This decent Sherlock Holmes mystery sees Baker Street's finest - Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce - encounter the Creeper (played by Rondo Hatton, a real-life acromegaly sufferer whose disfigurement resulted in his employment by Universal as a movie villain) who emerges from the shadows as homicidal sidekick to jewel thief Miles Mander. Not only is Hatton encumbered with a zombie-lumbering walk, but he also has a nasty ability to break backs and an unhealthy obsession with Mander's accomplice, Evelyn Ankers - a nightmare for us, but an elementary deduction for Holmes, if not Watson. The story's ostensibly about a set of Napoleon statues, but it's Hatton you'll be watching.

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.