Mad Movies with the L.A. Connection presents Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (Sherlock Holmes Weekend Continues!)

One of my favorite TV series that's never been released on DVD (yet!...we can but hope) is the 1980s Mad Movies with the L.A. Connection. Before Mystery Science Theater 3000 added heckled riffing over the soundtrack of a cheesy movie, Mad Movies, originating from an improv group in Los Angeles, took old public domain movie, chopped them up and re-edited them into a half-hour show, and re-dubbed them completely with a new comedy soundtrack. The show ran in syndication and on Nick at Nite for several years in the eighties—I'm lucky enough to still have my much-watched VHS tapes of the show...but it hasn't been seen publicly for ages. Until the age of YouTube, that is! All hail YouTube!

Tonight, get in the mad moodvie by watching their version of 1943's Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon, one of the many Universal Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce Holmes vehicles that brought the Victorian sleuth to contemporary times to battle Nazis. (Well, somebody's gotta.) Mad Movies re-spins the film as Holmes's search for missing library books. Let's watch!



(A fair warning: the host segments and introductions with Kent Skov are usually...to be honest...absolutely missable. If you want to start right off with the movie portion of the show, start at 2:00 into the YouTube clip.)

That's Part 1. Here's Part 2 and here's Part 3.

Today's 21st century L.A. Connection still features live stage shows with improv, stand-up and the modern version of Mad Movies: "Dub-A-Vision." Plus, there's other classic Mad Movies clips and shows on YouTube. Only a few of them are Sherlock Holmes Weekend-appropriate, of course, but don't let that stop you.