Sherlock Holmes (1939 film series) nitrate film. The UCLA Film and Television Archive restored the series, putting the films onto modern polyester film, in a process that was jointly paid for by UCLA, Warner Bros. and Hugh Hefner. In 1938 Basil Rathbone was cast as Sherlock Holmes for the 20th Century Fox adaptation of "The Hound of the Baskervilles"; Nigel Bruce was chosen to play Dr. John Watson. Darryl F. Zanuck, Gregory Ratoff and Gene Markey made the choice of Rathbone as Holmes during a conversation at a party in Hollywood. Filming began on 29 December 1938 under the direction of Sidney Lanfield and the
Dr. Watson Alan Cox played a teenage Watson in the 1985 film "Young Sherlock Holmes", narrated by Michael Hordern as an older Watson. Ian Hart portrayed a young, capable, and fit Watson twice for BBC Television, once opposite Richard Roxburgh as Holmes (in a 2002 adaptation of "The Hound of the Baskervilles") and for a second time opposite Rupert Everett as the Great Detective in the new story "Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking" (2004). In the Soviet Sherlock Holmes film series, directed by Igor Maslennikov, Dr Watson was played by Vitaly Solomin. He is portrayed as a brave