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Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) actually
have their bags packed to go on a fishing trip to Scotland when Holmes is
hired to accompany the Crown Prince of Rovenia (Leslie Vincent) safely to
his country. And while Holmes is to take a plane with the Crown Prince,
Watson's to take a boat to catch up with them at Algiers. On the boat
though, Watson hears that Holmes plane has been shot down - and of course,
only moments later Holmes turns up with the Crown Prince in tow who's to
go incognito as Watson's nephew Nicholas. Of course, the ship's full of
suspects, from a secretive pair of weirdos (John Abbott, Gerald Hamer) to
an old widow (Rosalind Ivan) carrying a gun, to young singer Sheila
(Marjorie Riordan) who of course eventually becomes Nicholas' love
interest, to Sanford (Morton Lowry) the sinister steward. It only gets
really dangerous though when three men, Mirko (Martin Kosleck), Gregor
(Rex Evans) and Gubec (William 'Wee Willie' Davis), board the ship during
an unplanned stop in Portugal, and they leave little doubt that they know
who Watson's "nephew" really is and that they're planning to
kill him. But Holmes is not only ahead of each and every of their moves,
including their attempt to blow up Nicholas during an on-board party,
besides he also manages to find out what troubled Sheila - she has become
the unintentional carrier of some stolen emeralds - and solve a crime that
way. It seems Holmes has run out of luck as Mirko, Gregor and Gubec manage
to overcome Holmes and take Nicholas captive - but of course, it was all
just a ruse, as Nicholas turns out not to be the Crown Prince after all,
in fact the real Crown Prince was steward Sanford all along ... One
of the later Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes, and one can't
but notice the series has become very tired by then, as the plot of the
thing is at best thin, and certainly lacking in suspense, Holmes isn't
even doing much deducting anymore but as the hero of the series, he's
pretty much reduced to knowing anything anyways, Watson's pretty much at
his oafish worst, and the rest of the characters, safe for a few
obligatory red herrings, are just too decipherable in regards to their
functions in the story to add any real depth. Also due to the story being
mostly reduced to a boat, the film adds any real production values and is
thus visually less than accomplished - and gives itself away as a
B-picture much too quickly. Sure, the film still has nostalgia value, but
if you look for good vintage mystery cinema, this is just not it.
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