Episode 62 - You Can't Go Holmes Again (Sherlock Holmes & Tales of Fatima)
Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)
Jack Mooney
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 15 June 2014
⏱️ 66 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Basil Rathbone donned the deerstalker cap in fourteen films as Sherlock Holmes and portrayed the legendary detective on radio for seven years. Frustration with typecasting led him to leave Baker Street, but he didn't stay away from the detective world for long. We'll hear him this week as Holmes (with Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson) in "The Problem of Thor Bridge," originally aired on Mutual on October 1, 1945. Then, Rathbone plays himself as an amateur detective in the unusual program Tales of Fatima. We'll hear "Time to Kill," originally aired on CBS on May 28, 1949.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Many actors have done the the deer stalker tap of Sherlock Holmes, but few have personified him as much as Basil Rathbone. |
| 0:31.0 | Rathbone, born June 13, 1892, had a long career on stage and screen, but he will forever |
| 0:38.4 | be linked to the Master Detective of Baker Street, whom he played in 14 films and in hundreds of episodes on radio. |
| 0:46.0 | Early in his Hollywood career, Rathbone played Philo Vance in the 1930 film The Bishop Murder Case, but he earned his stripes as a dapper villain in swashbuckling adventure films. |
| 0:58.0 | His memorable appearances include Captain Blood, The Mark of Zorro, and the Adventures of Robin Hood. |
| 1:05.8 | Rathbone was one of the masters of big screen fencing, and his duel with Errol Flynn in Robin Hood |
| 1:11.6 | is one of the highlights of cinematic combat. |
| 1:14.9 | In 1939, he found the role that would define his career when he first starred as Sherlock Holmes |
| 1:21.3 | in 20th century Fox's production of the Hound of the Baskervilles. |
| 1:26.3 | The film paired him with Nigel Bruce as Dr Watson and kicked off nearly a decade long run |
| 1:31.8 | for Rathbone as the world's greatest detective. |
| 1:35.0 | Rathbone and Bruce starred in one more Fox Picture, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, |
| 1:40.0 | before Universal picked up the series in 1942 and launched their own home series. |
| 1:46.0 | The Universal movies brought Holmes and Watson into the World War II era, |
| 1:51.0 | where they did battle with Nazi spies and saboteurs as well as the villainous Professor Moriarty. |
| 1:57.0 | Along with the films, Rathboat starred as Holmes on radio in the long-running New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. on the Unlike the Universal series, these were set back in the Victorian era of Arthur Conan Doyle's original stories. |
| 2:17.0 | Script writers Anthony Boucher and Dennis Green adapted the Conan Doyle stories and penned their own original |
| 2:24.1 | adventures using the stories as a springboard. |
| 2:27.3 | Boucher and Green went on to create Gregory Hood, the detective we heard a few |
| 2:31.5 | weeks ago on the podcast as a summer replacement for the Sherlock Holmes series. |
| 2:36.0 | Though the Sherlock Holmes films and radio series were successful, |
| 2:41.0 | Rathbone left the series in 1946. He was frustrated with being so closely linked |
... |
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