Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) must figure out the mystery behind three musical boxes and why some criminals want them bad enough to kill for them. The final Rathbone Holmes film. Unlike most of the other popular detective series at the time, most notably Charlie Chan, the Holmes series never ran out of steam. Even this final entry is still a quality movie with a good mystery and interesting characters. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce are excellent as always. No Inspector Lastrade this time, sadly.
One minor quibble is that the method the bad guys use to try and dispose of Sherlock seemed unnecessarily risky when they had guns and could've just shot him. But this sort of logic flaw is not exclusive to this film or series. Movies in general have always had this problem. The James Bond series has thrived on it for fifty years. The Rathbone films are all good and I would recommend everybody try them out. If you're a fan of the Doyle stories and consider yourself a purist, however, you will probably be disappointed. But if you enjoy good suspenseful old school mystery films, this series is as good as it gets.
One minor quibble is that the method the bad guys use to try and dispose of Sherlock seemed unnecessarily risky when they had guns and could've just shot him. But this sort of logic flaw is not exclusive to this film or series. Movies in general have always had this problem. The James Bond series has thrived on it for fifty years. The Rathbone films are all good and I would recommend everybody try them out. If you're a fan of the Doyle stories and consider yourself a purist, however, you will probably be disappointed. But if you enjoy good suspenseful old school mystery films, this series is as good as it gets.