Basil Rathbone’s portrayal of Sherlock Holmes from 1939 to 1946 set the standard for the great detective on screen – iconic, precise and enduring, writes JOHN WEST
“That’s why so many crimes remain unsolved, Watson. People will stick to facts even though they prove nothing.” — Sherlock Holmes, as portrayed by Basil Rathbone
In the pantheon of great screen detectives, few loom as large — or cast as long a shadow — as Basil Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes.
Between 1939 and 1946, Rathbone appeared in 14 films and more than 200 radio episodes as the famed sleuth, with Nigel Bruce as his faithful Watson.
Their chemistry, charisma, and command of the material created a legacy that not only popularised Holmes for 20th-century audiences, but permanently etched their portrayals into the cultural imagination.
Even today, as new interpretations continue to reinvent Holmes for the modern age, Rathbone’s incarnation remains a gold standard—precise, principled, and somehow timeless.
Casting the Iconic Duo
When 20th Century Fox set out to produce The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1939, they knew that casting would be crucial.
Basil Rathbone, an established theatre and film actor already known for his elegant diction and for his villainous turns in The Adventures of Robin Hood and Captain Blood, was a natural fit for Sherlock Holmes.
With his hawk-like features, aristocratic bearing, and Shakespearean training, Rathbone brought intellectual precision and theatrical gravity to the role.
In a radio interview, Rathbone recounted that during a lunch at Lucey’s Restaurant in Hollywood, Twentieth Century-Fox producer and director Gene Markey raised the idea of adapting Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles for film.
Seated with producer-director-actor Gregory Ratoff and studio chief Darryl Zanuck, Markey was asked who could possibly portray Sherlock Holmes. His response was, “Who? Basil Rathbone, of course!”
In Nigel Bruce’s unpublished memoirs written in the 1940s, he recalled receiving a telegram in 1938 while he was in New York. It was from Basil Rathbone: “Do come back to Hollywood, Willie dear boy, and play Doctor Watson to my Sherlock Holmes. We’ll have great fun together.”
Nigel Bruce had made a name for himself playing amiable, blustering gentlemen.
His warmth and charm made him an appealing counterbalance to Rathbone’s sharp edges.
While Doyle’s original Watson was a competent, ex-military doctor and a clever partner, Bruce’s version was more of a lovable, sometimes bumbling sidekick—affable, loyal, and often providing comic relief.
A Victorian Mind in a Modern World
The first two entries in the Rathbone–Bruce series — The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes — were set in the proper fog-draped, gaslit Victorian England that Arthur Conan Doyle had envisioned.
All previous Holmes films, including the 1930s British series starring Arthur Wontner, had been set in the contemporary period of their release.
Although Fox had intended to produce additional Holmes films, problems in negotiations with the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle brought the planned series to an early halt.
The studio’s decision to discontinue further productions was also influenced by the outbreak of the Second World War, as “foreign agents and spies were much more typical and topical than the antiquated criminal activities of Moriarty and the like.”
Shortly thereafter, Warner Bros. expressed interest in adapting The Speckled Band, with Rathbone and Bruce reprising their roles as Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson.
However, the project was dropped. According to The Hollywood Reporter, there were “difficulties encountered in clearing all rights in the complicated copyright setup covering Holmes yarns.”
When Universal took over the series in 1942 with Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror, the franchise updated its setting to contemporary 1940s Britain.
For some reason, Rathbone adopted a rather strange hairstyle for the first three productions, but sensibly returned to the swept-back, traditional Holmes style for the rest of the series.
Suddenly, Holmes was dealing with Nazis, coded radio messages, and the looming threat of global war.
For many characters, such an update would have fractured the illusion. Not so with Holmes.
Despite the new setting, Rathbone’s Holmes remained unmistakably Victorian in soul and demeanour.
His logic, decorum, and sense of moral clarity did not change — they could not.
He remained a man of intellect and principle amid the moral ambiguity of wartime.
The updated backdrop only made him more heroic: a voice of reason in a world descending into chaos.
In an era gripped by war, his commitment to truth and justice was deeply reassuring.
The Enduring Image of Basil Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes
Tall, lean, and sharp-featured, Rathbone possessed a naturally striking presence that closely matched Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original description of the great detective.
But it was not just his physical resemblance — it was the way he moved.
Rathbone’s Holmes was always precise: in gesture, in posture, in expression.
His eyes darted with calculation. His voice was clipped and purposeful.
Every line he delivered bore the weight of a man shaped—and sometimes burdened—by a brilliant, restless mind.
Beyond his performance, his image became iconic.
