Basil Rathbone – 21 Films – Not Just Sherlock

Basil Rathbone – 21 Films – Not Just Sherlock

You probably know Basil Rathbone as the actor who portrayed Sherlock Holmes. But what if I told you he was also one of the greatest screen villains of all time—dueling Errol Flynn, scheming with Vincent Price, and terrifying audiences long before CGI monsters? Today, we’re diving into 21 unforgettable roles that prove Basil Rathbone wasn’t just a great actor—he was a force of nature.”

Basil Rathbone was born in South Africa in 1892, but left before the Boer War began. In England, Rathbone attended Repton School, where he excelled at fencing—a skill that would serve him well later in the movies—and also showed an interest in theater. After graduation, he worked in business for one year to please his father and then left for the theater. He had a cousin who managed one of the Shakespearean troupes in Stratford-upon-Avon. He joined at the bottom rung and began working his way to larger roles.

These roles were interrupted by WWI when Rathbone served as a second lieutenant in the Liverpool Scottish 2nd Battalion. He was assigned to military intelligence and later received the Military Cross for bravery. In 1919, he returned to Stratford-on-Avon. After a year there, he moved to the London stage and eventually began working on Broadway.

Eventually, he left the stage to begin working in movies. His roles evolved from ladies’ man to sinister villain, where his swordwork became more important. Rathbone’s first film role was Innocent (1921), and his last was the obscure Autopsia de un fantasma (1968). He had a total of 126 film and television credits.

21. I will begin the countdown with a rather low-quality film. However, this film represents an important era in Rathbone’s movie career. Rathbone played the evil wizard Lodac in The Magic Sword (1962), a film that falls below his norm. However, he often took this type of role near the end of his career.

This film was directed by Bert I. Gordon. It’s a bad but funny movie, as the great wizard was defeated by Sybil, played by the hilarious actress Estelle Winwood. The hero, Sir George, was an earlier role for Gary Lockwood, who went on to appear in the second pilot for “Star Trek” from 1966 to 1969 and as the Star Child in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

20. Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942) is the first of several Sherlock Holmes films that are included on this list. Rathbone and Nigel Bruce made 14 films in this series.

This film featured Evelyn Ankers of The Wolf Man (1941) fame. In this wartime drama, the master detective is called upon to silence a nazzi who is announcing forthcoming terror attacks over the radio.

19. I will combine these two short animated films as one on the list. Until I began researching this list, I was unaware that Rathbone contributed to two Disney animated projects. They are The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) and The Wind in the Willows (1949). In the former, Rathbone voiced a policeman in the Mr. Toad part (film). But all I can think of is how much that headless horseman scared me when he threw the flaming pumpkin. In the later film, Rathbone voiced the narrator.

18. In The Scarlet Claw (1944), another Sherlock Holmes adventure, Rathbone as Holmes, investigates grisly murders in the town of La Mort Rouge. Doesn’t that mean the red death? The villagers believe the killings were done by a monster, but Holmes suspects it is someone hiding in the village.

17. The Black Cat (1941) is a who-done-it with an amazing cast. Not only Basil Rathbone, but Bela Lugosi, Broderick Crawford, Alan Ladd, and Gale Sondergaard. In this film, an elderly woman lives alone with her cats. As she nears death, family and others gather with an eye for what they can walk away with. Not wanting to wait as she recovers, someone murders the woman, leaving a mystery for the family and the others.

16. In Dressed to Kill (1946), Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes becomes intrigued when a friend of Dr. Watson recounts a robbery that resulted in the theft of only a cheap music box. Holmes’ investigation reveals that a set of music boxes contains the answer to some missing engraving plates.

15. In The Comedy of Terrors (1963), Rathbone joins other horror icons, Peter Lorre and Vincent Price. In a tiny 19^th-century town, an unscrupulous man marries to get possession of a funeral parlor. The new director repeatedly sells the same coffin and dumps the deceased without a coffin. The director begins to commit murders to drive up business. This becomes a problem when they kill Mr. Black (Rahtbone). It seems it is hard to keep him dead.

