There are now so many incarnations of Sherlock Holmes over the years, that deducing your own personal favourite probably has a lot to do with the type of person you are. Some, understandably, are drawn to the classic Basil Rathbone version, while others find themselves attracted to the intense nature of Jeremey Brett. Of course, there’s always the ever popular labyrinthian unstable nature of Benedict Cumberbatch’s more modern take on the legendary detective and failing that, there’s always the buddy movie banter of Robert Downey Jr’s action hero take.
However, when people vote for who stands top of the Sherlocks, the name that gets mentioned is an actor who only ever played him once, but his version of the most filmed of Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories usually stands deerstalker and pipe above all others. The movie is The Hound Of The Baskervilles and the Holmes – is Peter Cushing.
Ever since legitimate card carrying piece of shit, Sir Hugo Baskerville, was said to have been reduced to shreds by a legendary hound that had been sent all the way from hell via special delivery, the curse of the Baskervilles still looms over his ancestors many years later. In fact the most recent casualty has been Sir Charles Baskerville who has been found dead of a heart attack in the moors surrounding the estate of Baskerville Hall. Apparently, the face of the late Charlie was contorted into a look of extreme terror, and so friend of the family, Dr. Richard Mortimer, has traveled to Baker Street in order to enlist the talents of the greatest living detective, Sherlock Holmes.
Somewhat sceptical on the matter of family curses and hell hounds, Holmes, and his faithful companion, Dr. John Watson, agree to meet with the next Baskerville in line, Charles’ dashing nephew, Sir Henry Watson, who doesn’t seem particularly phased by all this hell hound malarkey in the least.
However, everyone’s opinion changes fairly quickly when Henry is nearly done away with by the surprise appearance of a poisonous tarantula (not a hell tarantula, just a normal one as far as I can see…) and after doing away with the arachnid assassin, Holmes vows to get to the bottom of things.
However, before he does, he has a few other matters to attend to first as so sends Dr. Watson ahead to get a lay of the land. What he finds are the staff of Baskerville Hall in the clutches of a superstitious fear; deadly, sucking patches of more far deadlier than any quicksand and an escaped madman roaming the moors at will – but no hound.
However, while Sir Henry is in the midst of being bewitched by local farmer’s daughter, Cecile, Holmes finally appears to reveal that his previous business was merely a ruse and he’s been been here all along, figuring shit out. Can England’s keenest mind unravel the mysteries of the Baskervilles before Sir Henry gets a right, royal savaging.
This version of The Hound Of The Baskervilles was made by Hammer Studios during the time when they were just starting to change the face of horror cinema with their colourful, lurid, depictions of famous creatures such as Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster. Drafting over director Terence Fisher from his time reinventing vampires and things back from the dead, the studio smartly kept the same tone of those stylish, lamplit chillers and brought in their two biggest actors too to take a well deserved break from black capes and fangs.
The result was something of a measuring stick for all subsequent adaptations with Doyle’s most horror-centric Holmes adventure using that Hammer aesthetic of misty moors and looming mansions to wondrous effect. Simply put, it proved to be a marriage made in heaven and the biggest mystery of all, is why the studio never forged ahead with more adventures given a slight, horror spin – imagine what Hammer taking a crack at Professor Moriarty could have been like!
Still, while we were robbed of the experience of Peter Cushing appearing in a whole slew of subsequent investigations, there’s always this role to cherish and Hammer’s national treasure proves to be an extraordinarily good fit for the energised detective, placing his portrayal between the haunted dedication of Van Helsing and the cruel mania of Doctor Frankenstein to give us a Holmes that’s actually kind and warm despite being super driven once the game is afoot.
Playing against type as a vunerable lord, is Hammer’s number one heavy, Christopher Lee, and watching him playing an innocent victim for a change is a glorious change of pace for cinema’s most prolific Dracula. They rest of the cast slip nicely into the various archetypes that appear regularly in both Doyle and Hamner’s work, with AndrĂ© Morell doing rock solid work as the constantly taken aback Watson and Dad’s Army’s John Le Mesurier plays a typically refined butler.
There are personal disappointments. I personally wish that Hammer pushed the horror tone a little more overtly and gone all in on the titular hound itself. Other versions (not to mention the original story) portrayed the psychotic woofer as a slathering beast that came complete with an ethereal glow, but here, he’s presented as a great Dane wearing a monstrous cowl which is technically the same as attaching a hockey mask to Scooby-Doo and doesn’t really take full advantage of Fisher’s ability to bring the creeps.
However, the story moves quick (some tinkering with the original story succeeds in streamlining matters successfully while keeping the killer’s identity somewhat a surprise) and the atmosphere is up to Hammer’s typical standard and while some purists may fail against the changes, you simply can’t fault Cushing’s debonair and energetic performance or the lush production values.
With all that being said, the fact that Hammer never made more of these is a crime that not even Holmes himself could solve, especially considering that Cushing was an actual aficionado of the character and even weighed in on set on changes that should be made. It’s this level of respect for Doyle’s heroic brain box that makes this version the go to adaptation and thus thrust Cushing to being near the top of the ‘Locks. Now that’s what I call an ideal Holmes exhibition.
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