Of the last Universal films in the Sherlock Holmes series, only THE HOUSE OF FEAR and SHERLOCK HOLMES FACES DEATH have better plots than THE SCARLET CLAW. If you go to seeing all three films for the first time, the solutions really surprise you. The first two manage keep a degree of the surprise in reviewing them, but once you see THE SCARLET CLAW you are so aware of the secret of the villain that you note things each time about him that you would not the first. Yet his performance is so good that you still enjoy the movie.
Unlike HOUSE OF FEAR, SHERLOCK HOLMES FACES DEATH, and THE PEARL OF DEATH, THE SCARLET CLAW has no literary basis in the actual Conan Doyle stories about Holmes. This plot was concocted by the scriptwriters from whole cloth. Indeed, one element of it seems to be based on the work of another great mystery story writer, G.K. Chesterton - who is mentioned late in the film by Watson.
The atmosphere of the bogs (which is the setting of much of the film) is reminiscent of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, but that story had already been made into a film (with Rathbone and Bruce) earlier. In fact, the discussion of a swamp monster brings in the occult, and this film (with THE HOUND) is the closest in the series to remind us of Arthur Conan Doyle's interest in spiritualism and the occult.
The weapon involved is not one from any of the Holmes stories (although it should fit into one had Conan Doyle ever thought of it). The motive - vengeance on several people who all live in this Canadian village - actually is a sensible one for a change (some of the motives for murders, especially robberies, in the later films seen stretching it).
Being a war movie, Holmes and Watson have a final "patriotic" comment at the end regarding Canada as a link between the U.S. and Great Britain. It actually is one of the more tolerable patriotic closing lines in their war films, although given the way Prime Minister MacKenzie King of Canada had to twist the situation regarding a draft of French Canadians to help beleaguered Britain ("Not necessarily conscription, but conscription if necessary") it remains somewhat ironic.
Paul Cavanagh (whom I mentioned in THE HOUSE OF FEAR review), was one of the many character actors who popped up in several of the Rathbone/Bruce films over the series. In THE HOUSE OF FEAR he was a suspect. In THE WOMAN IN GREEN he played a victim. Here he is a subsidiary victim, who resents the appearance of Holmes on the scene of his tragedy, but whom ends up helping Holmes in solving the case. Note also Arthur Hohl, usually playing villains or comic characters, but here, possibly, having his best straight performance.
Unlike HOUSE OF FEAR, SHERLOCK HOLMES FACES DEATH, and THE PEARL OF DEATH, THE SCARLET CLAW has no literary basis in the actual Conan Doyle stories about Holmes. This plot was concocted by the scriptwriters from whole cloth. Indeed, one element of it seems to be based on the work of another great mystery story writer, G.K. Chesterton - who is mentioned late in the film by Watson.
The atmosphere of the bogs (which is the setting of much of the film) is reminiscent of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, but that story had already been made into a film (with Rathbone and Bruce) earlier. In fact, the discussion of a swamp monster brings in the occult, and this film (with THE HOUND) is the closest in the series to remind us of Arthur Conan Doyle's interest in spiritualism and the occult.
The weapon involved is not one from any of the Holmes stories (although it should fit into one had Conan Doyle ever thought of it). The motive - vengeance on several people who all live in this Canadian village - actually is a sensible one for a change (some of the motives for murders, especially robberies, in the later films seen stretching it).
Being a war movie, Holmes and Watson have a final "patriotic" comment at the end regarding Canada as a link between the U.S. and Great Britain. It actually is one of the more tolerable patriotic closing lines in their war films, although given the way Prime Minister MacKenzie King of Canada had to twist the situation regarding a draft of French Canadians to help beleaguered Britain ("Not necessarily conscription, but conscription if necessary") it remains somewhat ironic.
Paul Cavanagh (whom I mentioned in THE HOUSE OF FEAR review), was one of the many character actors who popped up in several of the Rathbone/Bruce films over the series. In THE HOUSE OF FEAR he was a suspect. In THE WOMAN IN GREEN he played a victim. Here he is a subsidiary victim, who resents the appearance of Holmes on the scene of his tragedy, but whom ends up helping Holmes in solving the case. Note also Arthur Hohl, usually playing villains or comic characters, but here, possibly, having his best straight performance.