14. In The Pearl of Death (1944), Evelyn Ankers joins Rathbone for another Sherlock Holmes adventure. On this adventure, Sherlock shows that the valuable Borgia pearl is in danger of being stolen. While Sherlock is demonstrating, the pearl is stolen from the museum. Sometime later, murders begin to occur where the homeowner have their backs broken and fragments of china are strewn about the home. Soon, Sherlock realizes that all the broken china comes from busts of Napoleon. He now knows who the murderer is and how to catch them. Sounds like Dressed to Kill (1946).

13. A lot of Terror by Night (1946) takes place on a train as Sherlock is hired by Lady Margaret and her son, Roland Carstairs, to guard a 423-carat diamond, known as the Star of Rhodesia, which was Lady Margaret’s wedding gift.

Holmes replaces the diamond with a fake before the diamond is stolen and Roland is murdered. Holmes pursues a string of false leads until he realizes that the murder was committed by one of Professor Moriarty’s associates.

12. The Roger Corman-directed Tales of Terror (1962) consists of three separate horror tales. Two other masters of horror, Peter Lorre and Vincent Price, are featured in the three tales, along with Rathbone, who appears in the segment “The Case of M. Valdemar.”

Vincent Price as Ernest Vlademar is terminally ill and in great pain. He hires Carmichael, played by Rathbone, to hypnotize him to relieve the pain. Vlademar asks that his wife, Helene, played by Debra Padget, to marry Dr. James after his death. Carmichael controls Vlademar’s brain and causes his soul to be trapped in his body after he dies. Carmichael then attempts to marry Helene, but the outcome is not as expected.

11. In We’re No Angels (1955), three Devil’s Island convicts, Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov, and Aldo Ray, arrive on an island and pretend to be roofers. This is done so they can case the store that the Ducotels run. The convicts soon discover that the family is in financial straits, and they help alleviate some of the problems.

When the evil cousin of the Ducotel family arrives and threatens to take the store away from the family, the convicts use a special pet to fix the problem.

10. In The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938), Gary Cooper offers a somewhat humorous portrayal of the Venetian explorer Marco Polo. The great Kublai Khan accepts the explorer, and over time, Polo and Princess Kukuchin, played by Sigrid Gurie, begin to fall in love. The Khan’s devious henchman, Ahmed, played by Rathbone, wants to marry the Princess and steal the throne.

9. The Court Jester (1955) is riotously funny, not just because of Danny Kaye but mostly because of the presence of Glynis Johns as Maid Jean. A false king sits on the English throne, and the true king is a small infant. Maid Jean and Hubert Hawkins, played by Danny Kay, are trusted by the Black Fox to transport the infant to the capital. When they meet a Court Jester named Giacomo, they replace the funny man with Hawkins.

Problems arise when the false king’s daughter, played by Angela Lansbury, falls in love with Hawkins as Giacomo, and the evil Sir Ravenhurst, played by Rathbone, has hired the real Giacomo as an assassin.

8. The Tower of London (1939) is loosely based on the War of the Roses, a conflict in which the House of Lancaster and the House of York fought for control of England. Rathone is Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and has several people between him and the throne. He keeps small dolls of each in a cabinet and burns them as he kills off the competition. Richard is aided by a club-footed executioner named Mord, who is played masterfully by Boris Karloff.

When Richard kills the hapless Duke of Clarence, played by Vincent Price, he becomes Richard III, King of England. All that is left is to defeat the last of the Lancastrians/Tudors. When the battle begins, things don’t go as expected.

7. In The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939), Holmes, played by Rathbone, arrives late to court and can’t give evidence that would convict Professor Moriarty, played very well by George Zucco. Moriarty taunts Holmes, saying he will pull off the crime of the century to discredit the sleuth. A woman named Ann, played by Ida Lupino, comes to Sherlock, saying she fears being murdered. Later, Moraity tries to have her murdered, but Holmes prevents the killing. Holmes discovers clues to Moriarty’s planned heist of the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. During a fight on the roof, Moriarty falls to his death. 

