Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon

As one of the greatest detectives from literature Sherlock Holmes carries with him the atmosphere and culture of 19^th century London. There have been a number of authors over the years who have successfully carried the character into the future of that world in which he lived in, but for all of the successes there have been just as many failures. Of the many adaptations of Holmes stories the person that most people remember in the role is Basil Rathbone, with fourteen Holmes films made, between 1939 and 1946, its easy to understand why we make that association.
Holmes and Watson must battle against their arch enemy, Dr. Moriarty, who has stolen plans for a new bomb that Nazis are extremely interested in. Even though Rathbone and Nigel Bruce reprise their roles as Holmes and Watson, the characters just seem out of place for this setting. In the earlier films the stories flowed whether they were set in the late 19^th or early 20^th centuries, but here the story seems disjointed from the regular Holmes universe. Having Holmes chase around Nazis in World War II Europe is just to much of a stretch for the imagination. The plot itself drags along so slowly that it becomes an effort to see it through to the end.
Of all the Holmes films that Rathbone and Bruce did this is by far the worst, the plot falls apart and makes so many leaps of faith in Holmes mythology that even a true fan is nauseated by the film. I've enjoyed many of the films that Rathbone did in his long career, but this one just seems like they were throwing it together as they were going along. All I can truly say is that if you are going to watch a mystery and you were looking at a Holmes film you can do a whole lot better than this one, its just not worth the time or the effort.