Legends of Radio: The Ultimate Sherlock Holmes Collection

Rating:
Summary: Good entertainment value
Review: This collection, aside from the first two recordings of Welles and Rathbone, assembles the radio series of Sherlock Holmes as it was after 1945. The sequence of actors portraying Holmes is Tom Conway ('46-'47, 14 recs), John Stanley ('47-'48, 11 recs), John Gielgud ('55, 9 recs) and Carleton Hobbs ('60s, 3 recs). This comes to 20 hours of plays on 20 CDs. The power of radio plays is less in Kilowatts than it the ability of its performers to pull you inside the story by the force of their voice alone. For those who are used to a fuller presentation on film, this is a unique opportunity to judge these players from a single dimension, their vocal tones and inflexions. I thought Gielgud did the best job, although Tom Conway was a close second. I guess theatrical background is a big help to reaching this kind of a talent. As the booklet mentions, Tom Conway's voice and Rathbone's were very close. See if you can tell the difference.