THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (1959)

R.I.P. Sir Christopher Lee.
Directed by Terence Fisher, Starring: Peter Cushing, André Morell, Christopher Lee. Horror/Mystery, UK, 1959, 87mins, Cert PG.

“There is more evil around us here than I have ever encountered before!”, exclaims Peter Cushing’s Sherlock Holmes. Hardly dear Peter, hardly; but nevertheless there is still much to enjoy in Hammer’s rather tame telling of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Scooby-Doo tale.

Not that it starts out tame. The legend of the hell hound of the moor opens with a surprisingly sadistic flashback (pure invention on Hammer’s part) where Sir Hugo Baskerville, cheered on by a drunken court of braying aristocrats, throws a servant girl’s father headfirst through a stain glass-window before implying nothing less than gang-rape for his daughter. Upon discovering that: “The bitch has got away!” Sir Hugo releases the hounds onto the moors in pursuit and eventually tracks her down amongst the abbey ruins where he proceeds to plunge a dagger into the poor girl. However, Sir Hugo is himself in for a nasty surprise as that blood-curdling howling which spooked his hounds is about to manifest itself into an ominously looming shadow, and the servant girl’s blood dripping onto the ruins is about to be supplemented by that of Sir Hugo’s...

Not bad for an “A” certificate! However the film never really lives up to this barnstorming opening – and instead settles down into an almost cosy restrained Sunday teatime affair. Peter Cushing is reliably mesmerising as the great detective – and his prop juggling is in fine fettle – lighting his pipe with a hot piece of coal plucked from the fire with tongs; stabbing his papers onto the mantelpiece and writing down details on his shirt cuff. Holmes’ faithful companion Doctor Watson is played with admirable restraint and dignity by André Morell, and Christopher Lee seems to be relishing a rare stab at a straight up romantic lead role as the last of the Baskerville line: Sir Henry. Indeed he certainly appears comfortable enough for the most part, albeit with one obvious exception involving an unwelcomed close encounter with a (real) tarantula which crawls up his arm before being replaced with a joke shop substitute just in time for Mr Holmes to dispatch with his trusty poker.

Hammer play around with the original novels plot (most significantly in their reapportioning of the real villain’s identity), which may well have rankled with audiences familiar with the original book – but I’m guessing the punters sitting in their picture houses back then would’ve been far more outraged by the final reveal of the beast itself. It was after all a Hammer film, and the original poster artwork which had enticed them into the stalls promised them a fearsome hellhound with drooling fangs and piercing eyes of pure evil. What they got back in 1959, and what we get now in 2015 (in gloriously unforgiving HD) is a scrawny looking young Great Dane (called Colonel) in an ill-fitting mask of rabbit skin – who had to be goaded into action by the onset prop man (who he hated). Unfortunately no amount of prop-wielding dexterity or verbal sparring from Mr Cushing can compensate for the ultimate letdown of a Barbara Woodhouse trained placid pooch being obviously forced into grappling with its supposed victims. (Mr Lee might disagree somewhat as he was indeed bitten for real by Colonel in a rare unguarded moment).

Ultimately it’s this letdown of a finale which doomed the chances of further Hammer excursions into the cunning mind of the great detective. But it leaves behind a charming one-off hodgepodge with many Hammer traits present and correct: the dry ice shrouded atmospherics, the day-for-night photography, James Bernard’s iconic bombastic scoring (including snatches from his own DRACULA score) and indeed the same castle set redressed from DRACULA itself.

So, whilst Cushing’s Holmes believes that the case of the Hound of the Baskervilles is: “...a two-pipe problem”, Hammer’s THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES is really a one-hound problem. But whilst it may lack real bite, it’s hard not to feel genuine affection for this mutt in Hammer’s canon.

***(out of 5*)

Paul Worts

(This review originally appeared on the FrightFest website).