomologist that turns dangerous in the blink of an eye, and finally a nail-bitting climax in a festival where Holmes is put in direct danger for once.

His opponent this time, Adrea Spedding, is also first rate. Kudos for the filmmakers for not being afraid of showing a woman who's easily more intelligent than Holmes and completely amoral, to boot. I seem to recall that in the original stories Holmes also faced female opponents, but I can't remember the details. I don't believe, though, that they were as fascinating as this character. Seriously, she puts Moriarty to shame. 

The only Sherlock Holmes film, that I know of, to spin off a non-Sherlock Holmes, as two years after this, Gale Sondergaard, who plays the villainess in this film, would appear in "The Spider Woman Strikes Back." Playing her henchman would be Rondo Hatton, who'd play another Sherlock Holmes bad guy in the upcoming "The Pearl of Death."

And while, I myself, don't have a favorite film out of this series, there are alot of fans who think the upcoming "The Scarlet Claw" is probably the best film in this series.