FIRST DRAFT "SHERLOCK HOLMES IN WASHINGTON" ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY ... BASED ON A STORY BY SIR. A. CONAN DOYLE

[Los Angeles: Universal Pictures], 30 June 1942.. [1],107 leaves. Quarto. Mimeographed typescript, printed on rectos only of salmon colored stock. Bradbound. Pencil name on title leaf ("Milton Feld," a Universal producer at the time), a few annotations in color pencil, very good or better. A first draft of this contribution to the Holmes screen canon. Released in April of 1943, SHERLOCK HOLMES IN WASHINGTON was directed by Roy William Neill, and starred Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. The association of Lynn Riggs, the Oklahoma-born, part-Cherokee gay playwright and poet with this project is very interesting. It is one of at least two of the Universal Holmes titles that Riggs worked on, the other being an (until recently) uncredited revised draft of the screenplay for SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE VOICE OF TERROR (also dated 1942). Riggs is most widely known for his play, GREEN GROW THE LILACS, which was immensely popular as the musical adaptation, OKLAHOMA!, but little has been written about his years as a screenwriter for MGM, RKO, Paramount and Universal. Millhauser's career as a screenwriter began in 1911 and includes over sixty credits, including SHERLOCK HOLMES FACES DEATH (1943) and SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE SPIDER WOMAN (1944). Script material relating to any of the pre-1950 Holmes films is uncommon. Although well over one hundred and fifty adaptations of Sherlock Holmes to the screen are known, beginning with SHERLOCK HOLMES BAFFLED (1903), the Rathbone-Bruce portrayals have become almost canonical, beginning with THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (March 1939), and concluding with the twelfth in sequence, DRESSED TO KILL (1946). DE WAAL 5150.