Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Wontner) has decided to retire and move to the Sussex countryside. Doctor Watson (Ian Fleming) has taken over the rooms at Baker Street with his wife. While Holmes is in the country his nemesis, Professor Moriarty (Lyn Harding) is busy. A man named Ted Balding (Ben Welden) who is a member of an American criminal society called the Scowlers wants to hire Moriarty to murder someone. He is willing to pay $50,000. Moriarty accepts the job.
Doctor Watson visits Holmes. He gives him a letter that was delivered to Baker St from one of Moriarty’s men. The letter is a coded message. Holmes decodes the message. It refers to danger at a place called Birlstone Castle. Just then Inspector Lestrade (Charles Mortimer) arrives to tell Holmes that there was a grisly murder that happened last night. Is seems that John Douglas (Leslie Perrins), the owner of Birlstone Castle was shot point blank in the face.
At Birlstone Castle Holmes meets John’s wife Ettie (Jane Carr). Ettie doesn’t appear to have much information about who would want to kill her husband. Eventually Holmes manages to get her to tell the truth about her husband. What comes next is a tale of a secret society of murderers and blackmailers who terrorized everyone in the Vermissa Valley in America and of how her husband was a member of the vicious gang, but her tale is only half the story.
“The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes” was released in 1935 and was directed by Leslie S. Hiscott. It is a British mystery movie starring Arthur Wontner as Sherlock Holmes. The movie was based on the 1915 novel “The Valley of Fear” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is the fourth of five films in the 1931–1937 film series starring Wontner as Sherlock Holmes.
At times it feels like there are two movies in one. There’s a lot of flashback in the middle. That’s actually not a bad thing. It makes the film a little different than the normal Holmes movie. There are times during the flashback that you forget it is a Sherlock Holmes film. It was interesting and Wontner is a good Holmes. Ian Fleming is also a decent Watson and not an imbecile. Although there are some light moments between Holmes and Watson the kidding is good natured and affectionate.
One of the problems with the film is the timeline. The movie takes place as modern day in the 1930’s but the real-life incidences that the movie references as happening in America took place in the 1870’s. The Scowlers are really the Molly Maguires and the Pinkerton sting, shown in the film, happened fifty or sixty years earlier. This is a problem only in a historical sense. Since the movie is fiction to begin with screen writers took a few liberties with history as well as Doyle’s story.
Despite all the hoopla about Professor Moriarty, the character only appears in two of Doyle’s stories, “The Final Problem” and “The Valley of Fear”, although he is mentioned in five other stories, “The Empty House”, “The Norwood Builder”, “The Missing Three-Quarter”, “The Illustrious Client”, and “His Last Bow”. Moriarty’s first name is James, and he is a mathematical genius. Moriarty had a brother whose first name was also James, Colonel James Moriarty. At least forty-six actors played the villain in plays, movies and television series including Lionell Atwill, Laurence Olivier, Vincent d’Onofrio, John Huston, and George Zucco.
A scowler is a hooligan.