Watching The Detectives: The Hound of the Baskervilles(Dir. Sidney Lanfield, 1h22m, 1939)
Of all the great detectives of small and big screen, none is as beloved as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes; everyone from Robert Downey Jr to John Cleese, and from Christopher Lee to Peter
O'Toole have played the detective. Over seventy actors, in all have portrayed the most famous detective in cinema history in nearly 300 films. Everyone has their favourites; Peter Cushing was the first to play the role in colour as
aloof gentleman, Jeremy Brett would play the role for a decade on British TV, as a charming and mercurial figure, whilst, in looser adaptions, Hugh Laurie went transatlantic to play diagnostician Gregory House in House MD, and Japanese actress,Yuko Takeuchi, played a female version of the character in international production, Miss Sherlock.
All of these, are influenced by Basil Rathbone's definite portrayal of Holmes. Whilst not the first actor to play the great detective on screen-that accolade goes to an unknown actor in Arthur Marvin's half-minute film Sherlock Holmes Baffled (1900), nor the first to play him over multiple films-as Eille Norwood did for over forty films. Yet it is Rathbone who first truly personifies Holmes, and it is his debut as the detective in the role he would play in over a dozen films over seven years, that we turn to today, in The Hound of the Baskervilles.
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| Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes |
The Hound of the Baskervilles, as many subsequent adaptions of the novel have proved, remains a perfect introduction to Holmes, Watson and the Great Game. Following the mysterious death of the previous holder of the Baskerville seat, (Ian Maclaren) and the arrival of his heir (matinée idol Richard Greene) from Canada, Holmes (Rathbone) and Watson (Nigel Bruce, who would appear opposite Rathbone in every film for both 20th Century Fox, and Universal, and the two hundred plus radio episodes during the production of the films), are brought onto the case. A curse seems to afflict the house of Baskerville, each member of the family dying in mysterious circumstances over several hundred years, their deaths attributed to a spectral hound.
With Watson accompanying the new Lord Baskerville, Sir Henry, back to his ancestral home, things quickly become stranger, with the house's butler, Barryman (an early role for John Carradine), signalling to a figure on the misty-and surprisingly atmospheric-moors, not to mention the mysterious howling that echoes through the night, and the would-be seance. Soon making Sir Henry's acquaintance is the brother and sister duo of Jack Stapleton, (Morton Lowry), whose role in the story takes on a dark turn as the true nature of the Baskerville curse becomes known, and Beryl Stapleton (Wendy Barrie), who falls for Sir Henry. Once Holmes reappears on the scene, all of these threads begin to pull together, leading to a taut, and satisfying dénouement to the case.
The Hound of the Baskervilles remains a highly enjoyable watch, and beloved because of it-there is, undeniably a period sensibility to the production design, Peverell Marley's cinematography, and the stirring score by Cyril J. Mockridge, but this, largely, adds to the film's tone and pace. For, whilst its ending is a breakneck chase across the moors to unmask the culprit, the rest of Hound of the Baskervilles is a masterpiece of tone, of mystery and atmosphere. From the film's opening scenes, depicting the sudden death of the previous Baskerville, to the smoggy streets of London, to the moors and the Baskerville House itself, are all wonderfully atmospheric.
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| Impressively Atmospheric: much of The Hound of the Baskervilles is steeped in Gothicism |
Moreover, the film's sets have a pleasing physicality and mystery
to them. This gives the film a decidedly Gothic look and feel, which only heightens once the film enters its final act. It is notable that this, nearly 40 years into adaptions of the detective's adventures, this is the first
time a film adaption had used the backdrop of the 19th century, rather than the contemporary early 20th. Similarly, it fixes in place another key element that would become consistent in adaptions from this point forward; that
of John Watson; whilst Bruce would be a far cry from the foil that Doyle's character often is to Holmes, his contrast, of avuncular Watson to shrewd Holmes, would become commonplace in Holmes adaptions from this point forward.
At the heart of the film, though, is Rathbone's Holmes. Few cinematic adaptions of Holmes capture the character straight off the page; and whilst,
like many, Rathbone's Holmes does take some liberties with the sleuth-for example, Rathbone's Holmes is more empathetic and more personally connected to the case than the otherwise detached and cerebal Holmes of the novels, living only for the solving of crimes, Rathbone brings forth the spirit of the novels. His Holmes is charming, but authoritative, cunning, but capable, as Watson later discovers, of moments of trickery. When we see him work, close-ups, rather than visual trickery,
give us a sense of his powerful analytical mind, of his powers of perceptions; like Watson, contemporary, and modern audiences, are left amazed, as readers of Conan Doyle's novels have been for generations, by his powers of deduction
Moreover,
he looks and sounds the part; it's hardly surprising that he's become the basis, adopting many of the theatre's shorthand for Holmes (the Calabash pipe, the Inverness cape) into the character alongside the familiar
deerstalker-as many 1930s figures noted on the casting, and subsequent film historians have agreed, Rathbone is the closest cinema has ever got to the perfect casting for Holmes. This is to say nothing of the partnership with
Watson, and indeed with Bruce, which would take the duo onto radio, and to an entirely different studio over the next decade.
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| "Elementary...": Holmes and Watson (Nigel Bruce.) |
The genius of The Hound of the Baskervilles is this. By placing Holmes and Watson back in their familiar late Victorian setting, surrounding them with excellent character actors of the period, and giving them a mystery
that cuts to the heart of our enduring fascination with Baker Street's most famous resident, in a taut Gothic tale of mystery, and murder.
Rating: Highly Recommended
Next week, to Howard Hawks' noir masterpiece of murder, blackmail, Bogart and Bacall in the Raymond Chandler adaption, The Big Sleep.
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