The silhouette — profile turned, pipe in hand, deerstalker on his head — became the visual shorthand for Sherlock Holmes for generations.
The Charm of Nigel Bruce’s Watson
Bruce’s interpretation of Watson has often been criticised.
However, audiences loved him — and with good reason.
Before Nigel Bruce, Dr Watson in cinema was often little more than a background figure — a sounding board for exposition, largely forgettable next to the brilliance of Holmes.
Bruce changed that.
He brought Watson fully into the spotlight, crafting a character who was not just along for the ride, but an indispensable presence.
In The Hound of the Baskervilles, Watson was still relatively serious, even capable.
But by the second film, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, he had evolved into the bumbling but deeply lovable companion we remember today.
Bruce’s Watson was loyal, earnest, and endearingly befuddled.
He served as the emotional core of the films, humanising the otherwise cerebral Holmes.
Their chemistry was undeniable.
Rathbone’s piercing intensity played beautifully against Bruce’s genial confusion, giving the stories a rhythm of intellect and heart.
Supporting the Sleuth
While Rathbone and Bruce were the heart of the series, their world was enriched by memorable recurring characters who helped bring 221B Baker Street to life.
Mary Gordon appeared consistently as Mrs Hudson, the long-suffering but endlessly patient landlady of Baker Street.
With her warm presence and no-nonsense charm, Gordon’s Hudson became a grounding presence amid the mysteries and murders, often providing brief but comforting moments of domestic normality.
The other constant in the Universal series was Dennis Hoey as Inspector Lestrade, the bumbling Scotland Yard detective.
Hoey’s Lestrade was consistently outmatched by Holmes’s brilliance, but his good-natured exasperation added a light comic touch — and his grudging respect for Holmes lent the character a quiet dignity.
Holmes’s greatest adversary, Professor Moriarty, appeared in three different films, each portrayed by a different actor.
George Zucco brought an eerie, cerebral menace to the role in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, while Lionel Atwill’s performance in Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon highlighted Moriarty’s cold cruelty.
One particularly shocking scene, even by modern standards, shows Moriarty and two of his henchmen calmly torturing the inventor of a bombsight to force him to reveal the location of a hidden component.
For many, the most memorable portrayal was Henry Daniell in The Woman in Green, whose polished, icy restraint made him a chilling foil to Holmes’s relentless logic.
Voices in the Dark: Rathbone and Bruce on Radio
Beyond the silver screen, Rathbone and Bruce brought Holmes and Watson into the homes of millions through the long-running radio series The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
The show featured weekly mysteries that often matched — or even exceeded — the cinematic versions in atmosphere and storytelling.
From 1939 to 1943, episodes were adapted or written by Edith Meiser, who had previously created an earlier radio series, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which ran from 1930 to 1935.
Meiser departed the show following disagreements with a sponsor over the level of violence in the programme and reportedly to concentrate on other projects.
Beginning in 1943, the majority of episodes were written by the team of Denis Green and Anthony Boucher.
Unlike the Universal films, the radio series remained firmly rooted in the Victorian era.
Many of the episodes were original tales rather than direct adaptations of Doyle’s stories.
However, they were often cleverly inspired by incidents, characters, or untold cases briefly mentioned in the original canon, giving the show a sense of continuity and reverence for Doyle’s world.
The medium suited Rathbone perfectly.
His resonant, precise diction made him an ideal radio Holmes—intelligent, clipped, and magnetic.
Nigel Bruce’s Watson, too, was notably less bumbling.
On radio, his voice carried greater gravitas and clarity, more in line with Doyle’s capable army doctor and biographer.
While still warm and affable, this version of Watson often played a more active role in solving the mysteries and regularly engaged the listener with introductions and closing reflections in each episode.
A Strained Goodbye
As the series continued to grow in popularity, Universal naturally wanted more.
But Rathbone had become weary of Holmes, fearing what many actors in long-running franchises do: typecasting.
When Basil Rathbone stepped away from the role in 1946, it marked more than the end of a film and radio series — it nearly ended a friendship.
Nigel Bruce, deeply attached to the role of Watson and to his collaboration with Rathbone, was hurt and disappointed by the decision.
Their personal and professional bond, forged over nearly a decade, made Bruce view the series as something worth continuing.
Rathbone, however, had grown increasingly frustrated by the creative limitations of the role.
“My first picture was, as it were, a negative from which I merely continued to produce endless positives of the same photograph,” he later stated.
Rathbone longed to return to more varied and challenging material, while Bruce saw his departure as a personal rejection.
For a time, their friendship was strained, though not entirely broken.
