This Arthur Wontner film was made in 1935, and based on The Valley of Fear. The plot of the film stays fairly close to the story, and the story begins with Holmes in retirement looking after his bees. Lyn Harding appeared as Moriarty for the first time.

Review: "The film….follows the plot of the novel fluently and with considerable ingenuity, except for the now indispensable appearance of Professor Moriarty. Arthur Wontner is the only Sherlock Holmes. His playing throughout is in perfect character and he seems to have walked straight out of the Sidney Paget illustrations which made Sherlock Holmes universally recognisable." Monthly Film Bulletin No. 14 (March 1935).

Produced by Alpha Video which is not known for high quality, the transfer from video source looks no better than VHS, but for $5 and no region encoding – which means anyone can view it – it is excellent value. Great cover art, for a relatively uncommon film. Recommended. Available from Oldies.com in the US, where your webmaster was able to obtain 5 DVDs for $25!