‘This, I think, is a two-pipe problem...’
Along with Ebenezer Scrooge, no character has been portrayed on screen more often than Sherlock Holmes. In recent memory, we’ve enjoyed and endured Robert Downey Jr, Johnny Lee Miller, Benedict Cumberbatch, Sir Ian McKellen and Henry Cavill and there is no doubt more on the way in future projects. For my money, however, Peter Cushing, whilst not the first actor to don the deer stalker hat and pipe, remains the best of the lot…
Legendary detective Sherlock Holmes (Cushing), and his faithful sidekick, Holmes (Andre Morell), are called into action after the death of a wealthy aristocrat under mysterious circumstances. Sir Henry Baskerville (Christopher Lee), the only living relative of the victim, inherits the sizable Baskerville estate but can he escape the supposed curse of the hellhound that stalks the moors around the estate?
If you like posh English people from the past being very wry and polite and sophisticated, then this is the film for you. While the much-mentioned ‘hound’ does eventually appear towards the end (not looking too shabby either for 1959), this film is all about the performances and the dialogue. Cushing, always enjoyable, is phenomenal here. He was a huge Holmes fan off-camera and he brings this passion and wealth of knowledge into his performance to the point where whenever I picture Holmes, it is Cushing I am picturing. He shares a wonderful chemistry with Morell (most famous for playing the title character in the Quatermass films), and the two of them embody the nobility and sheer Englishness that Holmes has come to represent. Morell eschews the bumbling sidekick popularised by Nigel Bruce’s interpretation of the role, instead preferring to deliver a performance closer to the books. The result is two tremendous actors at the very top of their game. The fact that Christopher Lee is perhaps slightly miscast (he’s just too sinister to convincingly play a character so naive) never threatens to derail what is undoubtedly one of Hammer Film Productions very finest hours.
I’ve never been a Holmes fanatic, but I can say hand on heart that I loved this iteration of The Hound of the Baskervilles from start to finish – an utter joy.
