A STUDY IN SCARLET (World Wide, 1933), directed by Edwin L. Marin, suggested by the book by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (credited as A. Conan Doyle), introduces Reginald Owen to the role as Sherlock Holmes for the first and only time. In fact, Owen's name isn't credited above the title, but actually the central figure being Sherlock Holmes in A STUDY IN SCARLET, almost as if Holmes is appearing as himself. Owen, seldom a leading man, best known as Ebenezer Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol" (MGM, 1938), may be an interesting choice as Holmes, considering a handful of actors having enacted this legendary sleuth in the past, William Gillette on stage; and/or Arthur Wontner in several British-made movies. Yet there's none more famous than Basil Rathbone (Holmes) with Nigel Bruce (Doctor Watson) in what developed into a popular film series for Universal a decade later. It's a little known factor that Owen happens to be the first actor to play Watson in one movie, 1932s SHERLOCK HOLMES (Fox) featuring Clive Brook, and Holmes in another. As often stated for A STUDY IN SCARLET, the plot actually doesn't follow Conan Doyle's first Holmes novel, but instead contains an original idea scripted by Robert Florey with continuity and dialogue credited by Reginald Owen himself.The story opens at Victoria Station, London (with a light post and car indicating a modern setting for one brief scene), where two cleaning ladies, having difficulty opening the door to a compartment, get Mr. Partrudge, a porter, to look into the matter. Observing from the outside window, he and another porter find its passenger, James Murphy, dead. After a coded newspaper clipping "6, 9, 3, 7, 13, 7, Scarlet 23, 4, 7, Limehouse M," is shown on screen from the Daily Telegraph, the following segment shows a secret meeting presided by Thaddeus Merrydew (Alan Dinehart), a crooked lawyer and legal representative of a mysterious organization called The Scarlet Ring. In attendance are Jabez Wilson (J.M. Kerrigan), William Baker (Cecil Reynolds), Malcolm Dearing (Halliwell Hobbs), Captain Pike (Wyndham Standing), Ah Yet (Tetsu Komai), and Eileen Forrester (June Clyde), engaged to John Stanford (John Warburton), and daughter of one of the recently deceased members, where Merrydew, explains in the event of a member's death, the estate is left to the survivors and divided evenly. Three days later, Sherlock Holmes (Reginald Owen) and his assistant, Doctor Watson (Warburton Gamble) of 221-A Baker Street, are visited by Murphy's widow, Annabella Mary (Doris Lloyd), a pub owner, explaining how she's been cheated of her late husband's fortune left to the organization. Holmes, suspecting foul play in Murphy's murder, takes the case that allows him the opportunity to further investigate Merrydew, whom Holmes describes as "king of blackmailers," "the most dangerous crook" and "a slimy, venomous snake." During the investigation of a study in scarlet, more murders occur, all with little rhyme notes found as possible clues. With further assistance of Inspector Lestrade (Alan Mowbray), Holmes encounters another suspect, Mrs. Pyke (Anna May Wong), a Chinese widow with a mysterious past. Slow moving and virtually score-less, A STUDY IN SCARLET offers several scenes worth noting. If the murdering notes ("Six little black boys playing with a dive. A bumble bee stung one, and there were five," "Five little black boys going in for law, one cut a chancery, and then there were four," "Four little black boys going out to tea, a red herring swallowed one, and then there were three," "Three little black boys walking in the zoo. The big bear hugged one, and then there were two," etc.) sound familiar, then look no further to what eventually became "And Then There Were None" (published 1939-40), a classic novel by Agatha Christie. Slight difference, Black Boys was changed to Little Indians. Could it be that Christie had seen this movie and lifted some material for her novel? Another interesting factor found in A STUDY IN SCARLET is how the camera becomes the subject matter with Merrydew looking directly and talking into it, without revealing the identity of that person. This visual style is most identified to 1940s film noir mysteries, notably LADY IN THE LAKE (MGM, 1946) and DARK PASSAGE (WB, 1947), though done earlier in A FAREWELL TO ARMS (Paramount, 1932), which makes one wonder which film and director originated that visual style.With limited byplay between Holmes and Watson, this edition is very much Holmes indeed, crime solver. Though he does take time to disguise himself at one point, it's not much of a disguise. Other members in the cast include Leila Bennett (Daft Dolly, credited as Daffy Dolly); Hobart Cavanaugh (The Bartender); and Tempe Piggot (Mrs. Hudson, famously played by Mary Gordon in the Rathbone series). Acceptable adaptation that's become a curio to film buffs. Frequently presented on television starting in the late 1970s, A STUDY IN SCARLET, available on video and DVD formats, often played on Arts and Entertainment Cable television before turning up on Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: June 5, 2008). For anyone interested in learning more about Doyle's actual "A Study in Scarlet" novel, read the book. (**)

