THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (1959)

Director: Terence Fisher

Stars: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Andre Morell, David Oxley, Marla Landi, Ewen Solon, Francis de Wolff

Year: 1959

Rating: N/R

Years before Hammer would make them both iconic horror film figures in a series of films featuring Bram Stoker's legendary character Dracula, Hammer films cast Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee in a suspenseful, action-filled film version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel The Hound of the Baskervilles. Meant as just the first in a new series of films featuring Cushing as Sherlock Holmes, Hammer never made it beyond this initial entry; a shame, as this version of the classic tale has a lot going for it, even if you can see the ending coming.

The film opens hundreds of years in the past, in England, where Sir Hugo Baskerville uses his money and power to torment those weaker and poorer than he. Everything's in good fun when the film begins, Hugo drinking with his friends and beating up a local farmer, but things get dark when it's learned that Hugo intends on more than just keeping the man's daughter locked up for awhile. When the girl escapes and Baskerville goes after her, he ends up killing the beautiful young woman on the moors, stabbing her to death in a fit of rage - and thus the Baskerville curse is born, in which it is said that every lord of the house will meet a grisly death.

Flash forward to the present (well, late 19th-century London), when a Dr. Mortimer (Francis de Wolff) pays a visit to the rooms of Sherlock Holmes (Cushing) and Dr. Watson (Andre Morell), seeking their help. It seems that the latest lord of the manor, Charles Baskerville, has just been found dead on the moors, his face horrifically twisted in agony. Mortimer's friend and patient, Sir Henry Baskerville (Christopher Lee) is the last of the Baskerville line, and Dr. Mortimer is determined that the man will not meet the same fate as his predecessors. He relates the legend of the sinister Hound of the Baskervilles, which Holmes of course dismisses as silliness, believing a rational explanation exists, and only needs to be uncovered. Needed in town temporarily, Holmes meets with Sir Henry (and saves his life, when a deadly tarantula left in Sir Henry's shoe nearly bites him), then agrees to take the case but sends Watson on ahead, as a sort of bodyguard for Sir Henry, with a promise to join them later.

Well, things are indeed strange at Baskerville hall, with lit candles being discovered in rooms that have been empty for years, and the baleful howl of a rabid dog moaning from the direction of the moors. Sir Henry barely escapes another death, and Holmes arrives just in time for another murder to occur, but soon Holmes finds himself on the trail of the mystery of the Hound, and discovers an evil rooted just as much in reality as in legend.

This is a pretty cool film for its time, with Cushing making for quite a sharp Sherlock Holmes. The action and suspense never lag, and though Watson finds himself in his own trouble at one point, here he comes off overall as much more intelligent and competent than Nigel Bruce played him in the original (and best) series of Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone. Lee is suitably stiff and regal as Sir Henry, loosening up at last when he finds himself falling for a local farmer's daughter, and the film is shot in a way that highlights the somber moodiness required to tell the tale. Very entertaining, and a shame more films featuring Cushing as Holmes were never made. *** - Reel Cool