Search - The Sherlock Holmes Collection, Vol. 2 (The House of Fear/The Spider Woman/Pearl of Death/The Scarlet Claw) on DVD

At Last ...The Scarlet Claw!!!!

Arty Abrams | Summerton, SC United States | 09/17/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Lets be thankful that we are going to soon be treated to restored versions of these classics. I have purchased versions of the Scarlet Claw that were nearly inaudible and blurred. And it has been out of print for some time. So I am writing this pre-review to express my Great Expectations and excitement over the upcoming DVD release of the 14 Sherlock Holmes movies made by Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.
For those of us who have loved and worn out our VHS versions of these films, I am sure that I speak for many of us in expressing incredible anticipation and near shock that someone has finally recognized the need to release a "restored version" of these timeless classics.
We are told that they have been "Preserved and restored in 35mm by the UCLA Film and Television Archive." This is marvelous and I have already pre-ordered Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 from MPI Home Video.
I so hope that the entire 14 movies, are ultimately released in restored condition. Especially the rarest of them, "The Scarlet Claw" which has rarely been shown on televison and only been available on VHS sporadically.
To me and many others I know, Basil Rathbone is the definative Holmes. Not just because he looks alarmingly similar -as much as is humanly possible- to Sidney Pagets drawings of Holmes from the Strand Magazine illustrations, but mostly we love Rathbone because he portrayed the same Holmes that we as readers get through the buffer of Dr. Watson explaining away not magnifying Holmes' shortcomings.
Jeremy Brett chose to amplify every negative aspect of Holmes' personality that in the written versions Watson explained away. Rathbone's Holmes has been demeaned visciously over the past years and hopefully the respect and dignity that he gave his portrayals will be seen in all their accuracy and glory with these new digitally restored releases. ... these will have to be the best quality versions of these classics ever released...so for all of us who have cursed the incomprehensibly awful releases of these films over the years...our time has almost come. Show your support for this effort by ordering a restored version of American Film Histroy.
Much Thanks to UCLA, MPI, and Whoever was ultimately responsible for the idea of doing this!!!!"

Good and Bad News

MARK C. BALE | SWANSEA, WEST GLAM UNITED KINGDOM | 09/27/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am also waiting with delight at the release of these classics. The bad news is the two 20th Century Fox films (the first films Rathbone/Bruce made as the duo) have not been restored - THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES/ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES were not made by Universal and were not part of the restoration project at UCLA. This is why chronologically they are not being released first, as the visual condition of these two titles are not as good as the restored Universal dozen. I don't know if any cleaning/remastering has been done on the two Fox titles though."

Great Restoration Process

MARK C. BALE | 12/03/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"After viewing the films in volume 2 of this collection, I have to say that they did a terrific job in restoring these classics. What makes this volume especially good is the fact that the best of the Rathbone/Bruce series are contained in it. The film The Scarlet Claw is presented the best I have seen it ever. The visuals and audio are extremely crisp and clear. Unfortunately, as in the first volume, the DVD extras could have been better (however, there is an interesting short on how the restoration process was done that I thought was good). That issue aside, I believe that most people will want this collection for the availability of these films for the first time in over 10 years."

As good as you'd hope they'd be

John Gleeson | Barrington, NJ United States | 12/02/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The UCLA credit on each film reads "Preserved by" which is not quite the same as "Restored by" but the 4 films are as good as
Holmes fans have waited for. Each volume has one film with a commentary by David Stuart Davies. He gives a lot of detail and makes interesting observations but failed to review himself for accuracy. He refers to cameraman George Robinson as Bernard Robinson (a Hammer art director) and actress Kay Harding as having made just The Scarlet Claw, when she appeareded mostly as Jackie Lou Harding - and was also in The Woman In Green.
There are so many experts on the Rathbone series that MPI should have had a commentary for each film instead of the one catch-all for each set.
Nevertheless, you won't buy these for the extras but for the pleasure of seeing all 12 of Universal's Holmes films in such superb condition.
Volume 3 will be released in January and the two Rathbone Fox films in May 2004."