***SPOLIERS*** Lackluster Sherlock Homles mystery that has Sherlock not only showing the audience how good he is in going undercover-in disguise-but also for what seems like the first and last time in his career, as a brainy and elementary thinking sleuth, uses a firearm in gunning down and killing one the bad guys.The movie "A Study in Scarlet" seems to be a precursor to the 1939 Agatha Christie murder mystery "Ten Little Indians" written some six years after the film was released in 1933 which is about the only reason for viewing it. The movie itself doesn't really hold its audience's attention with a number of unsavory characters lead by shyster London lawyer Thaddeus Merrydew, Alan Didehart. It's Merrydew & Co. who were all involved in smuggling a cache of jewels out of Pre-Communist China, circa the late 1920's, and are now dropping dead like flies on the streets of London because of it.After a Mr. Murphy was found dead on a London bound train his wife Mrs. Annabelle Murphy, Doris Llyod, hired detective Sherlock Holmes, Reginald Owen, to see if her husband in fact was murdered not that he committed suicide like the London Police reported. Holmes soon discovers, through a number of cryptic messages in the local newspapers, that there's this group of people involved in an illegal jewelry smuggling operation that started back in China some eight years ago. The ringleader of this gang of Jewel thieves is top London criminal lawyer Thaddeus Merrydew who represents them. There's also the totally innocent Elleen Forrester, June Clyde, who's only connection with the Jewel or diamond smugglers is that her late father Col. Frrester, a member of the smuggling ring, left her his share of the profits, some 200,000 in Pound Sterling, in his will.As the members of this jewel smuggling ring, called the "Scarlet Ring", start to be killed off it soon becomes apparent that Merrydew is somehow responsible for their deaths with the help one of the rings members! But the question is which one since almost all of the jewel smugglers end up dead by the time the movie is over. It's then that Merrydew and his partner, or partners, in crime screw up in them foolishly thinking that they pulled the wool over the great Sherlock Holmes eyes. Old Sherlock, we learn, had Merrydew and Co. pegged right from the start in not only deciphering the killer's secret coded messages in the newspapers but also, I kid you not, in Holmes uncovering his very unusual shoe size that the killer left at the scene of one of his murders!***SPOILERS***Slow moving and hard to follow Sherlock Holmes film with only the appearance of the femme fatal in the movie Mrs Pyke, Anna May Wong, adding some hot Chinese mustard in it to spice the movie up a few notches. There's also the mysterious and what looks like opium pipe smoking Ah Yet, Tetsu Komai, as both Mrs. Pyke's and lawyers Merrydew's hit-man. Always puffing on his pipe and looking stoned out of his head you wondered why the two master criminals, Mrs. Pyke & Thaddeus Marrydew, would have anything to do with a strung-out weirdo like Ah Yet in the first place? Unless they were as strung out and smashed as he was by taking turns shearing his pipe!

As long as one understands this version of A STUDY IN SCARLET bears no resemblance to its source material, one can enjoy the performance of Reginald Owen -- best known for playing Scrooge -- as the inimitable Sherlock Holmes. The story as such involves a secret group of individuals who are being knocked off one at a time. A fortune is at stake! Holmes is called in and more or less immediately identifies the killer(s), but the movie stretches events out to feature length, and a bad movie it is not. Owen makes an acceptable Holmes, even though the story has been moved forward to the time in which the movie was made. Warburton Gamble's Dr. Watson leaves something to be desired, but most movie Watsons can be found lacking. Only Ian Fleming in 1935's TRIUMPH OF SHERLOCK HOLMES and the Dr. Watsons of the Jeremy Brett TV series come even close to the Watson of the Conan Doyle stories. Worth a look as a novelty.

