|
Two and a half years after her sister's (Gail Roberts) unexpected
death, Helen Stoner (Evelyn Ankers) pays a visit to Sherlock Holmes (Neil
Hamilton), because now that she was moved into her sister's room, she has
come to the conclusion her death was murder, and the killer was her own
stepdad (Edgar Barrier), who she thinks is now coming after her - but she
has no idea how, and her only clue is her sister's last words, "The
Speckled Band". What convinces Holmes that Helen is indeed in
danger is her stepdad turning up only minutes afterwards to threaten him.
So Holmes and his sidekick Watson (Melville Cooper) examine her room and
find a bellrope attached to no bell, a ventilation shaft leading only to
stepdad's room, and a small plate full of milk on stepdad's bedpost. So
our heroes stand guard at night ... and suddenly find a snake - of a
species dubbed "the speckled band" - coming through the
ventilation shaft. Holmes chases it back to where it came from, stepdad's
room, where it bites and kills stepdad. Then Holmes and Watson rush over
to stepdad's room to kill the snake. One of the more macabre Sherlock
Holmes-stories, told in a rather straight-forward way and without
digging too deep into the stories essence. Neil Hamilton is a decent if
somewhat streamlined Holmes while Melville Cooper might overdo it a bit
playing his Watson in the Nigel Bruce-mode. In all, ok but nothing
special.
|
amazon.com
amazon.co.uk
amazon.de
eThaiCD.com
