Roy William Neill

Director Roy William Neill, for all his abilities to splash his picture with ambitious flourishes, can rarely make heads or tails of what his 1946 effort Black Angel is trying to accomplish story-wise. By the time the film closes, the biggest challenge for the viewer is trying to understand why he or she should care at all about everything that transpired. The plotting lacks a foundational logic for the themes to ring true or to mean something for that matter.

The Woman in Green begins with a mystery that Scotland Yard cannot solve. Several women have turned up murdered around London, all with a finger severed off. Stumped by who the killer could be, Inspector Gregson (Matthew Boulton) calls on Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) to solve the case. Holmes and Watson soon discover that the deaths are far more than the work of a lone serial killer, but part of a diabolical plot involving hypnotism and the ever evil, Professor Moriarty (Henry Daniell).