By 1932, the California Tiffany studios had been hard-hit by the depression's increasing damper on the motion picture industry, and had most recently been taken over by the troika of Burt Kelly, Sam Bischoff and William Saal, producing under the achronym K.B.S.One of the talented individuals attracted to K.B.S. during this turbulent period was Robert Florey, who had directed THE COCOANUTS, in which the Marx Brothers made their film debut, and co-authored the script of FRANKENSTEIN, then adapting and directing MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE.A STUDY IN SCARLET was Florey's third project at Tiffany, and he was again scheduled to both write and direct--his preferred mode of working. While producer Bischoff had purchased the motion picture rights to the title of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel for only a small sum, Florey was told to compose a new scenario to co-star Anna May Wong opposite Sherlock Holmes.A cause for the alteration of the original plot is that producers may have felt the title exceeded the worth of the actual story. Conan Doyle's original, written in 1887, was a vehicle for a denunciation of the contemporary Mormon practice of polygamy, which for American movie makers may have aroused concerns of censorship and regional distribution difficulties--just the type of difficulty a small, independent company like K.B.S. could not afford to risk. As well, half the narrative consisted of a lengthy confession, with Holmes only present in the prelude, which would have surely disappointed most filmgoers. While A Study in Scarlet was the first Holmes mystery Conan Doyle wrote, it had been filmed only twice before, with an English feature and an American short both appearing in 1914. Not until 1968 was the subject tackled again, this time by the BBC in a fifty-minute television presentation.Given a week to come up with a narrative to fit the picture's title and Wong's presence, Florey collaborated with his friend Reginald Owen, who had been chosen to portray Holmes, and split the $1,000 script payment. They collaborated on the continuity in consultation with Art Director Ralph DeLacy in order to utilize as many standing sets as possible, economies always being especially important at a studio like Tiffany, even on as significant a project as A STUDY IN SCARLET.At this point Florey left, having received the offer of a long-term contract from Warner Bros. on condition that he leave immediately to direct their comedic mystery GIRL MISSING. Bischoff allowed Florey to leave, with both agreeing that his replacement as director on A STUDY IN SCARLET should be Edwin L. Marin. Marin, age 33, previously had helmed only one movie on his own, a low budget item entitled THE DEATH KISS (1932). At K.B.S. he had just finished assisting Florey on THE MAN CALLED BACK and THOSE WE LOVE, "waiting for such a break."Although the Florey-Owen script contained no similarities to the novel, their plot did demonstrate a familiarity with the world Conan Doyle created for Sherlock Holmes. Elements are present from other Holmes stories, especially The Sign of Four, "The Red-Headed League" and "The Five Orange Pips." There are many of the typical clues, devices, and mannerisms.The title is incorporated to refer to a very exclusive organization called "the Scarlet Ring," a group of eccentric and highly ambiguous characters so suspicious of one another that they are afraid to even walk together. Upon the death of any member, his property is divided among the remaining survivors; suddenly they begin to die at an alarming pace under strange circumstances. This group of individuals were personified by an unusual group of actors, including J.M. Kerrigan, Halliwell Hobbes, Wyndham Standing, Tetsu Komai, and Cecil Reynolds.Some critics have pointed out the movie's similarity to And Then There Were None / Ten Little Indians, with suspects killed one by one and their murder announced by a nursery rhyme. But if anything, the influence was the other way around, since Agatha Christie's novel was not published until 1939.The script of A STUDY IN SCARLET was extremely polished and well-constructed, developing at just the right pace while carefully building the appropriate mood and environment. The movie breathes life into the classically eerie atmosphere of the British mystery, creating a pervasive feeling of fear in the fog-bound studio streets of the Limehouse section of London. Strange gatherings, arranged by secret codes, take place in abandoned, out-of-the-way buildings; dark and oppressive dead-end streets are places of isolation and terror; fog and shadows hide murderers and their victims.Suspense is heightened by a number of devices. For instance, the killer is kept unseen, while at the same time menace is suggested by having the crimes viewed through the murderer's eyes using a subjective camera. The silhouette of a giant shadow appears on a wall as the victim stares at the audience and screams "It can't be you," followed by a close-up of a hand checking off the name of one more member of the Scarlet Ring who has been killed. The climax of this technique comes in a long-take with the still-unknown murderer visiting the crooked lawyer played by Alan Dinehart: the camera completely adopts the viewpoint of the killer as Dinehart opens the door and the unknown individual is offered a cigarette, puffs of smoke ascending in front of the lens.The sense of locale was enhanced by the use of a nearly all-British cast, something unusual for a Hollywood-made Sherlock Holmes picture. Reginald Owen in particular was given the necessary latitude to offer a different interpretation of the Holmes personality. Owen portrays a much more human, less remote man, more akin to the personification offered by William Gillette in his stage play, to whom Owen even bore a certain physical resemblance.By the time A STUDY IN SCARLET was released, in mid-1933, K.B.S. and World-Wide had folded, with Fox handling the distribution. The picture opened to an excellent critical reception.