News about Basil Rathbone

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS: All 14 Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone were made in Hollywood. Basil Rathbone (1892-1967) was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, to British parents. Returning to the UK, he attended Repton School and started his acting career in 1911. He was a lieutenant in World War I, serving with distinction as an intelligence officer with the Liverpool Scottish, 2nd Battalion. He starred in the hit play The Swan in New York in 1923. In November of that year, Rathbone met his second wife Ouida Bergère, a scriptwriter, and remained in the U.S. The couple moved to Hollywood, where he made some fine films including The Adventures Of Robin Hood and Captain Blood, with his friend Errol Flynn.

The 'exceptionally rare' 1889 manuscript (left) of The Sign of Four is expected to sell in New York for up to $1.2 million (£949,000) as part of Sotheby's Auction of June in New York. Before releasing in the United States, the British author (inset) signed the text twice, and it also contains edits to 'Americanize' the text. It will be published alongside a series of letters from Sir Arthur and JM Stoddart, editor of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, where The Sign Of Four first appeared. The letters chronicle the book's progress, including deliberations over the title and the author's delight with the printing and illustrations. Basil Rathbone, right, as the detective.

ANSWERS: ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS: Holmes' iconic photograph of him sporting his deerstalker cap and Inverness cape came from artist Sidney Paget's illustrations (1860-1908). In 1891, the short story A Scandal In Bohemia became the first of 24 stories in The Strand magazine and illustrated by Paget. These adventures will be published in book form as The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes and The Memoirs Of Sherlock Holmes.

During the UK's first public screening of Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania, there was sporadic laughter and even occasional yelps of joy on Tuesday evening. So I admit that it may have only been the occupant of one seat (mine) in which Marvel Fatigue took hold after just five minutes. One of our time's most popular niggling oxymorons, Marvel Fatigue is one of the most popular niggling oxymorons. The blockbusters churned out by Marvel Cinematic Universe are supposed to bring us to the edge of those seats, not to make us cry in them. And, fairness, some of them meet the briefing. I got a lot of buzz from the first Ant-Man And The Wasp (2018), which was a sequel to 2015's Ant-Man.