Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes in five British films from 1931 to 1937. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce played Holmes and Watson in "The Hound of the Baskervilles" which launched a 14-film series. Rathbone is regarded as the Holmes of his generation. Many other films have been comedies and parodies that poke fun at Holmes, Watson, their relationship and other characters. These have included Billy Wilder's "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" with Robert Stephens and Colin Blakely as Holmes and Watson. More serious, non-canonical films were "A Study in Terror" (with John Neville and Donald Houston) and "Murder by Decree" (with Christopher Plummer and
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon of a Swiss scientist by their nemesis Professor Moriarty, to steal a new bomb sight and sell it to Nazi Germany. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson have to crack a secret code in order to save the country. The film is one of four films in the series which are in the public domain. Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) pretends to be a Nazi spy to aid scientist Dr. Franz Tobel (William Post Jr.) and his new invention, a bombsight, in escaping a Gestapo trap in Switzerland. Holmes and Franz fly to London, where Holmes places him under the protection