They eventually reconciled, but the end of the series marked the close of one of classic cinema’s most beloved partnerships.
Universal Pictures briefly considered using the actor Tom Conway as Rathbone’s replacement but ultimately decided against the idea.
Nigel Bruce carried on playing Watson on the radio for a further series, with Rathbone’s role passing to Conway, whose voice was very similar.
Both actors left the show in 1947.
Basil Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes: A Lasting Legacy
Rathbone found it difficult to escape Holmes’s shadow.
Offers for quality, varied roles dried up.
Though he remained active in film, theatre, and television, few later parts allowed his full talents to shine.
His refined diction, commanding presence, and classical training were underutilised—pigeonholed by the very success that made him a star.
In time, financial necessity and public demand lured him back into Holmes’s world.
He reprised the role in a now-lost 1953 TV pilot, The Adventure of the Black Baronet, written by Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr.
Another actor, Martyn Green, took Bruce’s place as Watson.
It was conceived as a pilot for a planned television series that would adapt six additional stories by Doyle and Carr.
Despite the welcome return of Rathbone in the role, the series never materialised.
That same year, Rathbone brought Holmes to the stage in a play written by his wife, Ouida.
Thomas Gomez — who had previously played a Nazi collaborator in Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror — took on the role of Professor Moriarty.
Nigel Bruce had been expected to reprise Dr Watson, but illness forced him to withdraw. The role was taken over by character actor Jack Raine.
The reviews were unfavourable, and the play lasted only three performances.
Rathbone, sometimes reluctantly, continued to embrace his association with Holmes.
He appeared in a television sketch with Milton Berle in the early 1950s, wearing the familiar deerstalker cap and Inverness cape.
In the 1960s, still in Holmesian attire, he starred in a series of television commercials for Getz Exterminators, declaring, “Getz gets ’em, since 1888!”
During this period, he also recorded several dramatic readings of Conan Doyle’s Holmes stories, which were released on LP records.
In 1962, Rathbone wrote his memoirs, In and Out of Character, an enjoyable and well-written account of his life that includes a chapter devoted to his most famous character.
Nigel Bruce passed away in 1953 at the age of 58 from a heart attack.
Basil Rathbone outlived his friend by more than a decade, dying of a heart attack in 1967 at the age of 75.
The Sherlock Holmes Films of Rathbone & Bruce
20th Century Fox
- The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939) Holmes and Watson investigate a deadly family legend. The closing scene daringly sees Holmes asking Watson for “the needle,” a subtle reference to Holmes’s cocaine habit.
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939) Holmes battles Moriarty to prevent the crime of the century.
Universal Pictures
- Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942) Wartime sabotage and the threat of Nazi invasion.
- Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1943) A scientist’s invention must be protected from Moriarty and the Nazis. This film marks the first appearance of Dennis Hoey as Inspector Lestrade.
- Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943) Holmes retrieves stolen Allied intelligence.
- Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943) Murders at a soldiers’ convalescent home.
- The Spider Woman (1944) A mysterious string of suicides.
- The Scarlet Claw (1944) A “supernatural” killer in rural Canada. Many fans consider this the high point of the Universal series.
- The Pearl of Death (1944) A plaster bust of Napoleon conceals a stolen pearl.
- The House of Fear (1945) Death stalks a Scottish gentlemen’s club.
- The Woman in Green (1945) Moriarty returns to battle with Holmes.
- Pursuit to Algiers (1945) Holmes guards a prince at sea. Generally regarded by fans as the weakest entry in the series.
- Terror by Night (1946) A train murder mystery involving a stolen diamond.
- Dressed to Kill (1946) Musical boxes point to the location of stolen Bank of England printing plates. In Britain, the film was released as Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Code.
Final Thoughts
Rathbone’s Holmes remains a visual and vocal benchmark.
The aquiline nose, the penetrating gaze, the clipped, deliberate speech — these became part of the Holmes mythos.
His interpretation continues to influence how the character is portrayed in films, television, and illustrations even today.
What made his performance extraordinary wasn’t just the detail or the elegance—it was the conviction.
Rathbone gave us a Holmes who was both believable and mythic: a man of reason in unreasonable times.
Almost 80 years after he hung up the deerstalker, Rathbone is still regarded as one of the greatest Sherlock Holmes of all time — perhaps the most telling proof of his genius as an actor.
In the end, Basil Rathbone didn’t just play Sherlock Holmes — he became him.
And though this iconic role may have limited the parts he was offered later in his career, it secured both him and Nigel Bruce a place in cinematic immortality.
God bless them.
