18.11.17

"The Hound of the Baskervilles" by Sidney Lanfield (1939)


“Elementary, my dear Watson”
When Basil Rathbone appears in dressing gown and slippers, smoking that famous pipe, the whole world exhaled in awe: here was the screen's most perfect Sherlock Holmes and all the previous incarnations were quickly forgotten. Unfortunately, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was already dead for several years at this point, because it would have been very interesting what he would think of this stunning performance (allegedly, his own favourite was silent actor Ellie Norwood who played world's most famous detective while in his sixties). Allegedly, 20th Century Fox started the whole project with Rathbone in mind and even though he was already well known movie star, from now on he will be forever associated with this character. 


The story is by now well known, but viewers would be surprised how gracefully and imaginatively this is all done, to the point that I watched it completely transfixed and purring like a cat, enjoying it all like its the first time ever I heard about legendary savage dog roaming the foggy marshes and killing lords of Baskerville. (Truth to be told, I read so many Sherlock Holmes stories that I might have forgotten some of them) There is a very interesting detective plot involving mysterious murders, inheritances and howling in the night but I won't go into this now, because for me personally story takes a second seat to settings which are just brilliant - watching beautiful old black & white cinematography, with ancient manors, misty hills and even train interiors was a pure pleasure. Rathbone, of course, is a joy and I could hardly think of anybody who so perfectly embodies Holmes, with his air of congenial superiority (he is always friendly and never nasty, real gentleman). As Dr.Watson Nigel Bruce is unfortunately shoehorned into unenviable role of a comic sidekick - this conforms to Hollywood idea of hero + fumbling buddy but this is not how I remember it from novels, oh well. It's not bad but it does make you wonder why would Holmes even bother with such clown. Young Richard Greene is a present Lord of Baskerville who arrives from Canada to check out his inherited estate and he is very convincing as earnest youth in potential danger - even though I read the novel, I got so carried away that I suspected absolutely everybody around, including sinister servants (one of them is no other than charismatic John Carradine whom I recently watched in 1944. "Bluebeard"). For all its merits - the movie was so successful that it spawned countless sequels - the ending is a little clumsy as I actually didn't get the killers motivation but it might be that I was too distracted with a visual pleasure of watching something so visually evocative.

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