The Sign of the Four The Sign of the Four The Sign of the Four (1890), also called The Sign of Four, is the second novel featuring Sherlock Holmes written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle wrote four novels and 56 short stories featuring the fictional detective. The story is set in 1888. "The Sign of the Four" has a complex plot involving service in India, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, a stolen treasure, and a secret pact among four convicts ("the Four" of the title) and two corrupt prison guards. It presents the detective's drug habit and humanizes him in a way that had
Sherlock Holmes (1939 film series) film was released on 31 March 1939. Later that year a second film, "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", followed, which was based on "Sherlock Holmes", an 1899 stage play written by William Gillette. Although 20th Century Fox planned to make further "Holmes" films with Rathbone and Bruce, complications in negotiations between the company and the estate of the character's creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, brought a premature end to the studio's involvement; their decision to withdraw from further productions was also because the Second World War meant that "foreign agents and spies were much more typical and topical than the antiquated