The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (film) Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. John Watson, the final film produced by Fox, and the last in the Rathbone/Bruce series to be set in the original Victorian London period. The further twelve films produced by Universal Pictures and starring Rathbone/Bruce would take place in contemporaneous times (i.e. the 1940s). George Zucco stars as Holmes's nemesis Professor Moriarty. The picture follows famous detective Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Doctor Watson as they attempt to foil their archenemy Professor Moriarty who targets a wealthy family and plots the theft of the Crown Jewels. The film was supposedly based
Sherlock Holmes novel "Psmith, Journalist" (neither spoken by Holmes). The exact phrase "Elementary, my dear Watson" is used by protagonist Tom Beresford in Agatha Christie's 1922 novel "The Secret Adversary". It also appears at the end of the 1929 film "The Return of Sherlock Holmes", the first Holmes sound film. The phrase became familiar with the American public in part due to its use in The Rathbone-Bruce series of films from 1939 to 1946. Conan Doyle's 56 short stories and four novels are known as the "canon" by Holmes aficionados. Early canonical scholars included Ronald Knox in Britain and Christopher Morley in