Watch The Sign of Four: Sherlock Holmes' Greatest Case For Free

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

I've seen all four extant films with Arthur Wontner playing Sherlock Holmes (the others are "The Sleeping Cardinal," "The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes" and "Silver Blaze"), and this one is definitely the best. Associated Talking Pictures clearly had better facilities than Twickenham (the company that made the others), and the multiple producers (including Rowland V. Lee and Basil Dean, who had previously directed a Holmes film himself) picked a story with lots of action and hired a capable director, Graham Cutts. Cutts usually gets dismissed patronizingly in biographies of Alfred Hitchcock (Cutts directed a number of films in Britain in the early 1920's on which Hitchcock assisted, including "The Rat" and "The Triumph of the Rat" with Ivor Novello) as a mediocre director who drank and womanized his way out of a major career. Judging by his work here, Hitchcock fans should probably be looking at Cutts as an influence on the Master; this film MOVES (most of the other Wontner Holmes films are boring and plodding), it's clearly staged with a sense of pace, it makes good use of unusual camera angles (including a surprising number of overhead shots), and the final fight scene (though obviously done with a stunt double for Wontner) is a genuinely exciting action highlight. Cutts also gets a marvelous villain performance out of Graham Soutten, and effectively uses the sound of his peg leg at a time when the art of suggesting off-screen action with sound effects was common in the U.S. but relatively unknown in Britain. He also makes Wontner a more convincing Holmes than in his other films in the role — Wontner even LOOKS younger here than he did in "The Sleeping Cardinal," made two years earlier — and Ian Hunter is a more effective Watson than usual even though it's a bit jarring to see a Watson who's clearly taller than his Holmes. As someone who'd watched the other Wontner Holmes films wondering what all the fuss was about — he's always seemed overrated in the role to me — this one has raised my opinion of Wontner as Holmes considerably. Isla Bevan is a striking leading lady with an interesting resemblance to Ginger Rogers — later one of the cinematographers on this film, Robert de Grasse, became Ginger Rogers' favorite cameraman at RKO.

"Clue...you know wots 'clue' is, doncha?" says hardened criminal Jonathan Small to his dim but strong accomplice. Small doesn't want any left behind during his quest for revenge and riches. "Yeah...somethin' you sticks paper together with." Years earlier Small had cut a deal with two British Army officers in an Andaman Islands prison. He'd share a treasure map with the two officers that marked the location of a rajah's ransom worth of sparklers and pearls in exchange for a four-way split and freedom for himself and his accomplice. He even marked the map with four crosses, the sign of four, to seal the deal. He was briskly betrayed. The officers took the map, found the jewels...and then one of the officers killed the other to keep everything for himself. And now that officer, rich and aged, dies of fright in his London mansion when he learns there has been an escape from a prison in the Andaman islands...two men, and one is named Small. But before he died and in an act of conscience he instructed his two sons to deliver to a Miss Mary Morstan, the daughter of the man he killed so long ago, the priceless pearl necklace that was in the treasure chest. With Small on the track to find the treasure and wreak his revenge, it's not long before Miss Morstan is pleading for help in the sitting room of The Great Detective himself. It is apparent that the case is intriguing, just as it's apparent that The Great Detective's good friend, Dr. John Watson, is smitten with Miss Morstan. "I don't want to interrupt the violent flutterings of your heart," says Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Wontner) to Watson (Ian Hunter), "but perhaps you'd be interested to know that never in my career have I encountered a more intricate case." Or, perhaps, a more diabolical one. Jonathan Small is a one-legged brute who can kill with his wooden foot. He's an escaped prisoner, a murderer, shrewd and violent, skilled with a tattoo needle and sometimes called "the Professor." His associate, the convict Small took with him when Small escaped, is a dim- bulbed hulk, tattooed from neck to ankle and now called The Human Picture Gallery, who deals with problems by beating them or dragging a straight razor across the throat. And if you're frightened of nasty death by alkaloid poison smeared on the tip of a blowgun dart, try to avoid Tonga, a small Andaman native who is as adept at puffing out oblivion as he is keeping his boa constrictor warm. Holmes prevails, of course, but not before we've spent time in a dangerous sideshow, witnessed the kidnapping of Mary Morstan, and experienced a violent and deadly fight in a great, dark warehouse on the banks of the Thames. In this fight, fists, poison darts and lethal legs all come into play. The movie is well paced, well acted and with a clever script. The use of overhead shots at dramatic moments is effective. So is the use of clever humor. The plot even bears some resemblance to the original story as it was written by Watson in 1890, using the name of his literary agent, Conan Doyle. In those days being seen as a popular author could damage a respectable medical doctor's reputation. Doyle understood this and was agreeable to the subterfuge when Watson suggested it. To this day, unfortunately, many people still believe that Doyle was the true author of the Holmes stories. Arthur Wontner starred as Sherlock Holmes in five movies made between 1931 and 1937. He was in his late fifties at the time but is lean and commanding, with a great Holmes profile. Wontner was a good actor and holds his own in the company Brett, Rathbone and the others. It's also satisfying to see that Ian Hunter plays Watson as a reasonably intelligent man and a good friend, not simply a buffoon or foil for Holmes.

Graham Cutts' 'The Sign of Four' is one of five Sherlock Holmes films starring Arthur Wontner in the main role. Of Wontner's portrayal, Vincent Starrett (author of 'The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes') declared, "No better Sherlock Holmes than Arthur Wontner is likely to be seen and heard in pictures, in our time... The keen worn, kindly face and quiet prescient smile are out of the very pages of the book". Indeed, Wontner beautifully captures the essence of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famed character, enjoyably depicting his quirky brilliance and almost omniscient deciphering of crime scene puzzles, frequently waving off Dr. Watson's (Ian Hunter) stunned admiration with a dismissive, "Elementary, my dear Watson, elementary."After an amputee prisoner serving a life sentence, Jonathon Small (Graham Soutten), reveals the whereabouts of his stolen treasure to two prison warders in exchange for his freedom, he is furious when they betray him. Driven mad by the sight of so many riches, one man, Major John Sholto (Herbert Lomas), murders his acquaintance, and flees with the wealth. Many years later, Small escapes from prison, seeking his revenge and his treasure. Shortly before his death, Sholto bequeaths the valuable pearl necklace from the treasure hoard to Mary Morstan (Isla Bevla), the daughter of the man he murdered. However, when Small comes after Morstan as well, she quite intelligently seeks the aid of the great Sherlock Holmes.'The Sign of Four' is a surprisingly engrossing mystery. Whilst there isn't really much of a classic whodunit, I was most certainly interested in how the story played out. Throughout the film's prologue, the clunking of Small's wooden leg against the floor was used quite effectively to develop suspense, and the ambitious high-speed boat race and dock brawl at the end of the film was suitably climactic. The professional police detective, Det. Insp. Atherly Jones (Gilbert Davis), was characteristically smug and incompetent, often referring to Holmes as an "amateur," whilst himself reaching completely the wrong conclusion about a mystery.Though the production values are undoubtedly low-budget, 'The Sign of Four' is a solid Sherlock Holmes film with some good performances and an engaging mystery. Worth a look.

This Arthur Wontner version of the Sherlock Holmes story "The Sign of Four" is pretty good for the early sound era, and it makes good use of its limited resources. The production doesn't look very impressive, but Wontner is believable as Holmes, the story is entertaining, and some of the sets, though low budget, work well in establishing the atmosphere.Wontner's Holmes is less willful and forceful, while more witty and upbeat, than the more familiar portrayals by Basil Rathbone and Jeremy Brett. And while the fine Brett version of "The Sign of Four" is probably now the definitive screen version of the story, in its time this one would probably have been highly satisfactory to its audiences.The script adapts the original story somewhat, yet it works pretty well. The order of the narrative is simplified, and some extra settings and events are included. One of them, a sequence at a fair, is interesting, and though it changes the tone of the story somewhat, it works in its own right. The character of Jonathan Small is also fleshed out, with less about his past and more of an emphasis on what he is like at the present. As Athelney Jones, Gilbert Davis gets a few good moments of give-and-take with Holmes.Like Wontner's other Holmes features, this one has an obvious low-budget, early 1930s feel to it. But the series is worth seeing for anyone who enjoys the Holmes stories and who doesn't mind seeing the characters portrayed in a somewhat different light.