Basil Rathbone
Basil Rathbone's acting career spanned from Shakespeare to low-budget horror and in fact included both at once in the Comedy of Terrors, where he recites every Shakespeare line there is about dying. Reciting was his specialty, because he had one of the greatest voices in the history of the acting profession. There is little one could do with the human voice to make it sound more dignified than Rathbone. It is also hard to sound more intelligent than Rathbone, a skill he put to good use in his many performances as master detective Sherlock Holmes. He recorded a great deal of the Holmes tales in spoken word form, as well as the complete writings of Edgar Allan Poe, because yet another attribute of this lavishly praised voice was its ability to sound incredibly sinister. Among the bad guys portrayed by the actually charming Rathbone were the evil nemesis of Robin Hood, Sir John, and two of Charles Dickens' creepiest creations: Scrooge and Fagin. He did many of his recordings for the Caedmon label, but ventured into the recording studio at the bequest of many other labels and organizations as well. He even recorded tours of famous museums and great cities of the world for the Columbia Record Club, to be presented in conjunction with slide shows. Rathbone was also in demand for personal appearances as a narrator with symphony orchestras and chamber groups. During his career, he took part in performances of King David, Arthur Honegger's oratorio and symphonic psalm, the inevitable Peter and the Wolf, and a gala presentation of Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov. He worked with classical performers such as soprano Helen Boatwright, contralto Beatrice Krebs, tenor Robert Price, and conductor Manfred Schumann. He was fond of collaborating with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, perhaps not coincidentally Edgar Allan Poe's hometown. Another musical era friendly to his on-stage presence was early music, and he took part in performances with several instrumental groups specializing in this genre, combining their musical performances with his recitation of poems from the same era.
His acting career took off following his return from the first World War, and he was launched into the British public consciousness by a series of impressive roles in Shakespeare productions at Stratford on Avon. In the '20s, he relocated to New York City, continuing a theater career, but made a drastic switch to the film industry the following decade. In 1930 alone, he cranked out seven different films. He established his authority in the role of Sherlock Holmes at the end of that decade in a series of films that seemed to never end, the role of faithful assistant Dr. Watson essayed fabulously by the lovable Nigel Bruce. In the '40s and '50s, he remained a character actor in films but concentrated more on his first love, the stage. In the '60s, he was one of many older Hollywood actors lured into horror films, amassing enormous new cult followings as a result. He was not particularly happy about this part of his career, however, he did enjoy the chance to hang out with old friends such as Boris Karloff. He did do some fine recordings in the '60s, however, and in the end was more consistently comfortable in the recording medium than any other.
© Eugene Chadbourne /TiVo
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Edgar Allan Poe: Poems and Tales (Mono Version)
Literatur - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1954
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
KORNGOLD, E.W.: Adventures of Robin Hood (The)
Basil Rathbone, Tony Thomas, Warner Brothers Studio Orchestra, Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Klassik - Erschienen bei Delos am 01.01.1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Read Edgar Allan Poe Stories & Poems
Hörbücher - Erschienen bei Soundtrack Classics am 15.08.2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Edgar Allan Poe - Ultimate Collection 1809-1849
Hörbücher - Erschienen bei W.O.W. Words of Wisdom Records am 01.01.2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes: The Bruce Partington Plans
Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Hörbücher - Erschienen bei Saland Publishing am 07.01.2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Very Best of Charles Dickens
Basil Rathbone, Frank Pettingell, Ronald Colman
Hörbücher - Erschienen bei Saland Publishing am 01.04.2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rimsky-Korsakov: Sinbad the Sailor
Basil Rathbone, London Philharmonic Orchestra
Hörbücher - Erschienen bei Saland Publishing am 01.02.2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Oscar Wilde Fairy Tales
Hörbücher - Erschienen bei Performance am 10.05.2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev, S.: Peter and the Wolf / the Love for 3 Oranges Suite / Scythian Suite (Stokowski, Markevitch) (1941, 1955)
Basil Rathbone, French National Radio Orchestra, Igor Markevitch, All-American Orchestra, Léopold Stokowski
Klassik - Erschienen bei Naxos Classical Archives am 01.01.1955
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
JACOBY, H.: Phantom of the Opera (The) - The Radio Broadcast of 1943
Nelson Eddy, Susannah Foster, Basil Rathbone, Cecil B. DeMille
Klassik - Erschienen bei Delos am 01.01.1943
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
ROBINSON, C.: Captain Blood - The Complete Program as Broadcast by CBS, February 22, 1937, on The Lux Radio Theatre
Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn, Olivia Mary de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Donald George Crisp, Henry Stephenson, Herbert Marshall
Klassik - Erschienen bei Delos am 30.05.1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Basil Rathbone Reads Edgar Allan Poe
Hörbücher - Erschienen bei Tin Toy am 04.02.2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Idylls of the King - Lancelot and Elaine (by Alfred Lord Tennyson)
Hörbücher - Erschienen bei Saland Publishing am 09.12.2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sherlock Holmes - Tales From Baker Street
Hörbücher - Erschienen bei Saland Publishing am 02.09.2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stories, Witticisms & Scenes Of Oscar Wilde
Frank Pettingell, Basil Rathbone
Hörbücher - Erschienen bei Saland Publishing am 22.07.2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Happy Prince and Other Oscar Wilde Fairy Tales
Hörbücher - Erschienen bei Tin Toy am 17.01.2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Basil Rathbone's Short Story Collection
Hörbücher - Erschienen bei Saland Publishing am 06.06.2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sherlock Holmes: Murder Beyond The Mountains & The Book of Tobit
Hörbücher - Erschienen bei Saland Publishing am 01.04.2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ghostly Short Stories
Basil Rathbone, Emma Topping, Ronald Colman
Hörbücher - Erschienen bei Saland Publishing am 10.07.2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Peter, Tubby And Pan Original Soundtrack Recording
Ted Tiller, Victor Jory, Basil Rathbone
Original Soundtrack - Erschienen bei Foyer am 01.12.2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Stories Of Sherlock Holmes
Hörbücher - Erschienen bei Performance am 29.01.1900
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo