Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1942)

The Second World War is on, and Sherlock Holmes slips into Switzerland in disguise to bring out Dr. Franz Tobel, the inventor of a new bombsight that could change the air war. Safely in London, Tobel splits his invention into parts held by different scientists, then vanishes, leaving behind a message written in stick-figure "dancing men". Holmes and Dr. Watson must crack the cipher before the enemy, and an old foe, Professor Moriarty, get hold of the device. The second of the Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce Holmes films made by Universal, it moves Conan Doyle's detective into the 1940s and borrows the cipher idea from "The Adventure of the Dancing Men". Lionel Atwill makes a cool, menacing Moriarty, and the film is one of the brisk, enjoyable entries in a long-running series.