The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)

The Baskerville family has been cursed for centuries by a hound from Hell due to the sadistic behavior of an ancestor. Recently, Sir Charles Baskerville had died of fright out on the moor. The grouchy Dr Mortimer (Francis De Wolff), a believer in the supernatural, requests the aid of Sherlock Holmes (Peter Cushing) and Dr. Watson (André Morell) to keep the newly arriving heir, Henry (Christopher Lee), safe. Holmes can’t leave London, but sends Watson to Baskerville manner. The only other residents of the house are the butler and housekeeper (John Le Mesurier, Helen Goss), but there are a few close neighbors besides Mortimer: driver Perkins (Sam Kydd), cruel farmer Stapleton (Ewen Solon) and his attractive daughter Cecile (Marla Landi), and the Bishop (Miles Malleson). And out on the moor is an escaped maniac.

I reviewed the famous 1939 Rathebone version of The Hound of the Baskervilles as an Old Dark House horror film. This version is certainly horror, but not an Old Dark House film. Gone is the skulking about in dim hallways, and the fearful nature of the building itself. Instead, in most ways it’s a traditional mystery adaptation, until it isn’t. Hammer films and director Terence Fisher kept the the basics of the story, swapping characters and squeezing Cecile into the mold of other Hammer Horror women (Hammer was a regressive studio in several ways, including their portrayal of women). The horror comes not from changes to the story but from specific shots, background elements, and throwaway lines and moments. Yes, the mist is rather dense, but it was in other versions too. But now there’s a focus on a deadly tarantula attack (really? A tarantula…), a sudden mine collapse, bright red blood on a stone (which in this fascinating world stays rich and wet hours after it hit the air—it’s still flowing so I guess the victim had taken a lot of anticoagulants), the sadism in the legend, and a body being mutilated in “a revolting sacrificial rite. ” Holmes also recites some very un-Holmes-like dialog: “There’s more evil here than I have ever encountered before” and “I am fighting evil!”

None of that’s bad (nor good), but it is gratuitous. Couldn’t they find a way to get blood into the film that actually fit into the plot? It’s fun, but in the same way the hot girls in high heels were fun in Queen of Outer Space—that is, existing purely because someone wants to see it. Well, I like blood too, as well as wild women and sadistic aristocrats. I just like them better when they can be integrated into the whole and not appear tacked on.

I always thought the casting was odd. Christopher Lee seems the obvious Holmes; sharp, intelligent, rude, and with a touch of cruelty were his specialty. And Cushing seems almost as natural for Henry as he excelled at proper aristocrats, though perhaps a bit too old. But maybe they felt Lee would be too on the nose as he looked like and has the bearing of Basal Rathbone. Cushing does a better than average job, though his Holmes is sometimes too calm and sometimes too excited. Certainly those strange pronouncements about evil don’t help. Lee, on the other hand, is wasted, as he often was by Hammer. Harry is a milquetoast role. There isn’t much there and Lee gives him only a bit of imperial demeanor. Harry is never a great part, but he works best when given some humor and humanity, so it looks like I’m back to wanting to swap the leads. Lee did get his shot at Holmes three years later in a German production, but his voice is dubbed.

Morell, on the other hand, seems perfectly cast. Instead of the friendly bumbler of Nigel Bruce, we have a reasonable and responsible sidekick who is believable as an ex-army officer. The best moments are of Holmes and Watson trading insights. The rest of the cast don’t live up to this level, but it’s a matter of script and direction. The characters don’t act in any sensible way, but rather behave just to fit Hammer’s idea of horror (except poor Miles Malleson, who I love in so many films but he’s lost here; he seems to be playing exactly the same character he did in The Importance of Being Earnest). There’s no reason for Mortimer to be contrary, and there’s a very good reason for Stapleton to be mildly pleasant, but that wouldn’t fit the kind of picture Hammer wanted.

I’ve seen many adaptations of the story and I like this one better than most. It’s on the cheap and tawdry side, but it isn’t boring.