The secret weapon

Movie
German title	The secret weapon
Original title	Sherlock Holmes and The Secret Weapon
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	1942
length	68 minutes
Age rating	FSK 6
Rod
Director	Roy William Neill
script	Edward T. Lowe , W. Scott Darling , Edmund L. Hartmann
production	Howard Benedict
music	Frank Skinner
camera	Lester White
cut	Otto Ludwig
occupation
Basil Rathbone : Sherlock Holmes Nigel Bruce : Doctor John H. Watson Lionel Atwill : Prof. James Moriarty Kaaren Verne : Charlotte Eberli William Post Jr .: Dr. Franz F. Tobel Dennis Hoey : Inspector Lestrade Holmes Herbert : Sir Reginald Bailey Henry Victor : Prof. Frederic Hoffner Harold De Becker : Peg Leg Harry Cording : Jack Brady Rudolph Anders : Mr. Braun Paul Fix : Mr. Müller Mary Gordon : Mrs. Hudson
chronology
←  Predecessor The Voice of Terror Successor  → Fatal Journey

The Secret Weapon is a 1942 American film . The crime film from the Sherlock Holmes series is very loosely based on the short story The Dancing Men by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

action

Sherlock Holmes travels to Switzerland to meet the scientist Dr. To bring F. Tobel to safety from the German Gestapo . The Germans want to take advantage of Tobels' invention - a brilliant bomb sight - and the ingenious spirit of the scientist.

Tobel wants to make his invention available to the British military, but on his terms. To do this, he dismantles the device into four parts, which he deposits with scientists he trusts so that they can manufacture the components independently of one another as the military would use. Nobody but himself knows the names of the scientists and thus the exact secret of the target device.

However, Professor Moriarty kidnaps Tobel on behalf of the Germans and uses an encrypted document to find the names of three of the four scientists. He has them killed and the individual parts of the device obtained. It is high time for Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to use an astute analysis to determine the name of the fourth scientist, who turns out to be an additional security measure.

Background information

The film only takes up the idea of ​​figurative cipher from the Sherlock Holmes short story The Dancing Men written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (first published in The Strand Magazine in December 1903). Otherwise there are no similarities in the plot of the original and the film. Under the direction of Roy William Neill, the story was adapted so that the investigation of the case by the master detective turns out to be a successful battle against the war opponent Germany and his secret police.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson was cast with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce , who previously played these roles in a film adaptation of The Hound of Baskerville . The film was produced by Universal Pictures , but did not premiere in Germany (through television) until the early 1990s.

See also

• Sherlock Holmes films

DVD release

• The secret weapon . On: The Sherlock Holmes Collection. Part 1 . Special Edition (4 DVD set). Koch Media 2006

Web links

• The secret weapon in the Internet Movie Database (English)