Case of the Screaming Bishop, The (1944)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
This Columbia animated short is a spoof of the Sherlock Holmes movies, which were being made over at rival studio Universal at the time. In this film, a dinosaur skeleton goes missing so Hairlock Combs and Dr. Gotsome set out to try and find it as well as the thief. At first the mystery seems to great but they finally get a major clue when it turns out the thief just happens to be a musician. THE CASE OF THE SCREAMING BISHOP isn't a complete success and I'm sure most will find it rather bland but fans of Holmes will probably want to check it out. I was a little surprised to see this was from Columbia because the relationship between Combs and Gotsome is clearly inspired by the banter of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. The two have a very similar relationship, although the Gotsome character is certainly a tad bit dumber than what we saw Dr. Watson do in the Universal movies. I was impressed with the B&W animation including the terrific looking opening scene when the villain is introduced and the darkness really reminded me of the various noir titles that were starting to be released around this time. The story itself is rather weak and doesn't add up to much in the end but fans of the character will want to check it out.
