History Film / TheBakerStreetDozen

* CanadaEh: The setting of ''The Scarlet Claw''. Holmes and Watson are in Quebec attending a conference on the occult, before they get roped into solving the murder of the wife of one of the other attendees who lives in the quaint little village of "La Mort Rouge".

!!Tropes:

* CreepyHousekeeper: Mrs. Monteith in ''The House of Fear'' is the housekeeper of Drearcliffe House and tends to the needs of The Good Comrades. She is the one who grimly delivers the envelopes containing the oranges pips to those who are marked to die. Dour and taciturn, she could easily be [[Film/{{Rebecca}} Mrs. Danvers]]' sister.

The Baker Street Dozen is the FanNickname for the twelve ''Franchise/SherlockHolmes'' films released by [[Creator/{{Universal}} Universal Studios]] between 1942 and 1946 starring Creator/BasilRathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Creator/NigelBruce as Dr. Watson. The two had previously played the roles in the Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox productions of ''Film/TheHoundOfTheBaskervilles'' and ''Film/{{The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes|1939}}'', both released in 1939. Fox would lose the rights to the stories due to a dispute with the Conan Doyle Estate (the Estate wanted Fox to do only films based of Conan Doyle's stories, while Fox was willing to do original pastiches). But Rathbone and Bruce were still busy playing the parts on [[Radio/TheNewAdventuresOfSherlockHolmes radio]] and would continue to do while they were making the Universal films.

The Baker Street Dozen is the FanNickname for the twelve ''Franchise/SherlockHolmes'' films released by [[Creator/{{Universal}} Universal Studios]] between 1942 and 1946 starring Creator/BasilRathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Creator/NigelBruce as Dr. Watson. The two had previously played the roles in the Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox productions of ''Film/TheHoundOfTheBaskervilles'' and ''[[Film/TheAdventuresOfSherlockHolmes1939 The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes]]'' both released in 1939. Fox would lose the rights to the stories due to a dispute with the Conan Doyle Estate (the Estate wanted Fox to do only films based of Conan Doyle's stories, while Fox was willing to do original pastiches). But Rathbone and Bruce were still busy playing the parts on [[Radio/TheNewAdventuresOfSherlockHolmes radio]] and would continue to do while they were making the Universal films.

The film series ended in 1946 because Basil Rathbone after playing Sherlock Holmes in fourteen films and over a hundred radio shows, finally got tired of the role and decided to move on - a major factor was when he lost the role of Lord Henry Wotton to Creator/GeorgeSanders for MGM's 1945 production of ''[[Film/ThePictureOfDorianGray1945 The Picture of Dorian Gray]]''. Unfortunately for him, he was typecasted for life and nothing he did could escape the shadow of the Great Detective. Nigel Bruce on the other hand was more than happy to continue playing Dr. Watson and kept playing him on radio a year after Rathbone left with Tom Conway (George Sanders' brother) playing Holmes.

Universal failed to keep ownership of the films and four of them: "Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon", "The Woman in Green", "Terror By Night", and "Dressed to Kill" ended up in the PublicDomain. The others changed hands several times, resulting in rather poor copies being circulated. In 1993, the UCLA Film and Television Archive with additional funding from Warner Bros. and Hugh Heffner began the long and painstaking process of restoring and preserving all twelve films using the best elements they could find; in some cases 16mm film copies had to be blown up to match missing elements from 35mm film copies. The restoration process was completed in 2001, and the films were all released in a DVD boxset (along with the two Fox films) in 2006 by MPI Home Video.

These films are favorites of Creator/StevenMoffat and Creator/MarkGatiss and they heavily influenced their own modern day Holmes adaptation ''Series/{{Sherlock}}''.

** Lestrade bangs on the wall and screams to be let out after he gets lost in a secret passage during ''Sherlock Holmes Faces Death.''

* CuffsOffRubWrists: In ''Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon'', Holmes is BoundAndGagged and hidden in the false bottom of a sea chest. When he is rescued by Watson and Lestarde, the first thing he does when his hands are untied is rub his wrists.

