Basil Rathbone

When the diabolical Professor Ratigan kidnaps London's master toymaker, the brilliant master of disguise Basil of Baker Street and his trusted sidekick Dawson try to elude the ultimate trap and foil the perfect crime.

Robin Hood fights nobly for justice against the evil Sir Guy of Gisbourne while striving to win the hand of the beautiful Maid Marian.

The Wind in the Willows: Concise version of Kenneth Grahame's story of the same name. J. Thaddeus Toad, owner of Toad Hall, is prone to fads, such as the newfangled motor car. This desire for the very latest lands him in much trouble with the wrong crowd, and it is up to his friends, Mole, Rat and Badger to save him from himself. - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: Retelling of Washington Irving's story set in a tiny New England town. Ichabod Crane, the new schoolmaster, falls for the town beauty, Katrina Van Tassel, and the town Bully Brom Bones decides that he is a little too successful and needs "convincing" that Katrina is not for him.

Returning from Spain, the son of a California nobleman comes home to find his native land under a villainous dictatorship. On one hand, he plays the useless fop, while on the other, he is the masked avenger Zorro.

After breaking up with her fiancé, a gym teacher returns to work at a women's college, but a legal loophole allows him to enroll as one of her students.

Three convicts escape from prison on Devil's Island just before Christmas and arrive at a nearby French colonial town. They go to the store of the Ducotels, the only store that gives supplies on credit. They initially intend to take advantage of them but have a change of heart after they find the family is in financial troubles.

Three stories adapted from the work of Edgar Allen Poe: 1) A man and his daughter are reunited, but the blame for the death of his wife hangs over them, unresolved. 2) A derelict challenges the local wine-tasting champion to a competition, but finds the man's attention to his wife worthy of more dramatic action. 3) A man dying and in great pain agrees to be hypnotized at the moment of death, with unexpected consequences.

Holmes and Watson board a passenger train bound from London to Edinburgh, to guard the Star of Rhodesia, an enormous diamond worth a fortune belonging to an elderly woman of wealth; but within the first hour of the trip, the woman's son is murdered and the diamond stolen and any of the passengers in their car could be the killer thief.

Dr. Peter Blood, unjustly convicted of treason and exiled from England, becomes a notorious pirate.

A hapless carnival performer masquerades as the court jester as part of a plot against a usurper who has overthrown the rightful king of England.

In Imperial Russia, Anna, wife of the officer Karenin, goes to Moscow to visit her brother. On the way, she meets charming cavalry officer Vronsky, to whom she's immediately attracted. But in St. Petersburg’s high society, a relationship like this could destroy a woman’s reputation.

One of the sons of late Dr. Henry Frankenstein finds his father's ghoulish creation in a coma and revives him, only to find out the monster is controlled by Ygor who is bent on revenge.

Italy 1757, Pippo Popolino, a lowly tailor, disguises himself as the great Casanova in order to romance the attractive widow Francesca. He little suspects what awaits him... Locked into the incongruous role by the desperation of the real Casanova's creditors, Pippo must journey to Venice on a delicate mission far beyond his capabilities.

In the midst of World War II, Sherlock Holmes rescues the Swiss inventor of a new bomb-sight from the Gestapo and brings him to England, where he quickly falls into the clutches of the evil Professor Moriarty.

Having once again avoided criminal conviction, Professor Moriarity develops a murderous plan to “finish off” his last major nemesis, Sherlock Holmes, by making him fail to prevent the perfect crime. Does it involve a family curse, the crown jewels of England, or something else…

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.

When a nobleman is threatened by a family curse on his newly inherited estate, detective Sherlock Holmes is hired to investigate.

Sherlock Holmes investigates when young women around London turn up murdered, each with a finger severed. Scotland Yard suspects a madman, but Holmes believes the killings to be part of a diabolical plot.

A young man journeys from a difficult childhood to maturity, exploring social injustice, personal development, and the complexities of human relationships.

Clips from assorted television programs, B-movies, commercials, music performances, newsreels, bloopers, satirical short films and promotional and government films of the 1950s and 1960s are intercut together to tell a single story of various creatures and societal ills attacking American cities.

An undertaker who hasn't had any 'customers' in a long time is forced to pay one year's back-rent. To get money he starts to kill people, which brings absurd results.

