Skip to content

Sherlock Holmes Universal Series ( 1942 - 1946 ) Australian Posters





Following up on two films, The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes and The Hound Of the Baskervilles made at 20th Century Fox in 1939, which were based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's character Sherlock Holmes, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce reprised their roles of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in a series of twelve low budget films at Universal released 1942-1946. This series was moved from the original Victorian era to the 1940's. The above eight daybills and one 1sh are the only available images of Australian film posters I have been able to locate from this series. A majority of these displayed images, from memory, originated from John along with three from Bruce.





 

The above U.S. images are for the remaining four titles were I wasn't able to locate any Australian posters of. Anyone have any Australian images?




This Australian ad block for Sherlock Holmes In Washington may or may not be an indication as to what the daybill may have looked like.  






Thought I would throw in an Australian Newspaper advertisement placed for The Pearl Of Death in 1944, as interestingly it doesn't feature Holmes or Watson as they appeared on similar original U.S. artwork from where the ad block artwork would have been copied. There was an Australian one sheet of Rhe Pearl of Death auction by Christie's in Australia in 1994.

One last thing is that there was also an Australian one sheet of Dressed to Kill auctioned by Christie's in 1994 of Dressed To Kill. No image currently available but the poster is similar to the following U.S. one sheet, although the scene under Basil Rathbone's image isn't there but in place there is a large circle containing the censorship rating of Not suitable for general exhibition taking up this area and the two male actors images on the bottom left hand side are missing  from the Australian one sheet version.



Comments

  • Great artwork! We can only hope the.missing daybills will surface for all to see
  •  :o  :o:o   artwork fantastic!!!!!
  •  Thanks Chris for the very rare Sherlock Holnes Australian one sheet image.
  • Pic of the daybill for S.H. in Washington, the borders were trimmed but would've been printed by Marchant, perhaps the only one in the series they did.



  • Thanks Dave for posting the original Sherlock Holmes In Washington ( 1943 ) daybill image.

    This now only leaves us missing the three daybill images of Sherlock Holmes Faces Death, The Pearl Of Death and Terror By Night still to surface.

    Of the twelve Sherlock Holmes Universal Australian one sheets printed, only two have been located here by me so far.
  • Aussie 1 sheet for The Scarlet Claw and like the daybill has an image of Gale Sondergaard on it, and who wasn't in this movie - was in Spider Woman though. 


  • Very cool to see
  • darolo said:
    Aussie 1 sheet for The Scarlet Claw and like the daybill has an image of Gale Sondergaard on it, and who wasn't in this movie - was in Spider Woman though. 

    Thanks Dave for The Scarlet Claw  one sheet image. Interesting that the Gale Sonderguaard image appeares on both the Australian one sheet and also the daybill seeing that she wasn't in the film. A major Universal / W.E.Smith mistake.

    Of the twelve films in the Sherlock Holmes Universal series nine daybills and now three Australian one sheet images are viewable in this thread. Let's hope some of the still missing daybills and one sheets will turn up at some time or another. The chance though of any of the missing twelve Australian Sherlock Holmes three sheets turning up are I would have to think would have to be extreme long shots.
  • darolo said:
    Pic of the daybill for S.H. in Washington, the borders were trimmed but would've been printed by Marchant, perhaps the only one in the series they did.




     

    Dorolo's previously posted original  Sherlock Holmes In Washington  ( 1943 ) daybill, and another image just found of a  second printing stock daybill version. This poster would have been printed within under four years of the film's Australian release in 1943. In November 1946 Universal became Universal International, whereafter in Australia a Universa;l International logo / credit would have appeared on their posters. .
  • This is a fantastic thread, Hondo!  I hope you can complete the Australian poster images.  This is a great gift to the hobby.  My favorites listed so far are the Spider Woman and House of Fear.  Okie
  • edited November 2021

    Thanks for your compliment and thoughts Oakie. The House Of Fear daybill I prefer the best.

    Anyone that possibly may be interested in the Sherlock Holmes In Washington daybill stock poster, check out the following link. You will need to hurry though as the auction will finish soon.. It passed in first time around.



    https://www.aaac.com.au/auction-catalog/antique-and-vintage-collectables_U86Q1HQDRM?category=JPX4Q

  • I have a photo of Terror By Night somewhere, I had one about 25 years ago, wish I still had it. I have 7 of the daybills, Sherlock Holmes Faces Death is the one I would love to see/own.
  • darolo said:
    I have a photo of Terror By Night somewhere, I had one about 25 years ago, wish I still had it. I have 7 of the daybills, Sherlock Holmes Faces Death is the one I would love to see/own.
    If you are ever fortunate enough to be able to locate the image of Terror by Night I would love to see it.

    To update the missing Australian Universal Sherlock Holmes daybill posters I will now list them.

    Daybills 

    Sherlock Holmes Faces Death
    The Pearl of Death
    Terror By Night 

    I am hopng daybill images for these three missing films will at sometime or another turn up. I  believe the possibility of this happening as being good. 

    There are also nine Australian one sheets still missing, but I hold out little hope of the vast majority of these ever turning up.
  • The image of Terror By Night might be on one roll of film not yet developed. The daybill had a very black background and the same art as the poster pictured in this thread.
  • darolo said:
    The image of Terror By Night might be on one roll of film not yet developed. The daybill had a very black background and the same art as the poster pictured in this thread.
    Thanks for that and good to know.
  • edited July 2022


  • edited July 2022
    Previous entry deleted it had been sent in error.
  •                                                                                                                                                    
    Terror By Night ( 1946 ) Australian daybill.

    I wish to thank Wil for alerting me to the fact that this daybill is currently up for auction on Google. It is one of eight Sherlock Holmes Universal  ( 1942 - 1946 ) daybills from the series that are being auctioned in pairs. The auction is a Sherlock Holmes based one bring held by Potter & Potter, and all the daybill images can be located on page 10 of their catalogue..

    This now leaves only Sherlock Holmes Faces Death and The Pearl Of Death daybills still to be located. High hopes that this will occur at some time or another.
  • edited January 2024

      
    Sherlock Holmes Faces Death and The Pearl Of Death original U.S.A. insert posters and probably what the two missing Australian daybill versions would look like.
Sign In or Register to comment.






Logo

For movie poster collectors who know...

@ 2021 Vintage Movie Posters Forum, All rights reserved.

Contact us

info@vintagemoviepostersforum.com

Get In Touch