MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *sociological*
Of all of the Universal films featuring
the Great Detective, SHERLOCK HOLMES FACES DEATH sports the oddest
title. While a lot of Conan Doyle’s Holmes stories pose no peril to
the sleuth, most if not all of the movies under this heading bring
Holmes into imminent risk of his own life. Given that fact, one could
almost imagine the Sherlock of FACES being forced to duel an angel of
doom, or some similar specter. But FACES doesn’t even have a phony
ghost, just a passing reference to an alleged spirit in the ancestral
manor of the impoverished aristocratic family, the Musgraves.
Odd title aside, FACES has the
distinction of being a more entertaining mystery than the Doyle story
on which it’s loosely based. The case of Doyle’s “The Musgrave
Ritual” is narrated to Doctor Watson by Sherlock long after the
events of the case occurred, which by itself takes away some of the
immediacy. Holmes’ client, a stuffy lord named Musgrave, approaches
Holmes in reaction to what might be called “servant trouble.”
Musgrave dismisses his butler Brunton for messing around in
Musgrave’s papers, including a copy of a family catechism, the
“ritual” of the title. Both Brunton and another servant disappear
under mysterious circumstances, and Sherlock’s solution to the
puzzle involves using the ritual to unearth an ancient English
treasure.
Politically speaking, the short story
pretty much adheres to the social status quo. Not so FACES. In
keeping with the World War Two setting, the events at Hurlstone, the
manor of the Musgraves, actually end up leveling the playing field
between the classes. One change from the original story, made explicitly to
appeal to wartime audiences, is that the manor has been temporarily converted into a barracks for
soldiers who have returned to England to convalesce. This plot-thread
doesn’t have any great impact on the mystery’s solution, but it
does give the film an excuse to involve Doctor Watson with the
Musgrave family. Of much more social consequence is the film’s use
of the old chestnut, “young heiress wants to marry outside her
class.” Thus, in place of one grumpy, landed aristocrat, we have
three relatively impoverished high-class siblings, Snobbish brothers
Geoffrey and Philip oppose sister Sally’s desire to marry one of
the lower classes, who’s not even a native Britisher, but one of
those Yanks involved in the war effort.
Though the butler Brunton still plays a
key role in the mystery, the film starts off with a more momentous
event: a local doctor is attacked, albeit non-fatally, on the grounds
of Hurlstone. Did one of the traumatized patients go amok? But this
is never really a serious possibility, especially when one Musgrave
brother dies, and the other follows not long after. In fact, Philip
dies in such a way as to be strongly associated with Sally-- his dead
body is found in the trunk of a car when Sally’s driving it.
However, given that Sally is presented as a sympathetic figure—not
least because she’s marrying an American swain—Sally is also not
even briefly portrayed as a possible culprit. However, the course of
Sherlock’s investigations bring him into contact with the Musgrave
Ritual, though in this go-round, the catechism is much more elaborate
than in the short story. However, the ritual’s purpose remains the
same: to pave the way to an ancient treasure, which is also the
motive behind the murder. And in contradistinction to the story,
where the rich are made richer by the uncovered treasure, Sally
proves herself a woman of her time by casting aside the riches when
it’s indicated that their use would harm the lower classes. Indeed,
the film ends with Sherlock singing the praises of a new Samaritan
ethic, implicitly born from the travails of the war, that will make
it impossible for men to ignore one another’s suffering.
Despite some interesting visual
touches—a chamber whose tiles are used as a giant chessboard, and a
lightning-bolt that coincidentally causes chaos during Sally’s
reading of the Musgrave Ritual—FACES is in every way a naturalistic
Holmes-excursion.
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