In 2020, following the colonization of the moon, the spaceships Vega, Sirius and Capella are launched from Lunar Station 7. They're to explore Venus under the command of Professor Hartman, but an asteroid collides and explodes Capella. Vega stays orbiting and sends the astronauts Kern and Sherman with the robot John to the surface of Venus, but they have problems with communication with Dr. Marsha Evans in Vega. The Sirius lands in Venus and Commander Brendan Lockhart, Andre Ferneau and Hans Walter are attacked by prehistoric animals. They use a vehicle to seek Kern and Sherman while collecting samples from the planet. Meanwhile, John helps the two cosmonauts to survive. (Re-edited version of Pavel Klushantsev's 1962 Soviet sci-fi Planet of Storms, dubbed into English with additional scenes.)

The Venetian traveler Marco Polo meets Kublai Khan and foils a plotter with fireworks in medieval China.

In a changing world where television has become the main source of information, Adam Caulfield, a young sports journalist, witnesses how his uncle, Frank Skeffington, a veteran and honest politician, mayor of a New England town, tries to be reelected while bankers and captains of industry conspire in the shadows to place a weak and manageable candidate in the city hall.

During WWII several murders occur at a convalescent home where Dr. Watson has volunteered his services. He summons Holmes for help and the master detective proceeds to solve the crime from a long list of suspects including the owners of the home, the staff and the patients recovering there.

A convicted thief in Dartmoor prison hides the location of the stolen Bank of England printing plates inside three music boxes. When the innocent purchasers of the boxes start to be murdered, Holmes and Watson investigate.

In the 15th century, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, aided by his club-footed executioner Mord, eliminates those ahead of him in succession to the throne, then occupied by his brother, King Edward IV of England.

Set against the conditions leading up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror, French doctor Alexandre Manette serves an 18-year imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris, followed by his release to live in London with the daughter he has never met.

The son of a sorceress, armed with weapons, armour and six magically summoned knights, goes on a quest to save a princess from a vengeful wizard.

The star-crossed desert romance of a cloistered woman and a renegade monk.

In World War II, a British secret agent carrying a vitally important document is kidnapped en route to Washington. The British government calls on Sherlock Holmes to recover it.

A horror movie star returns to his famous role after spending years in a mental institution, but the character seems to be committing murders independent of his will.

King Louis XI masquerades as a commoner in Paris, seeking out the treachery he is sure lurks in his kingdom. At a local tavern, he overhears the brash poet François Villon extolling why he would be a better king. Annoyed yet intrigued, the King bestows on Villon the title of Grand Constable. Soon Villon begins work and falls for a lovely lady-in-waiting, but then must flee execution when the King turns on him.

Sherlock Holmes investigates a series of so-called "pajama suicides". He knows the female villain behind them is as cunning as Moriarty and as venomous as a spider.

When a woman is found dead with her throat torn out, the local villagers blame a supernatural monster. But Sherlock Holmes, who gets drawn into the case from nearby Quebec, suspects a human murderer.

Country singers on their way to Nashville have car trouble, forcing them to stop at an old haunted mansion. Soon they realize that the house is not only haunted, but is also the headquarters of a ring of international spies after a top secret formula for rocket fuel.

Diabolical French capitalist Paul Reynard is forced to leave Irene, his bride of one year, when he is arrested for the crimes of forgery and embezzlement and sentenced to a penal colony off the coast of South America.

Young love is poisoned by a generations long feud between two noble families.

A spaceship is sent to Mars after an alien distress signal is picked up. They find one survivor, but when a crew member is found drained of blood it's evident they have rescued a bloodsucking monster. (Uses footage from Encounter in Space (1963).)

A corpse has 24 hours to mastermind a good deed without leaving his crypt, to go "up there" and have his youth restored.

After the King of Rovenia has been assassinated, Holmes and Watson are engaged to escort his son to Europe via Algiers, aboard a transatlantic ocean liner which also carries a number of suspicious persons, any of whom may be involved in a plot to also assassinate him.

The Good Comrades are a collection of varied gentlemen who crave one thing - solitude. They reside at Drearcliff House, ancestral home of their eldest member. All seems serene and convivial until one by one the members begin to perish in the most grisly of manners. Foul play is suspected by the Good Comrades' insurance agent, who turns to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson for guidance.

A history of horror movies.

