Episode 122: Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce

"actors in this drama" [SECO]

Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. Their names are forever linked, just as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are. And it is their remarkable seven-year collaboration that we discuss in this episode.

You've seen their likenesses in still photos. You've probably heard their voices in audio recordings. And you've had a chance to see their films from the late 1930s and early 1940s, whether in the theater, as a Saturday afternoon matinee on television, public TV pledge drive, or perhaps on a DVD or on YouTube.

The point is this: regardless of your level of fondness or distaste for this pairing, they remain iconic and inextricably linked to their portrayals of the world's greatest detective and his medical companion. Yes, it was Nigel Bruce's version of Dr. Watson that was called boobus Britannicus, but it seemed to fit with the times and with the air of the series.

We take you on a journey from their initial outing in The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in 1939 at 20th Century Fox, to their radio drama collaboration under Edith Meiser and later Anthony Boucher, and through the 12-film series under the Universal banner. Audio clips from the films and the radio show are included as we All of these portrayals left a permanent mark on their careers as well as on the world of Sherlock Holmes.

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Sponsors

This episode includes our two longtime sponsors, plus a new addition. Please support our sponsors by visiting their sites:

• Sherlock Holmes and the Cryptic Clues: A Grave Undertaking by Michael McClure. You should buy it. We're deadly serious.
• Wessex Press, publishers of The Drury Lane Theatre Mystery by Inspector Lestrade himself, Dennis Hoey.
• The Baker Street Journal, which has been published since the same year as the last of Rathbone/Bruce films.

Would you care to become a sponsor? You can find more information here.

Links

• The Complete Collection of Sherlock Holmes on Blu-Ray (Amazon)
• The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on radio
• Our interview with Michael Hoey, son of Dennis Hoey.
• Rathbone's autobiography In and Out of Character
• BasilRathbone.net
• An interview with Pauline Page, daughter of Nigel Bruce, by Nicholas Utechin for the Sherlock Holmes Journal, concerning Bruce's unpublished autobiography Games, Gossip and Greasepaint.
  
  

Many more links, articles and images are available in our Flipboard magazine at ihose.co/flipsherlock, as well as on the The Sherlock Holmes Community on Google+ (with over 4,200 members), as well as through our accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

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