Synopsis: Inspector Gregson of Scotland Yard (Matthew Boulton) is desperate to catch a serial killer plaguing London. The so-called “finger murderer” is targeting young woman across the city, with no discernible motive or pattern to the attacks. The killer has a sinister trademark — he surgically removes the right index finger of each of his victims.
Gregson meets with famous consulting detective Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone). The two are discussing the case in a posh restaurant when Holmes recognizes Sir George Fenwick (Paul Cavanaugh), at a table with a woman much younger than he is. “Is that his daughter?” Gregson wonders aloud. “Don’t be naive, Inspector,” Holmes responds.
The woman, we soon learn, is called Lydia Marlowe (Hillary Brooke), and she invites Sir George to her well-appointed home for a nightcap. As the two sit by the fire, she directs his attention to a shallow bowl of water she has on the coffee table in front of the sofa. Floating on the surface of the water are flowers, and she talks slowly about how beautiful and peaceful they are. As the woman speaks softly to Sir George, he begins to go into a trance.
The next morning, Sir George awakens to find himself in a seedy room in a cheap boarding house. Outside he hears newsies hawking a special edition: another of the “finger murders” have occurred, this one very close to the boarding house in which Sir George has awakened.
He rushes back to Lydia’s house, who tells him that he had left the night before in a very distracted state. Later he is confronted by none other than Professor Moriarity (Henry Danielle), who tells Sir George to look in his pocket. He does so, and finds a small box containing a human finger….
Comments: Hypnotism is the central gimmick in this Sherlock Holmes programmer, the 11th of 14 entries from Universal’s Basil Rathbone / Nigel Bruce cycle of films. It’s ostensibly based on the Conan Doyle story “The Empty House,” but only borrows the element of an assassin wielding a custom-made rifle from a window across the street from 221B Baker Street. Professor Moriarty is the central baddie here, an indicator that the screenwriters can’t conjure up an appropriately sinister villain. While Moriarty’s plot is predictably silly, he is at least played by the superb Henry Danielle, who brings an aristocratic flair to the role that other actors were unable to manage.
The hunt for a Jack the Ripper-esque murderer at first comes off as lazy screenwriting, but to its credit, the murders turn out to be a cover for a completely different crime. While it’s a bit unlikely that Professor Moriarty would keep showing up and introducing himself to the blackmail victims he’s selected, it works as an expository device, and indeed the audiences of the time were used to — and indeed, fully expected — that important plot points would be laid out explicitly and repeatedly.
Hypnotism was often used as a plot device in movies of this era, but The Woman in Green goes one better by introducing a drug that facilitates a deep trance state. Cannabis japonica doesn’t really exist, but its introduction is meant to add some suspense when Holmes is put into a deep trance against his will and ordered to jump off a tall building. For the purposes of the film it does its job, but it’s unclear why hypnotism itself, which was seen as very mysterious at the time, wasn’t enough of a gimmick on its own for the screenwriters.
The film is also a bit unusual in having the story start with Inspector Gregson, who narrates the opening scenes. Unlike Dennis Hoey’s numbskull Inspector Lestrade, Gregson is an intelligent man, rather like Watson in the Holmes stories, who finds himself out of his depth with the baffling “finger murder” case, and who — quite reasonably — turns to the famous consulting detective for help.
Watson is overused as comic relief here, as he often was. In this one we have the good doctor huffing about what stuff and nonsense hypnotism is, only to have him predictably make a fool of himself on stage while under hypnosis.
I will give points to Hillary Brooke for ably carrying the role of Lydia Marlowe, a role that was probably intended for the nearly-transparent Evelyn Ankers.
The Horror Incorporated Project 