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If you like old time radio shows then this series is a 'must buy'. I owned the cassette tapes from the original release of these sets back in the late 80's. True reproduction right down to the Petri wine commercials. It's a trip to the past and a 'must have' for every Rathbone / Bruce fan.
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"Murder in the Casbah" is the third CD collection of 1945/1946 radio broadcasts starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Its title episode is prefaced by CD presenter Ben Wright pointing out that Holmes and Watson travel from London to Algiers in the space of a musical bridge, but in fact this foreign journey seems more believable than those in such other episodes as "The Vanishing Elephant" (on a previous CD set). "Murder in the Casbah" is an unusually good episode in which for once, although the crucial clues are fairly and clearly presented, I did not perceive their significance until Holmes explained it -- a satisfying experience. "The Tankerville Club" is a Colonel Moran story. Although Watson's encounter with Moran here might seem to contradict his later unfamiliarity with him in Conan Doyle's "The Empty House", this is a forgivable lapse, since Conan Doyle himself committed a similar solecism with respect to Watson's knowledge of Moriarty in "The Final Problem" and "The Valley of Fear".
"The Strange Case of the Murderer in Wax" was performed on a theater stage for a large audience of servicemen. Perhaps to appeal to that audience, it is an unusually action-packed story -- but, refreshingly, Holmes himself expresses dissatisfaction at the case's conclusion with its having been resolved physically rather than mentally, giving the case an authentically Holmesian feeling in its very unusualness. Holmes adopts one of his most startling disguises in this story, which inspires him to be even ruder to Watson than usual; but a couple of scenes later, he is touchingly glad to see Watson, even though the doctor appears on the scene an hour earlier than Holmes had requested. The audience of men in uniform gives this story a gratifyingly loud and enthusiastic ovation.
"The Man With the Twisted Lip" is a reasonably faithful but somewhat reduced adaptation of the Conan Doyle story. The opening scene with Kate Whitney's visit to the Watson household is merely described by Watson rather than dramatized, and Watson's ensuing visit to the opium den is actually less fully told here than in the reworking of the same scene at the beginning of "The Eyes of Mr. Leyton" (on the previous CD set). Very unfortunately, the CD intro to "The Man With the Twisted Lip" includes a major spoiler for the story.
"The Guileless Gypsy" is an extremely unusual episode in that it presents a quasi-romantic attachment for Holmes with a woman other than Irene Adler. A scene in which Holmes' fortune is accurately told seems to violate the rational nature of the Conan Doyle stories, but is forgivable due to its Holmesian tone and detail. "The Camberwell Poisoners" (misspelled as "Camberville" on the CD and packaging) is a version of an "unrecorded adventure" mentioned in the Canon for which Watson gave not only the title, but the basic plot gimmick of the story. The tale writers Denis Green and Anthony Boucher have woven around that gimmick is extremely dark -- perhaps more dark than Conan Doyle would have ventured to write -- with an especially downbeat closing sentiment from Holmes.
"The Terrifying Cats", set in Rome, is one of the best episodes on these Rathbone CDs, despite featuring a breathtakingly appalling Italian accent from the actor playing Inspector Bellini. Holmes stories set outside Great Britain often feel unauthentic, but Boucher and Green cleverly tie this story to the end of another "unrecorded adventure" from the Canon, "the sudden death of Cardinal Tosca". Because Nigel Bruce was ill the week this episode was broadcast, Watson was played by Eric Snowden, whose Watson sounds much more intelligent than Bruce's despite not being written any differently.
"The Submarine Caves" is a quasi-sequel to Conan Doyle's "The Bruce-Partington Plans"; Holmes' brother Mycroft sends Holmes and Watson on their mission, although he remains offstage. This episode was broadcast after the end of World War II, but still reflects wartime anti-German attitudes. It is unusual for a Sherlock Holmes story in general and this series in particular in that, much as in a "Columbo" episode, the identity of the culprits is quite clear early on -- so clear that I erroneously thought they would turn out to be innocent -- and the suspense of the story comes from wondering how Holmes will outwit them.
"The Living Doll" is a dark but charming story set after Holmes' retirement, involving a little girl who comes to Holmes for help when her doll is mutilated. "The Disappearing Scientists", which takes place on the very day Holmes retires, is an especially clever story in that none of the suspects ever appear, and Holmes solves the case without meeting any of them!
The two episodes on the final CD of the set, "The Speckled Band" and "The Purloined Ruby", are introduced with dramatized scenes in which Harry Bartel, the announcer of the original broadcasts, "goes back in time" to meet Irene Adler, with whom he discusses the two Holmes cases in question. Although this is a charming idea, it is not quite logically carried out. When Bartel tells Irene that he had sat down to discuss "The Purloined Ruby" with Watson, this does not jibe with the fact that that episode was in fact hosted by a different announcer.
Given that the other Conan Doyle adaptations on these CDs are quite faithful to the original texts, it is deeply surprising that "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" substantially and unnecessarily alters the most highly-regarded of the Holmes short stories. The basic outline of the plot is the same, but major details are altered, including Watson knowing Holmes' client from years earlier when they were strangers to each other in the original tale. (Some of the differences reflect elements of Conan Doyle's stage adaptation of the story.) "The Purloined Ruby" ends the CD collection on a weak note with the unexplained return of a character whose resurrection is entirely impossible to make believable.
Like the other CD releases in this series, "Murder in the Casbah" is a fun collection of Holmes pastiches, and "The Terrifying Cats" is, in my opinion, exceptional.
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It continues to be a microcosum of the world at that time, complete with Perti wine commercials, war bonds, GAS RATIONING, SUGAR, AND EATING STEAK AGAIN, and most excellent performances of Rathbone and Bruce. Immortal writing, portrayal of Holmes and Watson.!!!!
Don't Miss a single episode.!!!
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Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce are well known for their Sherlock Holmes films, which were produced by universal. An interesting fact is that the universal contract provided that each week these two men could have the day off. On this day, they would go into the radio studios of the Mutual Broadcasting System, where they would give two performances of the same show. Remember, in those days, there was no global Communications Network as we know it yesterday and soul, two performances were necessary; one for the East Coast and one for the west. This was something that these two professionals were very used to. Listening to these shows, one realizes just for professional Rathbone and Bruce really were. These shows were recorded live, with no editing for mistakes. In radio, if you made a mistake, you simply had to keep going. You had to know the material backwards and forwards because the studio audience was counting on you to transport them to 18th century London, far away from the news of the war. At home, there were other drives, Peter drives, and, price ceiling. But for one day a week, Americans could forget about all that and travel with Holmes and Watson, as they undertook another case filled with murder, industry, and intrigue at the turn of the sentry. And Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce acted as tour guides to this adventure. Now at last , these wonderful adventures have been released on CD so that people of my generation, who were not know all lucky enough to be born during this time radio broadcasts were a staple of american entertainment, can now enjoy them. These shows providing ample evidence that dramatic radio is not dead after all. Dead,? No, radio is forever
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