The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection (1939 – 1946/Basil Rathbone/Fox/Universal/UCLA/MPI Blu-ray set)

 

Picture: B     Sound: B-     Extras: B-     Films:

 

The Hound Of The Baskervilles (1939) B-

The Adventure Of Sherlock Holmes (1939) B-

Voice of Terror (1942) B-

The Secret Weapon (1942) B-

Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943) C+

Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943) C

Pearl Of Death (1944) B

The Scarlet Claw (1944) B-

The Spider Woman (1944) B-

The House of Fear (1945) B-

Woman In Green (1945) B-

Pursuit To Algiers (1945) C+

Terror By Night (1946) C+

Dressed To Kill (1946) C+

 

 

In the Classical Hollywood period, many B-movie series were made, including more Detective/Mystery hits than you might imagine.  The big three were The Thin Man (a shorter MGM series that has a big following) and two launched by Fox: Charlie Chan and Sherlock Holmes.  In both cases, Fox let the series go, with Chan (after many hit films, many reviewed on this site) going to Monogram for a longer run than anyone expected and Holmes after only two films.  Fox thought it would be too expensive to do the series, which was set in its original Victorian period, but then-smaller Universal Pictures picked it up and made a smash success out of it, setting it in the then-current WWII period.

 

Years ago, MPI Home Video scored a coup when they released restored versions of all the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce/Universal films saved and preserved by UCLA in one of the greatest resurrections of a series we have ever seen.  Issued in three volumes, The Sherlock Holmes Collection was a real winner and saving this key film series was a big event and big news at the time that remains a highlight of the DVD format.  Now, MPI and UCLA have reissued the whole series as The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection, including the two Fox films they issued on separate DVDs (not handled by UCLA) in the new Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection in a terrific 5 Blu-ray set that will make fans of the series even happier than the DVD editions.  Here is our coverage of all 14 films as issued on DVD:

 

The Hound Of The Baskervilles (1939)

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1100/Hound+Of+The+Baskervilles+(1939/Fo

 

The Adventure Of Sherlock Holmes (1939)

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1191/Adventures+Of+Sherlock+Holmes+(19

 

Voice of Terror (1942)

The Secret Weapon (1942)

Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943)

Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943)

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/578/The+Sherlock+Holmes+Collection+%E2

 

Pearl Of Death (1944)

The Scarlet Claw (1944)

The Spider Woman (1944)

The House of Fear (1945)

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/559/The+Sherlock+Holmes+Collection+%E2

 

Woman In Green (1945)

Pursuit To Algiers (1945)

Terror By Night (1946)

Dressed To Kill (1946)

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/689/The+Sherlock+Holmes+Collection+%E2

 

 

All the extras have been carried over (all in standard definition, but they are all here), as well as the audio commentary tracks that hold up very well after we have heard hundreds of others.  Too bad there are no new extras as there is always more to say about these films.

 

So the big question is, how about the playback performance?

 

Well, all 14 films are here in 1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition, monochrome presentations that are not always perfect, but are a very noticeable improvement over the DVDs with much better Video Black, Video White, Gray Scale, depth and detail the DVDs simply could not deliver.  These copies have less blur and detail issues than the DVD, which is key for a suspense series.  There are some moments of print damage that could not be fixed, some specs of dirt here and there, plus image stability issues that could not be fixed at the time, but the contrast range is impressive and these look more naturalistic than most black and white films we have seen on Blu-ray to date.  Fox may have better negatives in their vaults on the first two films, but the rest are UCLA’s work that holds up well and I am glad they did not go back and try to second-guess the work.

 

Though not always perfect (some footage on these films only survived in 16mm!), this is a dramatic enough improvement over the DVDs that they become sometimes as hard to watch as the bad prints that were all over the place of these films before UCLA saved them.  Like the CBS/Image Twilight Zone Blu-ray sets, seeing the films look this good is a revelation and though they could and would look better if the original camera materials had survived, these are fine looking films getting their due with a unique visual style no other series has ever achieved and better than the Robert Downey Jr. fiasco as well.

 

All the audio has been upgraded to PCM 2.0 Mono that is not only better than the Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono across the old DVDs, but I was very pleasantly surprised at just how warm and full these tracks sounded in a way the compressed DVD Dolby could never reveal.  Now you can really enjoy the dialogue and for their age, they are pretty clean and clear down to the underrated music scores.  The combination would have been unthinkable even when the DVDs arrived, but here they are, so performance is impressive; especially under the circumstances.

 

For all serious Blu-ray film fans, The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection is a must-have gem that is one of the year’s best classic films on Blu-ray releases that will land up being one of the year’s highlights no matter what is issued for all of 2011.

 

You will not be disappointed.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo