Word: basile
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Died. Sir Basil Home Thomson, 77, onetime Assistant Commissioner, Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard), onetime bigwig in the British secret service; suddenly; in London. Sir Basil dearly loved to read & write detective stories, led an adventuresome life himself. Son of a late Archbishop of York, he was successively a rancher in Iowa, Prime Minister of Tonga (Friendly Islands), Governor of Great Britain's famed Dartmoor Prison. Highspot of his career; tracking down Mata Hari, whom he described as a dowdy, middle-aged woman devoid of charm...
...Twentieth Century-Fox) exhibits the skyscraper profile of Basil Rathbone becomingly topped by the fore & aft cupola of fiction's most famed detective. Unlike his pipsqueak present-day imitators, who solve crimes while airing their wives' dogs, getting drunk or talking pidgin English, Sherlock Holmes was a literate patrician who always took his work seriously, permitting himself no distractions except an occasional shot of morphine when he was bored. For the Hays Production Code, according to which "the drug traffic should not be presented in any form," Basil Rathbone exhibits proper disdain. But before he asks Watson (Nigel...
...impersonators of Sherlock Holmes must stand comparison with William Gillette, who created the role on the stage. Basil Rathbone acquits himself fully as creditably as John Barrymore, his cinema predecessor. The only serious bit of miscasting in The Hound of the Baskervilles is in the title role. The proper selection, obviously, would have been a calf-sized Norwegian elkhound; equipped with fright wig and false fangs. Instead, Associate Producer Gene Markey, perhaps in the delightful confusion attendant on his recent marriage to Hedy Lamarr, put his O.K. on a friendly old Great Dane named Chief, who, despite all his yelpings...
...twinkle out of cinema stars have had an effect on the players themselves. Last week, with Lombard, Grant and Tibbett scheduled to be off, Ronald Colman asked for. and got, release from his contract. This left last Sunday's show in a bad spot. Grant was lured back, Basil Rathbone rounded up. The show went on, distinguished mainly by the singing of Negro Contralto Marian Anderson. Colman's suave management and Carole Lombard's wayward breathlessness were sorely missed. For next week the return of Miss Lombard and Tibbett is promised, but for the future...
...done. Not one whit less real than the trenches of "All's Quiet," the headquarters of Squadron 39 reeks with atmosphere; and the men, down to the last raw, eager replacement, are vividly portrayed. David Niven as Scottie, the happy-go-lucky fight leader, steals acting honors even from Basil Rathbone, who gives a profound interpretation of the nerve-ridden squadron commander. Errol Flynn is of course a dashing, handsome hero, but even his acting is at times excellent. Skillful direction has made intensely moving the pathos, and vividly contrasting the humor, of the simple plot--which deals merely with...