England, at the start of World War Two. Mysterious wireless broadcasts, apparently from Nazi Germany are heard over the BBC. They warn of acts of terror in England, just before they take place. Baffled, the Defense Committee call in Sherlock Holmes.

Cole Porter's version of the story of Aladdin--his only musical written especially for television.

This animated fairy tale for kids tells the classic story of a dapper, automobile loving fellow named Mr. Toad, whose passion becomes a problem when he's framed for stealing cars by a band of rogue weasels.

A retrospective of Dracula's appearances in film. It includes trailers and scenes from many Dracula-related films. There is an emphasis on films which feature the actors Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee, as they portrayed the most popular versions of Dracula. Also covered are films depicting sons and daughters of Dracula, and Dracula-like vampires. Many of the trailers focus on the beauty of Dracula's victims, or the beauty of female vampires.

Two newlyweds spy on the Nazis for the British Secret Service during their honeymoon in Europe.

A documentary about the life of Errol Flynn, with recollections from friends and family.

Dowdy Sylvia accepts her boss' marriage proposal, even though he only asked her to avoid marriage to another woman. As a wealthy wife, Sylvia changes from plain to uninhibited swan and even contemplates having an affair.

Greedy heirs wait in a mansion for a rich cat lover to die, only to learn her cats come first.

After the woman who raised him claims he's not her son, Richard searches for clues about his identity. Urged on by his mentor, Capt. Randolph Courtney, Richard focuses on Julia Trent Anders, a middle-aged actress who just might be his real mother. But soon, Richard begins to fall for Julia's stepdaughter. Amidst the upheaval, Richard schemes to return Julia to the stage -- but he's in for another big surprise.

The murders start with the body of Robin. He is found with a arrow through the heart, but Vance deduces that the body was placed and not found where he was killed. The note found dealing with the murder was part of a nursery rhyme and signed by 'Bishop'. The only witness may have been Mrs. Drukker and Adolph, but they are not talking. As the murders progress, each one is accompanied by a nursery rhyme. It is up to Philo Vance to unravel the clues and unmask the identity of the murderer 'Bishop'.

Julie Harris portrays the famed Queen Victoria over a 60 year span, from the age of 18 through her romance with Prince Albert through her diamond jubilee in 1897.

In 1915 France, Major Brand commands the 39th Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps. The young airmen go up in bullet-riddled "crates" and the casualty rate is appalling, but Brand can't make the "brass hats" at headquarters see reason. Insubordinate air ace Captain Courtney is another thorn in Brand's side...but finds the smile wiped from his face when he rises to command the squadron himself. Everyone keeps a stiff upper lip.

Ann Harding plays a lovely but somewhat naive young woman who goes on a European vacation after winning a lottery. Swept off her feet by charming Basil Rathbone, Harding finds herself married before she is fully able to grasp the situation. Slowly but surely, Rathbone's loving veneer crumbles; when he casually asks Harding to sign a document turning her entire fortune over to him, she deduces that her days are numbered.

Vera Kowalska is put on trial for murdering concert pianist Michael Michailow. In court it is revealed that some years earlier Michael ruined Vera's life.

The events that culminated with the Passion of Christ seen from the perspective of Pontius Pilate, the Procurator of Judea who unwillingly condemned Christ to death. Based on the biblical Gospel of John.

A reporter sleuths the mystery behind an oft-married Viennese doctor whose wives met mysterious fates.

In Chicago, an unemployed actor aims to solve the mystery concerning a string of ax murders, apparently committed by a lunatic.

When upper-class Parisian Charles Dupont and his family hire Tina and Michel as their servants, they have no idea that the domestics are in fact Tatiana, the Grand Duchess Petrovna, and her husband, Mikail, Prince Ouratieff. Recent exiles from the Russian Revolution, Tatiana and Mikail befriend the Dupont family, keeping their true identities a secret -- until one night when Soviet official Gorotchenko arrives for dinner.

Screened at Il Cinema Ritrovato 2024 as part of Marlene Dietrich – Cinema Redistributed, presented by Kristina Jaspers (Deutsche Kinemathek). Marlene Dietrich’s private 16mm films, shot between 1932 and 1934, offer a rare glimpse into her personal life, travels, and career behind the scenes. Preserved by the Deutsche Kinemathek and restored in 2017.

