The famous Borgia Pearl, a valuable gem with a history of bringing murder and misfortune to its owner since the days of the Borgias, is brought to London, thanks in part to Sherlock Holmes. But before long the jewel is stolen, due to an error on Holmes' part, and shortly thereafter, a series of horrible murders begin, the murderer leaving his victims with their spines snapped and surrounded by a mass of smashed china.
So the "Borgia Pearl" with a provenance steeped in blood and death is stolen from a museum after "Holmes" (Basil Rathbone), rather pompously, disables the state-of-the-art electric security system and so he and "Watson" (Nigel Bruce) have to try and get it back again. This time he comes up against a formidable protagonist in "Giles Conover" (Miles Mander) and his brutal henchman "the Hoxton Creeper". This is a tense, and at times quite menacing cat-and-mouse movie based on Conan-Doyle's "Six Napoleons" that keeps your attention throughout with the stars rarely better...
