The Hound of the Baskervilles – 1959 | 87 mins | Mystery, Horror | Colour

Plot Synopsis

The Hound of the Baskervilles stars Peter Cushing as Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, ably supported by Andre Morell, who makes an excellent Watson, mercifully jettisoning the comic buffoonery that made Nigel Bruce’s Watson little more than an imbecile side-kick to Rathbone’s. Christopher Lee‘s performance as Sir Henry Baskerville carries the required nobility and authority.

Holmes is called upon to visit Baskerville Hall to investigate the Baskerville families curse, the family curse started when Sir Hugo Baskerville (David Oxley) murdered a young girl who had escaped from a depraved orgy. Since that time the family descendants have been terrorised by a legendary hound from hell, the latest victim of the family curse is Sir Charles Baskerville, who apparently died of fright on the Devonshire moors near that same ruined abbey as Sir Hugo. Holmes and Watson must prevent the same fate falling upon the latest Baskerville heir (Christopher Lee). Holmes declines the invitation to Baskerville Hall, and sends Watson to Devonshire along with Sir Henry. While out on the moors Watson discovers that Holmes is hiding there, covertly watching developments. Together they hear the howl of the mythical hound, but arrive too late to prevent the hound from killing a man. They believe the dead body to be that of Sir Henry, but learn the dead man was an escaped convict called Selden (Michael Mulcaster) – surprisingly dressed in the clothes of Sir Henry.

Sir Henry Baskerville meanwhile, becomes attracted to Cecile Stapleton (Marla Landi), and that evening they meet together on the moors. Henry is shocked to learn that Cecile actually hates him, and that the hound is now on his trail. Holmes arrives on the scene just in time to kill the hound and save Sir Henry, and the legendary hound is revealed as nothing more than an ordinary large dog in a mask. Stapleton (Ewen Solon) and his daughter Cecile were illegitimate descendants of Sir Hugo’s and attempting to use the myth of the hound to kill those standing between them and Baskerville Hall. The film’s supporting cast is top notch, including Francis de Wolff’s stern-looking Dr Mortimer, Miles Malleson‘s comic turn as Bishop Frankland and Maria Landi’s hot-blooded Cecile, the perpetrator of the dastardly attacks on Sir Henry. In fact, the only letdown proves to be the hound itself, all too clearly a Great Dane (called Colonel) wearing a badly made papier-mâché mask. But such are the film’s compensations this hardly seems to matter.