Sherlock Holmes and a photograph of Abraham Lincoln

[David Lockmiller]

(11-19-2017 12:04 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Yes, David!

Marvelous work by you, Roger. But, obviously, I was mistaken about my description of the photograph being that of President Abraham Lincoln (no beard).

I saw the photograph in the background in another scene from the movie. I was not watching the entire movie closely. Every Sunday for the last several weeks at 8 AM Pacific Time, I have been watching Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) in one of the old Sherlock Holmes movies. Many of these movies I have seen before. I was not watching this one as closely as I usually do and I missed the scene with the photograph that you provided. It looks like Holmes was removing his masquerade as that of an old minister.

At the beginning of the movie was a classic Sherlock Holmes movie effect. The pretty young lady had just stolen the pearl (observed in character by Holmes) valued at 50 thousand pounds and she was asking the old minister (played by Holmes) to carry the camera where she had hidden the pearl through customs. She told the old minister that she was worried that the customs people might open the camera and expose the film. She said that the customs people would most likely pass him through without question. Holmes "reluctantly" agreed to do as she asked. They were on board a boat about to enter Dover harbor. Taking possession of the camera and pearl, the old minister "fumbled" the camera. Of course, the pretty young lady almost died from the scare as Holmes noted that the camera had almost fallen into the ocean.

After passing through customs, the young lady retrieved the camera from the old minister and thanked him. But when the bad guy (Giles) opened the back of the camera in the cab with his female accomplice, the pearl was missing and only a note from Sherlock Holmes was left in its place.