6. In my opinion, The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939) is the best of the Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films. Sir Charles Baskerville dies fleeing something on the moors. Sir Henry, his son and heir, arrives at the estate from Canada. A friend, Dr. Mortimer, played by horror master Lionel Atwill, approaches Sherlock and claims the heir is in danger due to a family curse carried out by The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Sir Henry meets the beautiful Beryl Stapleton and her brother, John. It is not long before Henry and Beryal fall in love. Henry’s housekeepers are likely suspects, with the husband, Mr. Berryman, played by another horror icon, John Carridine. Henry’s boot was stolen in London, and the housekeepers made lantern signals across the moors.

After an escaped convict, who is the brother of Mrs. Berryman, is killed, Sherlock allows Sir Henry to think the case is solved while he sets a trap for the killer. Sherlock determines that the killer is John Stapleton, who is also related to Sir Henry. He has been starving a Great Dane and giving it a scent of the potential victims.

This movie is ingrained in our movie-going consciousness, as David and Jack are warned to stay off the moors. When they hear the werewolf for the first time, one of them quips, “The Hound of the Baskervilles?” in An American Werewolf in London (1981).

5. In The Mark of Zorro (1940), Rathbone is again an outstanding bad guy playing the role of Capt. Esteban, the military commandant of the false alcade. He is particularly lecherous as he simultaneously attempts to steal the Alcalde’s wife, played by Gale Sondergaard, and marry Lolita Quintero, played by the lovely Linda Darnell.

This movie features the first of three notable sword-fighting scenes. Capt. Esteban faces off against Don Diego/Zorro, played by Tyrone Power. Some people have criticized Power as not being athletic enough to pull off his side of the fight. However, this is probably only true when compared to the other two fights I will mention later.

4. In one of my favorite movies, The Dawn Patrol (1938), Rathbone plays Major Brand, the commander of a World War I fighter squadron. Rathbone is amazing as the commander who is forced to stay behind while sending others to their death. Major Brand is isolated when his best friend, Courtney, played masterfully by Errol Flynn, believes Brand caused the death of his younger brother. Things quickly change for Courtney when both he and Brand are promoted.

3. In contention for the best classic horror film, Rathbone is amazing as the scenery-chewing and best-named scientist, Wolf von Frankenstein, in Son of Frankenstein (1939). Boris Karloff returns as the monster, and he is always good. A hidden jewel in this film is Bela Lugosi‘s portrayal of a murderous hunchback who controls the monster.

Watch this film for the references, which will enhance your next viewing of Young Frankenstein (1974) and make it more enjoyable.  

2. In The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Rathbone is outstanding as the sniveling villain Sir Guy of Gisbourne. The supporting cast is exceptional, featuring Olivia de Havilland as Maid Marion, Errol Flynn as Robin Hood, and Claude Rains as Prince John. The sword fight between Rathbone and Errol Flynn alone is worth the price of admission.

1. Captain Blood (1935) reunites Olivia de Havilland and Errol Flynn. Flynn plays Peter Blood, a country doctor who is falsely convicted of treason. Sold as an enslaved person in the Caribbean, Blood escapes and becomes a scourge to those who have wronged him.

Blood teams up with snarling French pirate Levasseur, played to perfection by Rathbone. Again, the sword fight on the beach where Blood faces Levasseur is very exciting.

Following World War II, Rathbone returned to the stage, trying to shed the stereotype of Holmes. However, this was not successful. But he did continue to work in movies until his death. Rathbone didn’t just play villains or heroes—he commanded the screen. And though he tried to escape Holmes’s shadow, (maybe that’s fitting). Because, like Holmes, Rathbone was brilliant, enigmatic, and unforgettable.

I could easily add another 21 film titles to this list. Although Basil Rathbone is considered a great actor, I believe he is one of the finest actors to have ever graced the screen. Let me know in the comments—what’s your favorite Basil Rathbone moment? Did I miss a great villain, or is Sherlock the hero your top pick?