The Pearl of Death
The Pearl of Death (1944) was the sixth of twelve Sherlock Holmes mysteries mounted by Universal between 1942 and 1946. Based loosely on the 1904 short story "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons" (collected in the omnibus The Return of Sherlock Holmes, for which Conan Doyle afforded the sleuth a reprieve from the heroic death he had met besting the nefarious Dr. Moriarty in "The Adventure of the Final Problem"), Bertram Millhauser's script is less concerned with overt wartime themes as had been the case with Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon and Sherlock Holmes in Washington (both 1943). Crisply directed by Roy William Neill (who inherited the series from John Rawlins after Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror and stayed on through to the final chapter, Dressed to Kill, 1946), the film is an enjoyable mash-up of mystery and espionage tropes (including a great deal of disguise-wearing) centered around "the Borgia Pearl," a Hope Diamond-like bagatelle that brings death to those who seek to possess it.
Basil Rathbone was paid $20,000 for his services (nearly double Nigel Bruce's salary of $12,000) and was allowed to bring an added measure of nervy nuance to his portrayal of Holmes this time out, as the master detective's sterling reputation suffers a blow when he loses possession of the Borgia Pearl to master thief Giles Conover (Miles Mander) and is menaced in the third act by Conover's spine-snapping amanuensis The Hoxton Creeper (Rondo Hatton). Roy William Neill finished shooting just two days over the allotted three-week schedule and The Pearl of Death is widely considered to be one of the better entries in the cherished if somewhat uneven series.
Back to Rondo Hatton. Hatton would soon be branded as Universal's "monster without makeup," a tasteless and heartless sobriquet that says less about the unfortunate actor's ability to craft a character than it does Universal's desperation for distinction at any cost. Afflicted with the glandular condition acromegaly, in which the pituitary gland produces an excess of growth hormone, Hatton was able to find bit work in Hollywood as a resident grotesque in such films as RKO's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) and Fox's In Old Chicago (1937) and The Ox-Bow Incident (1943). Given the presence that Hatton brings to The Pearl of Death, it is an outrage that his salary amounted to just $400. At the height of his career two years later, Hatton would bring in only $3,000 as The Brute Man (1946), a variation on his Creeper character. By the time the film was in the can, however, Universal was so embarrassed by the title that the studio fobbed it off onto the "Poverty Row" outfit Producers Releasing Company. (Universal was at the time in the process of redefining itself as Universal-International and had discontinued its B-movie mill.) Sadly, well before the theatrical release of The Brute Man, which afforded him his only starring role, Rondo Hatton died of a heart attack secondary to acromegaly at the age of 51. A cult figure in death, Hatton inspired the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards, given out annually for excellence in horror, science fiction and fantasy filmmaking.
Producer: Roy William Neill
Director: Roy William Neill
Screenplay: Bertram Millhauser; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (story "The Six Napoleons")
Cinematography: Virgil Miller
Art Direction: John B. Goodman, Martin Obzina
Music: Paul Sawtell (uncredited)
Film Editing: Ray Snyder
Cast: Basil Rathbone (Sherlock Holmes), Nigel Bruce (Doctor Watson), Dennis Hoey (Lestrade), Evelyn Ankers (Naomi Drake), Miles Mander (Giles Conover), Ian Wolfe (Amos Hodder), Charles Francis (Digby), Holmes Herbert (James Goodram), Richard Nugent (Bates), Mary Gordon (Mrs. Hudson), Rondo Hatton (The Creeper).
BW-69m.
by Richard Harland Smith
Sources:
Universal Horrors: The Studio's Classic Films, 1931-1946 by Michael Brunas, John Brunas and Tom Weaver
England's Secret Weapon: The Wartime Films of Sherlock Holmes by Amanda J. Field