House of Fear (1945)

I was surprised to know they could still produce movies in 1945 – at time of war. Basil Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes is very convincing: arrogant, intelligent, and his skinny features made us all believe he was a drug addict. So successful his interpretation of this famous detective character that Disney used his name for their Sherlock Holmes character in The Great Mouse Detective. Must also mention that Nigel Bruce made a good old Dr. Watson.

The House of Fear started with members of Good Comrades Club in Scotland gathered for breakfast, and one of them received an envelope containing orange pips. Later the person died in a horrible way. Soon members of the club died one by one, and each time the unlucky man received envelope containing orange pips (whose number also decreasing along with the members) before his death. Sherlock Holmes was asked to investigate the case by an insurance agent because the rest of the members, who could survive, gained benefit from their friends’ deaths. Looked like the last person alive was the killer, like in Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None.

Although this story contains orange pips, the plot is different from The Five Orange Pips, where 3 people were murdered after receiving an envelope containing 5 orange pips. The original story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle involves stolen papers from KKK.

In this House of Fear, the twist in the end was very good – but I didn’t catch the reason why those people had to disappear. I guess it has something to do with smuggler. Also didn't understand why orange pips were used as a warning. In The Five Orange Pips, the first person who received them, understood their meaning instantly; but in The House of Fear all members of the club laughed when they first saw the orange pips and took them as a joke.

I've seen several Sherlock Holmes movies (with Rathbone), and this is absolutely one of the best.