In 19th century England, a noted brain surgeon rescues a former student from being hanged on a false conviction for murder, and spirits him away to an ancient, repurposed abbey far in the countryside. There, he connives his pupil into assisting him in mapping the functions of the various parts of the human brain, using living subjects who are under a terrible animation-suspending drug called "black sleep". Subsequently, the student, along with the daughter of one of the subjects, discover that most of these subjects have survived but are being kept in a dungeon-like cellar, in various stages of physical and mental derangement...

In this action-filled spectacle set in ancient Pompeii, a blacksmith becomes a Roman gladiator, though his rise to wealth and power is jeopardized by his son's Christianity and the eruption of Vesuvius.

Marianne Jannetier, a well-to-do Parisian, engaged to Andre Benoit, a high-ranking government official, flees the city when the goose-stepping Nazi storm-troopers arrive. When her mother dies on the road to Bordeaux as a result of Nazi bombing, she returns to Paris and joins the underground movement. Nicholas Jordan, an American member of the RAF, stranded in Paris after the evacuation is also working with the Paris underground. Marianne kills her former fiancée, a pro-Nazi informant, for the traitorous state papers he is carrying, and she and Jordan try to flee over a French seaport...

Adaptation of Jean Anouilh's 1952 play about Joan of Arc, the young girl who led the French to victory against the English in the Hundred Years' War.

An American millionaire wants to reform a Parisian cabaret singer who moonlights as a jewel thief.

A French diplomat who's recovered from amnesia is blackmailed over crimes he can't remember.

An English lady falls in love with a French pirate after he kidnaps her from her ancestral home on the coast of Cornwall and sweeps her off her feet into a world of adventure.

Ellen Neal, a young and inexperienced maid, becomes romantically involved with her employers son which causes various complications. The head butler also has an infatuation for the young girl but his intentions are not that good.

Tim Hanley, an American agent, posing as a lawyer with the United States Embassy in London, and Reggie Oliver, a Scotland Yard detective, posing as a music critic are both keeping their eye on Carla Nillson, a famous singer, whom they suspect of espionage. They all meet in London, then in Lisbon, and eventually in New York City, where Carla sings on the radio.

Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson are Broadway stars who return to Universal Studios to make another movie. The mere mention of Olsen and Johnson's names evacuates the studio and terrorizes the management and personnel. Undaunted, the comedians hire an assistant director and unknown talent, and set out to make their own movie.

Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1938.

A collection of film clips from horror movies and interviews with the actors and directors who made them.

In Holland, poor but industrious and honorable 15-year-old Hans Brinker and his younger sister yearn to participate in December's great ice skating race on the canal.

The Randolph family have a tradition of working in the British colonial service. Clive comes home from a mission in the Gold Coast of Africa accompanied by his wife Helen. He discovers his younger brother John, is not keen on following in his footsteps. John is then persuaded to try colonial service by his grandfather. He is accompanied by Clive who has been sent to investigate the source of a series of radio broadcasts that are sewing unrest throughout the world. These may be linked to Hugo Zurof, a man plotting to rule the world.

An older daughter invents a fiancé so that her father will allow her younger sister to marry. However, the lie comes back to haunt her.

Popular songwriter Oliver Courtney has been getting by for years using one ghost writer for his music and another for his lyrics. When both writers meet at an inn, they fall in love and then try to sell their songs under their own name. The problem is every song publisher thinks they're copying Courtney's style.

An orphan named Innocence leaves her county home after her foster-father dies. She travels to the city and makes a living as a novelist. Subsequently, she has an affair with a painter named Amadis de Jocelyn, who later dumps her.

While vacationing at a boys' camp, the rambunctious Chip Winters befriends a famed composer Johnny Selden. Stuck for an inspiration for his latest operetta, Selden at last finds it when he meets Chip's gorgeous mother Irene Winters, a popular singer. Alas, her stiff-necked fiancé Walter Mays refuses to allow her to return to the stage, whereupon Rathbone spirals into a depression -- and even worse, a profound case of writers' block.

A houseguest at an upper-class gathering, wealthy Jew Ferdinand de Levis, is robbed of £1,000 with evidence pointing towards the guilt of another guest, Captain Dancy. Instead of supporting De Levis, the host attempts to hush the matter up and when this fails, he sides with Dancy and subtly tries to destroy de Levis' reputation. When Dancy is later exposed, and commits suicide, de Levis is blamed for his demise.

Narrator Hopper covers two war benefit affairs, a garden party and a USO fashion show, at Pickfair, "The White House of Hollywood."

Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption.

Satan offers a weary ghost a chance for redemption through true love.

There is a big charity function at the house of Mrs. Cheyney and a lot of society is present. With her rich husband, deceased, rich old Lord Elton and playboy Lord Arthur Dilling are both very interested in the mysterious Fay. Invited to the house of Mrs. Webley, Fay is again the center of attention for Arthur and Elton with her leaning towards stuffy old Elton. When Arthur sees Charles, Fay's Butler, lurking in the gardens, he remembers that Charles was a thief caught in Monte Carlo and he figures that Fay may be more interested in the pearls of Mrs. Webley, which she is. After Fay takes the pearls, but before she can toss them out the window, she is caught by Arthur who is very disappointed in how things are turning out.

A famous British actress gets involved with two members of a reserved British noble family, whose plan to get rid of her backfires.

Actor Patrick Macnee leads the viewer through London in the footsteps of the genius private investigator Sherlock Holmes and his assistant and friend, Dr. Watson.

A female escapee from a reform school joins a pickpocket academy in Paris.

This is a musical version of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol". Ebenezer Scrooge is given a chance to reform and save his soul. He is visited by 4 ghosts and is shown visions of his past life and the consequences of his life on others.

The story of the Churchills in the court of Queen Anne.

Parisot, a French spy in World War 1, returns home on a secret mission to visit his mother, and finds that Victoria, the wife of a German general, is billeted in the Parisot home while waiting to see her husband. Victoria discovers that Paul is a spy and, although fascinated by him, plans to reveal his identity to her husband. When the latter is unable to visit her, she attempts to go to the German army headquarters.

Mary, a woman with good intentions, takes pity on Henry, an artist with no home. What begins as a simple offer to come inside from the cold for tea gradually turns into more. Before the unsuspecting woman knows it, Henry, his family, and his friends con their way into her home. Eventually, Mary creates a ruse to rid herself of the parasites, but they have a different plan.

This documentary examines the making of the Sherlock Holmes cinematic dynasty and includes interviews and archival film clips featuring the original crime-fighter in all his incarnations.

Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption. Originally aired as part of Fredric March Presents Tales from Dickens.

A wealthy industrialist's wife gets into a big argument with him; to cool off, she goes on an ocean trip. He thinks she's left him for good, so he marries another woman. When his first wife returns, complications ensue.

An uncle poses as a usurer to learn which nephew deserves his fortune.

In order to keep his lover, Maria Draga, in luxury, Captain Alex Pastitsch contracts huge debts which threaten his military career. To save Alex's career, his superior officer, Colonel Strádimirovitsch has an idea of how to fix it.

On a rubber plantation in Sumatra, a woman of mixed Dutch and Indonesian parentage must choose between her people and the doctor she loves.

The Dauphin's widow weds a lord and is executed for plotting against the queen.

Cyril Mansfield, a handsome young Englishman, is associated with the German Secret Service as a spy in England but is loyal to British intelligence, of which he is a member. He is loved by Lois, an American whose favor is sought by Rizzio, also a double agent, who suspects Cyril's disloyalty to Germany. With the intention of conveying false information to the Imperial German Government, Cyril, accompanied by his faithful mechanic, Handy, and by Lois, escapes to Germany, though Lois is herself abducted by Rizzio and brought to headquarters in a U-boat. Innocently, she betrays Cyril, and they are both sentenced to death. On a pretense of aiding Cyril, Rizzio urges Lois to accompany him on a diplomatic mission, but Cyril and Handy overcome their captors; and Lois and Cyril escape to England in his aircraft.

A black-robed purveyor of communism is periodically interrupted by the questions of a white-robed every woman. Features disturbing historical Russian footage

A scheming musician seduces a wealthy woman for love and money.

The wife of a diplomat in Geneva pretends to be a maid in order to continue her flirting with a handsome young courier.

A classy woman has an affair with a rake after she learns that she has a terminal disease

Ellen Llewellyn is a chorus girl who is loved by orchestra leader Andy Owens, a genuinely nice guy. When Ellen meets the aristocratic Tony Winterslip, she's impressed by his family tree and vast wealth. When Winterslip's car breaks down during a rainstorm, Ellen gets drenched and contracts pneumonia. It takes much persuasion, but finally Ellen agrees to recuperate at the Winterslip country home.