The Speckled Band (1931)

★★★★ · Angela Baddeley · larryfeltonj · 2013-09-25

The most interesting thing to me about this movie is that it was Angela Baddeley's first film role. She became best known, much older, in the original Upstairs, Downstairs television series as Mrs. Bridges, the cook. I'm going to give it four stars for that.

★★★ · Not the Best Holmes Film · Poohbah70 · 2019-07-13

The story has been tinkered with - extra characters, plus the updating data processing contrivances in Holmes's rooms and the automobile - in a story that originally had a Victorian setting - and where Holmes lived with Watson and worked in a modest suite of rooms - hardly the grandeur we see here. There also seems to be some gaps in the film - particularly the scene between Holmes and Rylott at Baker St. The overall acting style owes a great deal to the silent era. Athole Stewart makes a passable silly Watson. Raymond Massey sleepwalks through his few scenes as Holmes - without personality.…

★★★ · The band! The speckled band! · quigs · 2009-01-22

Although it was one of the Holmes stories filmed with sound, it was more of a interplation of it. The gist of the story was there but the elements of the 1930's technologyThe dictaphone, data processor,and answering intercom, and motorcar)were placed in the victorian era(gaslights horse driven carts) making the story I suppose easier for 1930's audiences to related to. I give 4 stars for the historical aspect of film with sound, 4 stars for the acting(eventhough gestures at times were of the silent era) and three stars for the so-so interp. of Doyle's story.

★★★ · viewable · katpooh9 · 2009-06-27

This veers away from the original story by Conan Doyle, and there's an oddball surrealism with having a front office at 221 Baker Street. Still, it's a must-watch for Sherlock Holmes fans. BTW, the street address would not be 221B Baker St. It would be 221 Baker St. The 'B' referres to the apartments that Holmes and Watson lived in within 221 Baker St.