Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) are in Canada attending a conference on the occult, when Lord Penrose (Paul Cavanagh) receives a message that his wife Lady Penrose (Gertrude Astor) has been murdered in the small village of La Mort Rouge. Holmes and Watson are about to return home when Holmes receives a telegram from Lady Penrose, issued before her death, asking for help as she fears for her life. Holmes decides to investigate her death.

Holmes and Watson arrive at the village and discover that the inhabitants are all convinced that the murder is the work of the legendary monster of La Mort Rouge, which roams the marshes around the village. The "monster" is even later seen by Dr. Watson, who describes it as "the mostly ghastly apparition... like a roaring furnace spitting fire in all directions".

Holmes, however, is skeptical, and recognizes Lady Penrose as Lillian Gentry, a former actress, who was involved in a famous murder case several years before when actor Alistair Ramson (Gerald Hamer) killed another actor in a jealous rage over her. Ramson was believed to have been killed in a prison escape two years before, but now Holmes believes that Ramson, a master of disguise, is living in the village, having created a new identity, perhaps several, for himself.

Holmes then turns his attention to Judge Brisson (Miles Mander), another inhabitant of the village with a connection to the case, as he passed sentence on Ramson. Despite Holmes' warnings, Brisson is murdered. Holmes tracks Ramson down to his hideout and discovers there is a third person that Ramson is preparing to kill. While Ramson is holding Holmes at gunpoint, Watson blunders in and Ramson escapes, albeit before Holmes can learn who Ramson's final target is.

Holmes learns that the third victim is to be Emile Journet (Arthur Hohl), the local inn-keeper, formerly a prison guard. However, Journet has gone into hiding. Ramson then kills Marie Journet (Kay Harding), Journet's daughter, for not revealing her father's hideout. Holmes finds Journet and convinces him to spring a trap for the murderer.

Holmes and Watson announce that they are returning to Britain, and Journet comes out of hiding and lets it be known that he will be going to a church across the marsh to offer a prayer for Marie. Ramson attacks Journet out in the marsh, only to find that it is Holmes in disguise. The two men struggle, but Ramson escapes only to be killed by Journet with the murderer’s own weapon, a five-pronged garden weeder.

A 1944 American Black & White mystery thriller film produced & directed by Roy William Neill, screenplay by Edmund L. Hartmann and Nell, story by Paul Gangelin and Brenda Weisberg, based on Characters by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, cinematography by George Robinson, starring Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Gerald Hamer, Paul Cavanagh, Arthur Hohl, Kay Harding, Miles Mander, David Clyde, Ian Wolfe, Victoria Horne, and Gertrude Astor.

Listed in Journet's inn-register is Tom McKnight of New York. He was an adviser on Universal's Holmes series, and was married to Edith Meiser, a writer familiar to devotees of the radio productions "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" and "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes".

When Holmes & Watson arrive at the fortified house of Judge Brissom, they are met by a fierce dog. Trying to calm the wild animal, Watson rather lamely says "Nice Fido", then "Nice Monty" and "Nice Winnie". Monty and Winnie were the names of Watson's dogs in the radio series of Sherlock Holmes, which were being produced at the same time. Monty and Winnie were named after General Montgomery and Winston Churchill, considered appropriate during wartime.

When Holmes is discussing Lady Penrose's murder in Sergeant Thompson's office, the photographs on the wall are of King George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth, who were then king and queen of the United Kingdom and it's empire.

Penrose Manor is near the village of La Mort Rouge, its name means "The Red Death" in French, the language of Quebec.

The film is a completely original story, not based on any of the Conan Doyle stories, but bears a resemblance to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1902), owing much to a remote marshland setting, a painted-phosphorescent (thought-supernatural) terror, an escaped convict on the loose, a cold killer ingratiating himself with everyone in the vicinity, a subplot involving cast-off clothing, and Holmes' method of unmasking the murderer, making to return home but actually remaining behind to catch the villain. Early in the film Watson's character directly refers to "The Hound of the Baskervilles".

It's the eighth of 14 films between 1939 and 1946 based on Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional consulting detective Sherlock Holmes starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, and generally considered to be the best of the Holmes films made by Universal. This brilliantly-crafted mystery keeps the viewer guessing until the end.

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