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Hally, one of our readers, made this lovely montage of the captures from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939), which I’m hosting on my Youtube account for her. No credit to me please, all to her! Isn’t it gorgeous.

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We’re going to be returning to Rathbone’s “neglected biography” a great deal over the next few months, as I use this blog to help with my thesis “Basil Rathbone and Contemporary Imaging: the memory loss of public perception” (my room mate Chris came up with the ti read more

The Q&A with Helen Sheehy about the Baz’s relationship, professional and otherwise, with Eva Le Gallienne continues to get a lot of feedback and there have been several interesting points raised in the comments. Opinion seems scattered over a wide spectrum between those who refuse to belie read more

Don’t ask. Couldn’t possibly tell you what is going on. Err…he’s wearing a hat, if that helps. read more

Today The Baz is talking to Helen Sheehy, author of Eva Le Gallienne: a Biography. Le Gallienne was Rathbone’s lover and broadway co-star, yet her name is not even mentioned in his autobiography, and in consequence her role in his private life and artistic development will be entirely new to m read more

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Since I did the post on The Captive a few days ago, references to the play seem to keep popping up on Tumblr. So I thought I’d revisit to link to this site:Out History which includes the Brooks Atkinson review quoted on this blog and goes into quite a bit of depth about the incident. Anyone i read more

Another light-weight fangirl post (don’t worry we have some mega-serious stuff coming next week). And again it’s courtesy of the amazing A Folded Umbrella. This time it’s some beautiful caps of that tremulous weepy A Notorious Affair (1930). This is a pre-code movie that features read more

Taking a break from weighty subjects to post a couple of charming candids that have come to my attention lately. The first is the Baz at home, brought to my attention by my Facebook friend Isobel:

I like his casual attire and ever so slightly ruffled hair. And I’m intrigued by whatever read more

Time for a look at another of the Baz’s theatre-credits today. This time it’s the deeply controversial (in its time) play THE CAPTIVE. Written by the French dramatist Edouard Bourdet and known in French as La Prisonniere, translated by Arthur Hornblow Jr, it was the talk and scandal of read more

Inexplicably, that wonderful blog, Once Upon a Screen has nominated The Baz for this 7X7 award thingy. I’m honored anyone would think this tragic little squee-haven worthy of any accolade and I’m following suit to the tune of nominating my own seven choices for Amazing Blog. But we’ read more

Today The Baz is talking to Marcia Jessen, creator and owner of basilrathbbone.net, the first and last resource for anyone looking to research Rathbone’s life and career. In addition to her chores as webmaster, Marcia is one third of the newly formed Rathbone Biography Project. We’re ve read more

A photo recently surfaced on Tumblr, of the Baz from the 1929 stage play Judas (co-written by Rathbone and Walter Ferris). I’ve decided to feature it here because it signifies a notable period in Basil’s life. It’s immensely high res, click on the images and enlarge them to full s read more

We’re welcoming back Michael B Druxman, author of Basil Rathbone: His Life & His Films, to answer some of the questions put to him by our readers following his recent Q&A. The Baz: We’d like to thank you Michael for taking the time to come back and do this. DRUXMAN: No troub read more

Update Aug 30: Well, circumstances have changed fairly fast today, so I’m updating this post. Frank has informed us about the provenance of the letters in more detail. Apparently he bought them in a sale in London in 1980 and had no idea they might be by Rathbone until he read the book Famous read more

Basil Rathbone, His Life & His Films, is not just the only biography of the Baz yet written, it’s also an exhaustive and essential filmography, detailing the plot and background information for every one of Rathbone’s movies. It’s basically the essential reference work on the s read more

So, this post is a sort of announcement about something new being launched at basilrathbone.net this week. First, some background. As soon as you start a website about anyone or anything people begin writing to you and sending you things – even if it’s just abuse. Since I’ve been r read more

Change of tone from the whole “WW1 Mystery Letter” question – to which I’m sure we will be returning anon – to the simpler but still baffling question – even if you can’t get Basil Rathbone why do you replace him with Henry Daniell? In case you don’t f read more

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HAROLD STEWARD RATHBONE Birth: 10 May 1858, Liverpool, Lancashire (Ratbone Register). This date is also listed in the IGI, based on a member submission without information as to source, and by Foster (1890). There is a GRO births index entry for the Jun quarter of 1858 (W. Derby, 8b, 282). Christeni read more