Dressed to Kill (1946 film)

For other uses, see Dressed to Kill.

Dressed to Kill is a 1946 American mystery film directed by Roy William Neill. Released by Universal Pictures, it is the last of fourteen films starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Doctor Watson.^[1] It is also known by the alternative titles Prelude to Murder (working title) and Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Code in the United Kingdom.^[2]

Dressed to Kill
Directed by	Roy William Neill
Written by	Frank Gruber Leonard Lee
Based on	The Adventure of the Six Napoleons 1903 short stories (56) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Produced by	Roy William Neill
Starring	Basil Rathbone Nigel Bruce Patricia Morison
Cinematography	Maury Gertsman
Edited by	Saul A. Goodkind
Music by	Milton Rosen
Production company	Universal Pictures
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	May 24, 1946 (1946-05-24) (New York City, New York) June 7, 1946 (1946-06-07) (United States)
Running time	76 minutes (copyright length) 72 minutes (restored version)
Country	United States
Language	English

Dressed to Kill

The film has an original story, but combines elements of the short stories "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons" and "A Scandal in Bohemia." It is one of four films in the series which are in the public domain and is available online.^[3][4]

Plot

John Davidson, a convicted thief in Dartmoor prison, embeds code revealing the hidden location of extremely valuable stolen Bank of England currency printing plates in the melody notes of three music boxes that he crafts to be sold at auction. Each box plays a subtly different version of an Australian tune, "The Swagman". At the auction each is purchased by a different buyer.

Dr. Watson's friend, Julian Emery, a music box collector, pays him and Sherlock Holmes a visit and tells them of an attempted burglary in his house the previous night of a plain cheap box (similar to the one he bought at auction) while leaving other much more valuable ones. Holmes and Watson ask to see and are shown Emery's collection. After they leave, Emery welcomes a female acquaintance, Hilda Courtney, who tries unsuccessfully to buy the auctioned box. When Emery declines, a male friend of Courtney's who has sneaked in murders Emery.

At this murder Holmes becomes even more curious and learns to whom else the boxes were auctioned off. Holmes and Watson arrive at the house of the person who bought the second one, just as a strange maid (Courtney in disguise) is on her way "to go shopping". They later realize it was not a maid: she locked a child in a closet in order to steal the box from the child.

Holmes is able to buy the third box, and upon examination discovers that its variant musical notes' numbers correlate to letters of the alphabet. Scotland Yard fills him in on the stolen bank plates to which the music boxes connect, but all three are needed to decipher the message.

Back at home, their flat is found ransacked, and a cigarette with a distinct type of tobacco is the sole clue. Holmes tracks down the woman who bought the tobacco, Courtney.

While confronting her, Holmes is ambushed by her accomplices, handcuffed, taken to a warehouse, hung by a rafter, and left with poison gas filling the room. While Holmes is narrowly escaping death, Courtney visits the flat and steals the box from Watson.

Holmes manages to make it back in one piece and, while conversing with him, Watson offhandedly mentions a quote from Dr. Samuel Johnson. Thinking about this quote, Holmes makes a connection as to where the stolen plates may be hidden.

Having stolen all the boxes and deciphered their message, Courtney and gang join a tour group at Dr. Samuel Johnson's house, now a museum, where they slip away and find the plates hidden within a bookshelf. Courtney is stealing the plates when Holmes ambushes the group. Scotland Yard officers arrest them, and the plates are returned to the bank.

Cast

• Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes
• Nigel Bruce as Dr. John H. Watson
• Patricia Morison as Hilda Courtney/Charwoman
• Edmund Breon as Julian "Stinky" Emery (as Edmond Breon)
• Frederick Worlock as Colonel Cavanaugh (as Frederic Worlock)
• Carl Harbord as Inspector Hopkins
• Patricia Cameron as Evelyn Clifford
• Holmes Herbert as Ebenezer Crabtree
• Harry Cording as Hamid
• Leyland Hodgson as Tour Guide
• Mary Gordon as Mrs. Hudson
• Ian Wolfe as Scotland Yard Commissioner
• Anita Sharp-Bolster as the Schoolteacher on a Museum Tour
• Cyril Delavanti as John Davidson (uncredited)
• Harry Allen as William Kilgour (uncredited)
• Topsy Glyn as the Kilgour Child (uncredited)
• Delos Jewkes as Joe, the piano player (uncredited)

See also

• Sherlock Holmes (1939 film series)
• Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes in cinema