The Woman in Green (1945) on Netflix

Synopsis - The Woman in Green The story began with a Commissioner's meeting concerning the deaths of various individuals and their inability to solve these horrible crimes. Because of unsolved crimes, Commissioner Gregson decides to call in Sherlock Holmes; I put my pride in my pocket and went to see the man that so often helped out Inspector Lastrade and myself in the past, Mr. Sherlock Holmes. Four women murdered in various parts of London, each woman from a different walk of life in a different area of the city and each with the right fore finger surgically removed. Holmes examines the body of the fourth victim in the morgue with Inspector Gregson. Holmes notes the only clue so far is the manner in which the fingers were surgically removed, meticulous and cleanly. They retire to Pembroke House for a drink. At the bar of Pembroke House discussing the murders with Gregson, Sir George Fenwick and Sherlock Holmes acknowledge one another, each with a nod. Holmes notices the woman with Sir George, a beautiful blond woman, as they leave the establishment, headed for her house, for a nightcap. The woman is named Lydia, her servant is Crandon, and the Sir George conversation is over dreams, hers were the sea, gazing into a water bowl with floating blossoms. Holmes is lecturing Watson on what they know to date about the murders, different walks of life, different parts of the city, as they look over the former home of the latest victim, Gregson says there has been another murder, a young woman, meanwhile, Sir George wakes up in a low class B&B room, not recalling anything from the night before, after being at Lydia's for a nightcap. George leaves the hotel, goes straight to Lydia's, there were ten hours he cannot account, there he encounters a man describing his moves the prior night, putting something in his pocket, Sir George sits on a couch dumbfounded at the man's precise accounting of his moves the prior evening. The man is Moriarity. Holmes spots a woman pulling up to their flat with a bag not matching her outfit, the woman is Sir George's daughter, Maude. She tells Holmes and Watson of her father's behavior the night before, burying something in the garden. She shows Holmes what she found her father buried, a finger. Holmes has Watson summon Gregson to Sir George's home, where he is found lying on his den floor, shot dead. Holmes sees George's right hand clenched, indicating he wanted to inform others of the item in his hand, a matchbook from Pembroke House. Holmes is certain Sir George wanted to alert someone of the person or persons seeing him at Pembroke House the prior evening. Holmes receives a notice from Sir George's bank of the closure of an account of 10,000 pounds indicating a blackmail payoff. Sir George emptied his bank account before he was killed and was likely to pay blackmail to some individual. He was shot before he could divulge the plot around the murders, the method of the criminals, and those involved in the crime. Holmes surmises Moriarity is behind all of these crimes as Watson is called out on a hoax call enabling the Professor to drop by to visit with Holmes. The conversation between them is most biting to the core, Holmes saying, "I shall not rest until you're hanged for the finger murders." Moriarity saying "no harm will come to Dr. Watson this time." Watson returns from his goose chase, he learns Moriarity is alive and implicated in these murders. An empty flat across the street from Holmes' is examined by Watson, while Holmes sets up a decoy in his window for a would be assassin. The two discover a hypnotized discharged army officer shot at the decoy. Seeing the ex-officer in the state he was after the attempted killing, and have him state emphatically "she" ordered him to shoot, Holmes now knows it was hypnotism behind the finger murders. Williams is the key witness in the finger murders, Holmes tells Gregson to guard him based on that. Holmes explains how the scheme works where the severed finger is placed on the person to be blackmailed, waking the person is told of things occurring to him while he was under hypnosis, and not knowing he was under hypnosis, pays the blackmailer. The person blackmailed thinks he may have committed the actual crime during some actual lapse in sanity. Sir George could have been convinced he was the murderer by his actions of burying the finger on his property, but too he might have figured Lydia had something to do with his loss of memory and the man he met at her house comes into question as well. The soldier, Williams, is later at Holmes' front door, dead, similar to Sir George, and unable to tell no one about the suspects. With hypnosis behind these crimes, Holmes and Watson are anxious to pursue Holmes suspicions which lead to the hypnotist, and inevitably, to the criminals. Moriarity enters Lydia's house, encounters the doctor performing the finger removals, goes to Lydia, informing her Holmes and Watson have just left for Mesmer Club, the hypnotists meeting place, for a demonstration. He insists Holmes' insatiable curiosity will get him to follow Lydia back to her house for his final meeting. Dr. Watson is subject to hypnosis at the direction the host Onslow, who proceeds to prove to the audience hypnotism works. As Watson returns to his chair, newly educated on the subject, Lydia enters Mesmer Club, and sees the hypnotist performance and Holmes sees her. They agree Dr. Onslow's demonstration was not a serious display where she accepts Holmes' invitation for a drink at Pembroke House. He discusses a case he is working on that has him baffled. Lydia invites him to her home, thinking that serious hypnotic suggestions might open the mind. Holmes consents to being hypnotized as Moriarity tests whether Holmes is truly under her spell. The Professor is convinced as Holmes heeds Moriarity's instructions to walk to the patio, then to the ledge, and keep walking as he pauses, when Watson and Scotland Yard enter to arrest the fiends. Moriarity breaks free to escape by attempting to leap another building ledge, but failing, he falls to his death, with Holmes stating "Better than he deserved."