* MuggedForDisguise: In ''The Scarlet Claw'', the killer leaves Judge Brisson's housekeeper BoundAndGagged in her slip when he steals her cloths to [[DisguisedInDrag disguises himself as her]] to get close enough to the judge to murder him.

* QuicksandSucks: In ''The Scarlet Claw'', Watson twice winds up up to his neck in quicksand while searching the marshes.

* SmugSnake: There is not a single villain in this series that doesn't delights in gloating when it looks like he'll win -- the titular Voice of Terror goes all the way with him boasting that the Reich is invincible and, oh, [[WhyDidYouMakeMeHitYou why are the British so determined to force the Germans to demonstrate this with their resistance and get people killed unnecessarily?]]

* ThrillerOnTheExpress: ''Terror By Night'' has Holmes solving a case of murder and a theft of an priceless diamond in a train.

* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: In ''The Woman in Green'', Lydia tells Moriarty he is taking too much time in drawing out Holmes' demise, but he dismisses her. It turns out she's right, as Holmes is [[spoiler: playing for time till the police arrive]].
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: In ''Terror by Night'', Colonel Moran kills his henchman almost immediately after getting his hands on the Star of Rhodesia

* InterrogatedForNothing: The GirlOfTheWeek in ''Sherlock Holmes In Washington'' accidentally took the matchbook in which a British secret agent hid some microfilm and the BigBad believes her to be a willing accomplice of the agent, so he kidnaps her and orders her to tell him where the film is ([[BeneathSuspicion while using the book's matches to light up his cigarrettes]]). The girl makes clear repeatedly that she has no knowledge whatsoever of what he wants, and the villain [[FauxAffablyEvil kindly says he "believes" her but needs to be sure]] and orders one of his goons to torture her ([[GoryDiscretionShot off-screen]]) while we cut to Holmes trying to find out where the enemy spies are hidden.

** In ''The Scarlet Claw'', the killer leaves Judge Brisson's housekeeper gagged and bound to a chair when hhe [[MuggedForDisguise takes her clothes]] and [[DisguisedInDrag disguises himself as her]] in order to get close enough to the judge to murder him.

The film series ended in 1946 because Basil Rathbone after playing Sherlock Holmes in fourteen films and over a hundred radio shows, finally got tired of the role and decided to move on - a major factor was when he lost the role of Lord Henry Wotton to Creator/GeorgeSanders for MGM's 1945 production of ''[[Film/ThePictureOfDorianGray1945 The Picture of Dorian Gray]]''. Unfortunately for him, he was typecasted for life and nothing he did could escape the shadow of the Great Detective. Nigel Bruce on the other hand was more than happy to continuing playing Dr. Watson and kept playing him on radio a year after Rathbone left with Tom Conway (George Sanders' brother) playing Holmes.

->''"Sherlock Holmes, the immortal character of fiction created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is ageless, invincible and unchanging. In solving signficant problems of the present day he remains ~ as ever ~ the supreme master of deductive reasoning."''

* BlackSpot: In ''The House of Fear'', the murders start after the first member of the Good Comrades receives a envelope containing seven orange pips. After he dies in a fiery car wreck, a second member receives an envelope containing six pips. The pattern continues, with each man marked for death receiving a an envelope containing a number of orange pips corresponding the number of surviving Good Comrades.
* BlastingItOutOfTheirHands: Inspector Lestrade shots a gun out of Professor Moriarty's hand to save Sherlock Holmes in ''Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon''.

* MuggedForDisguise: In ''The Scarlet Claw'', te killer leaves Judge Brisson's housekeeper BoundAndGagged in her slip when he steals her cloths to [[DisguisedInDrag disguises himself as her]] to get close enough to the judge to murder him.

** In ''The Scarlet Claw'', the killer leaves Judge Brisson's housekeeper gagged and bound to a chair when hhe [[MuggedForDisguise takes her clothes]] and [[[DisguisedInDrag disguises himself as her]] in order to get close enough to the judge to murder him.