Sherlock Holmes Coll

First, let me start by saying I've owned all 14 movies on VHS for years and enjoyed all of them, and now that the dvd's are out, I'll be buying them again, but not all of them.
In my humble opinion the best 9 titles in the series are: The Hound of the Baskervilles(1), The Adventures or Sherlock Holmes(2),The Voice of Terror(3), The Secret Weapon(4), Faces Death(6),The Scarlet Claw(8), The House of Fear(10), Pursuit to Algiers(12), and Terror by Night(13).
The remaining 5, Sherlock Holmes in Washington, The Spiderwoman, The Pearl of Death, The Woman in Green, and Dressed to kill are
all decent, but not stellar like some of the other titles, especially after repeated viewings. Surprisingly, Pursuit to Algiers and Terror by night, the 12th and 13th entries respectively, are the two sleepers late in the series, GREAT!!, while Dressed to kill is kind of a let down for the series finale! I think Basil Rathbone had had his fill by this time, and it shows in his somewhat lackluster performance, compared to earlier entries. "The Hound" and the "Adventures of" (both 1939, and offered only separately), are clearly the two best in the series, and also the longest at about 80-85 minutes, while the rest of the series clock in between 60-74 minutes, depending on the title. It's a shame these movies weren't longer, like 90 minutes or so.
Any of the three volume sets offered here by MPI are a good place to start for any fan, but I'm choosing individual tiltes this time to get the cream of the crop. I'm also ordering my first of the Jeremy Brett series, which are superb, and a nice refreshing change, but I'll always come back to Rathbone, still the ultimate Holmes!! Buy them all!, or at least the 9 I've suggested, I think they're the best of the series.

Voice of Terror is the only one I have seen so far. It was almost a joy to see this fine war-time piece. However, when the voice and lip movements are out of sync one must ask how this was allowed to happen. Not only is it a distraction in full shots, but the close ups are truly disconcerting. At fifteen dollars a disc, I certainly want more professional results. Also when my package arrived there was rattling in the box. It turned out that all of the discs were loose in their container. I ordered vols two and three at the same time and the discs in their boxes were also free to move about, making the possibility of scratches and bumps to happen. The packaging of these classics is appalling. If the sync problem exists in all the discs then the "experts" that put these together fall far short of their responsibilities. The fact that it should happen even once to these classic movies is bad enough. Enough! Amazon Books has always been top notch, but I fear the DVD department is far below what one expects. The clarity and sound is very good. Now if they could just get it together.

Many British films have neither subtitles nor closed captions. This set does.....so those of us with hearing deficits can enjoy these wonderful mysteries, too.