In 1931, Arthur Wontner debuted at Sherlock Holmes in The Sleeping Cardinal. For Wontner’s fifth and final performance as the iconic sleuth, we go to 1937’s Silver Blaze.

Sherlock Holmes (Wontner) takes a vacation to visit his old pal Sir Henry Baskerville (Lawrence Grossmith). However, a crime interrupts this sojourn.

When a double murder occurs, Holmes finds himself compelled to return to duty as a brilliant detective. This involves Holmes’ old nemesis Professor Moriarty (Lyn Harding) and a racehorse called Silver Blaze.

And there’s your title! Taken from Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story The Adventure of Silver Blaze, the film got renamed as the more descriptive Murder at the Baskervilles when it ran on US screens.

That occurred at least partly because Blaze didn’t come to American cinemas until 1941, two years after the Basil Rathbone-led Hound of the Baskervilles turned into a hit. The new moniker clearly existed to remind audiences of the other – and unrelated – Holmes flick.

Was Blaze worth the four-year wait for Americans? Not really, though it does surpass its immediate predecessor.

As mentioned, Blaze became the fifth Wontner-led Holmes flick, and it followed 1935’s The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes. That one delivered a dull and monotonous affair.

Perhaps thanks to a change in directors from Triumph’s Leslie S. Hiscott to Blaze’s Thomas Bentley, this one fares better. You won’t find any classics in Bentley’s filmography, but at least he manages to give a bit of spark to his Holmes tale.

Indeed, everything about Blaze feels friskier than the dull Triumph, and that extends to our cast. Although he seemed bored in the 1935 film, the Wontner of 1937 displays considerably stronger charisma and intelligence.

The same goes for the supporting actors. While Triumph suffered from a subpar group, this film boasts pretty solid performances by all involved.

Blaze finds an intriguing case and Bentley allows the movie to progress as a nice pace. Whereas Triumph often seemed stagnant, this flick pushes ahead in a lively manner that makes it consistently engaging.

Again, nothing here quite turns Blaze into a Sherlock Holmes classic. Nonetheless, it delivers a fairly dynamic and involving tale that works pretty well.

Silver Blaze appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.37:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Though not a disaster, the image seemed subpar.

In particular, sharpness became lackluster at best. Most of the flick looked tentative and fuzzy, as even close-ups lacked solid delineation.

At least no issues related to jagged edges or shimmering, and I saw no edge haloes. Grain seemed light and print flaws remained minimal, as beyond a couple missing frames, the movie appeared clean.

Blacks came across as mushy and on the gray side, while the movie tended to look a bit too bright. Given the film’s advanced age, I thought the image deserved a “C-“, but it never delivered appealing visuals.

Though clearly a product of its era, at least the movie’s DTS-HD MA monaural soundtrack held up better. Speech showed the expected metallic overtones, but the lines lacked edginess and showed good intelligibility.

I did hear some anomalies attached to the lines, likely related to noise reduction techniques. Those decreased potential distractions but didn’t get attached to the dialogue itself, and that meant the untampered with speech sounded off.

Music and effects delivered similarly thin tones, but they didn’t suffer from much distortion, so they fared fine. No background noise interfered, though again, that stemmed from some moderately aggressive auditory tampering. This turned into a listenable but mediocre audio mix for a movie from 1937.

Though Film Masters releases usually include commentaries and other extras, Blaze comes with nothing. However, the disc pairs Blaze with another Holmes movie: 1935’s The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes.

While I wouldn’t call it a genre classic, Silver Blaze nonetheless qualifies as a pretty good Sherlock Holmes adventure. The film cooks along at a nice pace and turns into an enjoyable affair. The Blu-ray offers iffy picture and audio and comes without movie-specific bonus features, though as noted, it pairs with another Holmes flick. I found a lot to like about this fun romp, even if the presentation seems mediocre.