The Spider Woman is an American 1944 (filmed 1943) detective movie, directed by Roy William Neill and starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson. This is the seventh installment to the series of fourteen Sherlock Holmes films starring Rathbone and Bruce. The story incorporates elements from several Arthur Conan Doyle's works: "The Sign of the Four", "The Final Problem", "The Adventure of the Empty House", "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" and "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot". Sherlock Holmes confronts Adrea Spedding (Gale Sondergaard), "a female Moriarty" who commits murders, using a deadly poisonous spider.
The following weapons were used in the film The Spider Woman:
When Holmes gives his Colt Detective Special to Dr. Watson, and the latter is disarmed by Radlik, the revolver swtiches to a larger Colt Police Positive.
Adrea Spedding's half-brother and accomplice Norman Locke (Vernon Downing) uses a Colt 1877 Thunderer Shopkeeper Model revolver in the scene in a shooting gallery. A Colt Shopkeeper revolver is also seen in hands of a man commiting suicide in the opening scene. Possibly this is the same prop, used in one of the previous films of the series, Sherlock Holmes Faces Death.
Several small caliber rifles are used in the scene in a shooting gallery. Those that are seen clear enough are described below.
Error creating thumbnail: File missingError creating thumbnail: File missingA number of small caliber rifles are seen in a shooting gallery on a fair. Three at the left are definitly bolt action, the next one appears to be pump action, and the fifth one is seen only partially. Cartoons of Hitler, Mussolini and Emperor Hirohito are used as targets.
Another bolt action rifle appears to be a Remington Model 34, identified by the underbarrel tube magazine, turned-down bolt handle and a large groove on stock.
A small caliber pump action rifle is also used in the scene in a shooting gallery. This is a hammerless model, and it lacks long underbarrel tube magazine (or has a very short one); that excludes such popular models of that time as Remington Model 12, Savage Model 29 or Winchester Model 61.
