Hunt for music boxes

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Movie
German title Hunt for music boxes
Original title Dressed to Kill
also: Prelude to Murder
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1946
length approx. 76 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Roy William Neill
script Frank Gruber
Leonard Lee
production Roy William Neill
music Jack Brooks
camera Maury Gertsman
cut Saul A. Goodkind
occupation
synchronization
chronology

←  Predecessor
jewel heist

Music Box Hunt is a 1946 American crime film directed by Roy William Neill . It is the last of a total of fourteen films in the film series about Sherlock Holmes with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce .

action

The collector and bon vivant Julian Emery buys one of three music boxes for little money. The other two music boxes go to the Scot Kilgour with his daughter and to a beautiful woman whose name is unknown. But Emery was broken into the next night. A music box is stolen and Emery knocked down, so that he visits his school friend Watson and Sherlock Holmes. Holmes immediately suspects a major crime and finds it surprising that only one apparently worthless item has been stolen. Hilda Courtney and her accomplices Colonel Cavanaugh and Hamid are behind the break-in at Emery. However, since the wrong can was stolen, Hilda, whom he knew, visits him to steal the right can. It is more through a misunderstanding that the jealous Hamid murders the Emery who is drawn to Hilda.

The police call Sherlock Holmes for help. He found out through a questioning of the auctioneer Crabtree that the music boxes were made in the Dartmoore prison . He visits the Kilgours and meets Hilda, disguised as a housekeeper, who tied up Kilgour's daughter and took the music box. Holmes and Watson can free the child. He also finds out the identity of the third buyer as Evelyn Clifford and buys the can from her. Since the cans were all made by the same inmate in Dartmoore, John Davidson, Holmes suspects that he wants to tell his accomplices where his prey is hidden. Five years ago Davidson had stolen plates for the British bank's five pound notes . He was quickly arrested, but the hiding place remained unknown.

Holmes suspects that the solution to the riddle lies in the melody of the music boxes. After much thought, he succeeds in finding the solution through a casual remark from Watson. For example, the 19th key on the piano corresponds to the 19th letter of the alphabet, i.e. R. From this he puts together words. Through a cigarette butt that Hilda forgot when searching Holmes' apartment, he succeeds in locating it. When he confronts this it becomes clear that the lost cigarette butt was only an "invitation" for Holmes. After he doesn't give her the code, she wants to have Holmes killed. But he can get free with great difficulty. Hilda sets fire to Watson's apartment. When Watson puts away the cookie jar (in which the music box is hidden), she knows where the last music box is and steals it.

A certain "Dr. S." quoted. The rest of the code tells Hilda that it is the home of Dr. Samuel Johnson , which is also used as a museum. Again, through a casual remark by Watson about Johnson, Holmes comes across it too. Hilda uses the code to find the printing plates in a cupboard, but Holmes is there. Hamid tries unsuccessfully to kill Holmes with a knife, but all three are arrested by Scotland Yard.

backgrounds

Hunting for music boxes leans only slightly on some of the adventures of Arthur Conan Doyle's detective stories about Holmes, Dr. Watson in one scene, for example, the cases of The Lonely Cyclist and Scandal in Bohemia . The character of Irene Adler from the latter story is also mentioned, which has clear parallels to Hilda Courtney. That a criminal hides an object shortly before his arrest and this leads to a fatal search comes from The Pearl of the Borgia .

It was the last film in the fourteen-part series. Rathbone is said to have been increasingly dissatisfied with only being associated with the role of Holmes in public. From Rathbone the quote is even handed down: " When you become the character you portray, that is the end of your career as an actor." ( When you become the character you portray, it's the end of your career as an actor. ) Rathbone drew returned to the theater for a few years and won a Tony Award , among other things . Rathbone did not return to Hollywood until 1955 with Wir sind keine Engel and Der Hofnarr , but his career had passed its zenith. Nigel Bruce , too, had to lose his image as Dr. Watson got away, but played a bigger role in Charlie Chaplin's limelight , among other things , before he died in 1953.

The death of Roy William Neill in December 1946, who was the producer and director of eleven of the fourteen Rathbone films, also prevented further films .

The film was first broadcast on German television in 1982. Although large parts of the series are repeatedly broadcast by ZDF , hunting for music boxes is almost never among them. The film is now available in two DVD versions and is now under the American public domain .

synchronization

The first dubbed version of the GDR comes from the DEFA Studio for Synchronization in Weimar and was created in 1969. The dialogue book was written by Eberhard Richter and the dialogue was directed by Wolfgang Thal . A second version also comes from the GDR; the studio for synchronization of television in the GDR produced it based on a dialogue book by Tessy Bortfeldt and directed by Irmgard Köhlert .

role actor Synchronization GDR 1969 Synchronization GDR 1987
Sherlock Holmes Basil Rathbone Walter Niklaus also
Dr. Watson Nigel Bruce Alfred Bohl Hinrich Koehn
Auctioneer Ebeneezer Crabtree Holmes Herbert Horst Kempe Karl-Maria Steffens
Gilbert Emery Edmund Breon Klaus Glowalla Erhard Köster
Hamid Harry Cording Bert Brunn Michael Narloch
Hilda Courtney Patricia Morison Friederike Aust
Inspector Hopkins Carl Harbord Rainer Büttner
Alfred Olaf Hytten Dieter Zöllter
Mrs. Hudson Mary Gordon Trude Brentina
tourist guide Leyland Hodgson Martin Trettau
Scotland Yard chief Ian Wolfe Wolfram Handel

Reviews

Leonard Maltin gave Hunt for Music Boxes two and a half stars out of four and called it a lively conclusion to the film series.

Moviesection writes that the hunt for music boxes is “a successful and exciting conclusion” to a series of films that is still influential today. The script takes the time to draw the characters harmoniously and has interesting twists ready. “Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce give their traditional roles with their incomparable sovereignty, which makes us forget that they actually Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson just play. To this day, countless other actors have slipped into these distinctive roles and have sometimes more, sometimes less understood how to put their individual stamp on them. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce will still be remembered! "

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Basil Rathbone. Retrieved May 21, 2018 .
  2. ^ Leonard Maltin : Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide . Plume, New York 2015, ISBN 978-0-14-751682-4 , pp. 183 (English).