Hound of the Baskervilles
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Hound of the Baskervilles
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1959 Starring: This is a wonderful early example of "Hammerscape". If you don't know what Hammerscape is, it is the setting, the location, the feeling, the color, the Englishness and the vagueness of an exact location and time. Nestled somewhere between approximately 1860 and 1915, the bulk of Hammer Studio's gothic horrors fall under the term of Hammerscape. This film happens to be located in Devonshire, but that has to do with where the original author, Arthur Conan Doyle, set the majority of the tale. The rest of the story is in London, but they are indoor scenes. This is the third of many films that Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing starred in together for Hammer. The first two, The Curse of Frankenstein and Horror of Dracula, established both of them (along with Hammer studios) as major international stars. They were brought together with the director of those two Hammer films, Terence Fisher, for what turned out to be a very satisfying Sherlock Holmes feature. Peter Cushing makes a great Holmes, and André Morell is perfectly cast as Dr. Watson. Christopher Lee plays Sir Henry Baskerville, the last in the line of the Baskervilles. Cushing seems to take his Van Helsing and Dr. Frankenstein characters and modify them just enough to not seem totally like he's whacked. Morell plays Dr. Watson as the straight man against Cushing's portrayal of Holmes as kind of a dandy eccentric. Cushing almost prances in some of the scenes just as he was apt to do in many of his performances in the early Hammer films. The story is well know enough, but I won't spoil the ending for those of you who don't know it. It starts out with a real bastard of a Baskerville, Sir Hugo, throwing a man out a window into a muddy moat and then having his drunken friends drag him back into the house so he can berate him some more for having the audacity to criticize Hugo for his leisure pursuits. He has the mans daughter locked in a room upstairs and after warming up his poor victim in the fireplace a bit, he decides to go upstairs to get the girl. But it turns out that she has escaped out a window and Hugo becomes enraged at the thought of a peasant girl escaping him. He goes out and gets his horse and has his dogs released to hunt her down. His friends plead with him not to go through with this but he is determined. The girls scent leads the dogs up a hill to a ruined abbey where she is hiding out. As Hugo approaches, the dogs yelp and whine and turn away from some unseen thing. hugo's horse is also not immune to the force and he has to force the horse to go further up the hill towards the abbey. Hugo gets off the horse and searches through the ruins and of course finds the girl. She struggles but he overpowers her and climbs on top of her and holds her down. Then, In a fit of rage, he pulls out a dagger and stabs the girl, killing her. As he gets up from the lifeless body, something approaches Hugo and attacks him. There is a look of terror on his face but we never see exactly what it is that terrifies him so. The next scene has a Dr. Richard Mortimer (Francis De Wolff) in the office of Holmes and Watson. He is describing the death of a descendant of Hugo Baskerville, Sir Henry's father, to the two detectives. Holmes questions the doctor and almost ridicules him in his questioning for mentioning the curse of the Baskervilles that was started when Hugo murdered the girl and then was killed by a terrible beast. Sir Henry has been living in South Africa for most of his life but is arriving in London the next day to move to the inherited estate of his family. Holmes agrees to help Henry and try to solve the mystery surrounding the death of father. Dr. Watson is sent ahead with Sir Henry as Holmes as things to wrap up in the city for the next couple days. After arriving at the estate, Watson and Henry meet some neighbors and the local eccentric pastor who provides some comic relief. Things get a little tense with the neighbors, but Henry does start falling for the beautiful daughter, Cecilia (Marla Landi). Holmes finally arrives in a surprise to Watson and Henry, and the he starts doing what he does best: Deducing evidence and coming up with a logical conclusion. There is some good drama, a bit of excitement and even a twist at the end, but of course Sherlock Holmes solves the mystery and wraps up the case. Basil Rathbone was the definitive Sherlock Holmes as he portrayed him at least 14 times, including his first role as the detective in the 1939 release of Hound of the Baskervilles, but Peter Cushing does the role a great justice. Christopher Lee is his usual suave self and André Morell, who appeared in such notable films as Barry Lyndon and Bridge on the River Kwai, also does a great job as the original sidekick, Dr. Watson. On the dvd is a 13 minute featurette with Christopher Lee reminiscing on the making of the film and a 14 minute feature with him reading excerpts from the book while drawings are displayed on the screen. There is also a trailer and the movie has English, French and Spanish audio tracks and subtitles. The sound is Dolby Digital mono and sounded just fine on my stereo, and even better on my computer. The video is 1.66:1 widescreen and has a great technicolor visual even though it is a bit dark at times, but I suspect that was how it was originally filmed. I received the dvd as a gift, but I had it on my list to buy and it is cheap enough thanks to MGM Home Entertainment so I heartily recommend this for fans of Hammer, Holmes and those that enjoy a good romp through the moors circa 1959. |
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24 Jan 02 (rev. 2 May 03) |
