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
Basil Rathbone produced by Fox in 1939), were set in the late Victorian times of the original stories. The later installments, produced by Universal, beginning with "Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror" (1942), were set in contemporary times. The first three had World War II-related plots. Concurrent with the films, Rathbone and Bruce reprised their film roles in a radio series, "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", which began in October 1939. Rathbone appeared in the radio series as long as the film series was active, but after the films lapsed in 1946, Rathbone ceded his radio part to Tom Conway.