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
Sherlock Holmes (1932 film) Sherlock Holmes (1932 film) Sherlock Holmes (a.k.a. Conan Doyle's Master Detective Sherlock Holmes) is a 1932 American Pre-Code film starring Clive Brook as the eponymous London detective. The movie is based on the successful stage play "Sherlock Holmes" by William Gillette, in turn based on the stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, and is directed by William K. Howard for the Fox Film Corporation. Brook had played Holmes previously in "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" and the "Murder Will Out" segment of "Paramount on Parade". Reginald Owen plays Dr. Watson, and Ernest Torrence is Holmes's arch-rival, Professor Moriarty. Reginald Owen played