SHERLOCK HOLMES: MURDER IN THE CASBAH & OTHER MYSTERIES

Don’t let the "new" in the title fool you--these are digitally remastered recordings of original radio dramas broadcast in the 1940s, complete with period ads and pleas to help the Italians left starving by WWII. Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes will be familiar from movies, and Nigel Bruce makes a convincing, if intentionally dim, Dr. Watson. The stories move along at a crisp pace, and the few sound effects and musical transitions are simple, but smooth and convincing. The biggest weakness here is the scripts. They are not based on Doyle’s work directly, so the Sherlock Holmes evoked by Rathbone is less complex than the original. G.T.B. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/ MAY 06]