SunnyHello Nice effects though.

Holstra Boring, long, and too preachy.

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

biorngm The Woman in Green Above average fare for the eleventh of fourteen films with personal favorites Rathbone and Bruce and accolades to Hillary Brooke as Lydia and, of course, Henry Daniell as Moriarity. A series of ruthless murders to unrelated individuals about London ending with a severed finger from each victim could only lead to Moriarity behind the nonsensical killings. So evil is the woman that hypnotism is involved in the actual capture of the fiendish criminals behind these crimes. Holmes' insatiable appetite for clues leading to the resolve of the crime coupled with an unending curiosity leads inevitably to the culprit's downfall, suspected all along, Moriarity and Lydia. Just as the two fiends lure Holmes into what they think is a death trap, roles are reversed at the end when the one guilty party meets his demise and the other is arrested. Watch with interest as the clues become clear, some entertainment in between with Watson and the hypnotist, and finally an end to the lot of them who wished to cause harm to our hero.

Leofwine_draca This routine addition to the Rathbone/Holmes series feels slightly tired and repetitive from the very beginning. The direction from old hand Roy William Neill feels a little plodding and things are not helped by the decision to create a new story instead of using one of Doyle's - at least with his tales, you could expect interesting little twists and additions to the plot. Here, the simple storyline of murder and hypnotism continuously lacks the excitement and intrigue of other, better adventures. The "spark" isn't gone, as such, instead it just pops up intermittently.It's not a film without its merits, though. For a start, the string of gruesome murders is enough to have any thriller fan going, and the extra little detail - a finger missing from each corpse - adds considerably to the mystery and suspense of the tale. It turns out that the explanation for these missing digits is rather mundane, but the intrigue is still there. When the subject of hypnotism comes into the film halfway through, it's interesting to see how attitudes towards it have changed in the past fifty years - here, it still seems to be a fringe therapy, not really taken seriously by the masses. The film uses it simply for a plot device, and for a comic relief interlude which has sceptic Watson being made to eat his words as he removes a shoe and sock while in a trance.The acting is alright, but both Bruce and Rathbone are beginning to look a little old and tired with their roles. Rathbone in particular looks bored in some scenes, and lacks those zestful moments which counteracted the silent brooding which typically characterised his Holmes. The supporting cast are unmemorable, aside from Henry Daniell's creepy turn as a weird-looking Moriarty! Daniell puts in a quietly menacing turn and milks his villainy for all it's worth. In the exciting ending, Moriarty leaps from a rooftop and grabs a drainpipe, which promptly collapses and leaves him plummeting to the ground below. A fitting end for this memorable screen and paper villain, who here was a bit too full of himself and obviously no match for Holmes.The ending of this film desperately tries to be suspenseful, with Holmes apparently going under a trance and being made to walk off the edge of a roof. Yet it's painfully obvious that he'll survive the experience and turn the tables on the villains at the last minute. These films are chiefly memorable for the little quirky moments of which there are only a couple here (one nice bit has a man in a hypnotic trance get a large needle driven through his hand - a simple trick, yet most effective and wince-inducing). This is by no means a bad film, just a predictable one, with Holmes far from his best.

utgard14 Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) once again faces off with his nemesis Professor Moriarty (Henry Daniell), as well as a beautiful hypnotist (Hillary Brooke), in this entertaining entry in Universal's Sherlock Holmes series. Henry Daniell was probably my favorite Moriarty from the series. He wasn't hammy at all. The guy just oozed intellectual evil. Rathbone and Nigel Bruce are excellent as Holmes & Watson, as usual. Purists balk at Bruce's Watson but I think he's lots of fun and immensely likable. Hillary Brooke has one of her better roles here. Some good direction from Roy William Neill. This is one of the Universal Holmes films now in public domain so make sure you watch a good copy.

Michael_Elliott Woman in Green, The (1945) *** (out of 4) Eleventh film in the Basil Rathbone series has him once again playing Holmes and this time trying to crack the mysterious case of women being murdered and having their right forefingers cut off. With the help of Watson (Nigel Bruce) the two put the pieces together and they of course lead to Moriarty (Henry Daniell). This here is certainly one of the better entries in the series as we get a pretty dark and morbid story to mix in with the great performances. Neill does a terrific job directing the picture and I love the visual look that he gives the film. There are a lot of dark shadows that give the film an unmistakable atmosphere that really helps the storyline. Having a serial killer used in the film isn't all too shocking but the fact that he's cutting off the victim's fingers just gives the film a darker edge that many other mysterious from this era don't have. As to be expected, Rathbone is terrific as Holmes and it certainly hadn't ran out of gas with the character. As always what makes Rathbone so great in the role is that we actually believe he's this intelligent man who could solve anything thrown his way. Bruce is also up to his usual high standards and Hillary Brooke makes for a great femme fetale as she has an extremely dark and sexy look to her that perfectly fits her character. Daniell also makes for a very good Moriarty as he's strong enough of an actor where we can believe him to be this wise villain.