When Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce were chosen to play Holmes and Watson in the 1939 film "The Hound of the Baskervilles", no one realized that they would be forever linked with the chracters of the great detective and his loyal friend. The immediate success of the film led to their being chosen to portray Holmes and Watson on the radio for 8 years in 213 episodes of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries.