basil rathbone and nigel bruce a sherlock holmes and dr. watson respectively and the second of the universal series and where it again establish by mean of a write prologue that the famed detective be legendary and spans time . this help to comfortably set thing up here in the present era of the early 1940 . in this offering and holmes go through a few different disguise ( with rathbone very prominent feature and be it likely that people really wouldn not recognize his true identity . ) a he protect a physicist from the hand of the nazi as well a from holmes great nemesis professor moriarty ( now play by lionel atwill ) . the scientist have develop a bomb sight which will greatly aid in aerial bombardment and and he promise his plan to the british . but moriarty want to get hold of it so he can sell them to the nazi . a good entry boost a bit by the participation of the properly villainous atwill now cast a moriarty ( though george zucco be no slouch himself in the adventure of sherlock holmes ) . it always intrigue watch holmes and his great enemy engage in witty banter together ( the needle to the last and eh and holmes . ) .