The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959 film)

The Hound of the Baskervilles is a 1959 British gothic horror mystery film directed by Terence Fisher and produced by Hammer Film Productions. It is based on the 1902 novel of the same title by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It stars Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes, Sir Christopher Lee as Sir Henry Baskerville and André Morell as Doctor Watson. It is the first film adaptation of the novel to be filmed in colour.

The Hound of the Baskervilles
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTerence Fisher
Produced byAnthony Hinds
Screenplay byPeter Bryan
Based onThe Hound of the Baskervilles
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
StarringPeter Cushing
André Morell
Christopher Lee
Marla Landi
David Oxley
Music byJames Bernard
CinematographyJack Asher
Edited byAlfred Cox
Production
company
Distributed byUnited Artists[1]
Release date
  • 4 May 1959 (1959-05-04)
Running time
87 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Spanish
Box office1,257,132 admissions (France)[2]

Plot

Dr. Richard Mortimer asks Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson to investigate the death of his friend Sir Charles Baskerville, in Dartmoor, found dead by heart failure, lying in the moor surrounding his estate, Baskerville Hall. Mortimer believes that his good friend had been scared to death by the vision of a ghost hound, the same that centuries before allegedly killed his ancestor, the devilish Sir Hugo after he abducted and murdered a farm girl. Mortimer also fears for the life of Sir Henry, who's just come from South Africa to take possession of his inheritance and of Baskerville Hall.

Although sceptical, Holmes and Watson accept to meet Sir Henry, who is apparently young and bold, but in truth suffers from a congenital heart problem. A series of peculiar incidents soon convince Holmes that Sir Henry's life is indeed in danger, and, busy with a prior commitment, he chooses to despatch his trustworthy friend Watson to Dartmoor with Mortimer and Sir Henry. Before parting, Holmes reminds Watson not to let Sir Henry go out onto the nearby moor after dark.

On their way to Baskerville Hall, the trio is warned by the coach driver Perkins that a convict named Selden (Michael Mulcaster) has escaped from nearby Dartmoor Prison and is hiding on the moor; Selden was convicted of murdering prostitutes and sentenced to life-imprisonment after being declared insane. At Baskerville Hall, Sir Henry gets acquainted with his new house, helped by the butler, Mr. Barrymore, and his wife. On the walls stand the portraits of the previous masters of the house, including infamous Sir Hugo. However, a second portrait of Sir Hugo is missing, and the Barrymores are unable to offer any explanation.

The next day, Sir Henry and Watson walk around to see the neighborhood. At the nearby village, they meet the friendly local pastor, Bishop Frankland, who is also a keen entomologist. While crossing the moor, they get lost in a wetland called Grimpen Mire and Watson gets trapped in a patch of quicksand. Two people come to help, a man named Stapleton and his daughter Cecille, a beautiful and wild girl who immediately bewitches Sir Henry.

One night, Watson sees a light in the moor. He and Sir Henry go out to investigate, but a strange man rushes by in the shadows, then a distant hound howls, upsetting Sir Henry so much that he suffers a heart condition. Watson spots a figure silhouetted on a hill in the distance, while he helps Sir Henry back to Baskerville Hall. Soon, Watson discovers that the silhouetted figure was Holmes, who has concealed his own arrival to investigate more freely.

Together, Holmes and Watson find the corpse of the convict Selden, slaughtered on the moor by an unknown beast, while wearing clothes belonging to Sir Henry, and the legendary curved dagger used by Sir Hugo. This clue exposes the Barrymores, who confess to have helped the escapee, who was their relative, by supplying food and other provisions each time he signalled with a light from his hideout. However, Holmes has evidence that neither the Barrymores nor Selden are connected to the death of Sir Charles, so he keeps on searching for clues to confirm the existence of the mysterious hound and the identity of its masters.

Facing personal danger in an abandoned copper mine, and thanks to the stolen portrait of Sir Hugo, Holmes is able to guess who the suspects are and why they did it: the Stapletons are illegitimate descendants of Sir Hugo and are next in line to inherit the Baskerville fortune and mansion if all of the Baskervilles perish. Holmes deduces this after questioning Barrymore about the missing portrait; it was stolen because it revealed the fingers on Sir Hugo's right hand were webbed just like Stapleton's. Cecile takes Sir Henry out onto the same place where, according to the legend, the ghost hound had killed Sir Hugo. Holmes and Watson arrive just in time to hear Cecile reveal her intentions to a horrified Sir Henry. The dog attacks Sir Henry. Stapleton attacks with the dagger, but Watson shoots and wounds him. Holmes shoots the dog; it then turns on Stapleton and mauls him to death. Cecille flees after Holmes kills the beast, revealing it to be a Great Dane wearing a hideous mask to make it look more terrifying. Cecile accidentally falls into the mire and sinks to her death. Holmes and Watson take a shocked Sir Henry back to Baskerville Hall.

Cast

Production

Writing

There are several significant changes in plot details. Among them:

  • The legend of the hound and Hugo Baskerville is heavily changed. In the original novel, the father of the farm girl who is kidnapped by Sir Hugo Baskerville is away when the kidnapping happens. In the film, the father is also a servant of Hugo's and is cruelly abused when he pleads for his daughter's life. Baskerville kills the father by holding him over a fire in the hearth. In the novel, after the girl escapes, Baskerville chased her across the moor and three of Baskerville's companions followed him only to find Hugo and the farm girl dead. She had died from fear and exhaustion, and Hugo had been killed by the hound. In the film, Baskerville, all by himself against the protests of his companions, pursues the girl through the moor, his hounds and horse become frightened as they approach the nearby abbey ruins but he dismounts and pursues the girl on foot, finds her and assaults her in a rage before he stabs the screaming girl to death with a curved dagger. As Hugo takes elation and relish in the murder, he is startled by a distant hound howl, and is terrified when the hound appears and it mauls Baskerville to death as he screams.[3]
  • Sir Henry arrives from Toronto in the novel, while he arrives from Johannesburg in the film. Sir Henry does not suffer a minor heart condition in the novel, as he does in the film.
  • There is nothing involving a ritual sacrifice, a tarantula or a mine shaft in the novel, nor is Holmes thought to have been accidentally trapped in a cave-in. There is no attempt on the life of Sir Henry at the hotel in the novel, as in this film.
  • Rather than being Stapleton's daughter, Miss Stapleton is Stapleton's wife in the novel and is playing the part of his sister. She does not hate Sir Henry, as she does in the film, and is a far more sympathetic character in both the novel and in nearly all the other film versions of the story. Cecil in the novel is named Beryl and is an unwilling participant. In the film, she is much more sinister. Miss Stapleton survives in the novel, whereas in the film she drowns in the Grimpen Mire.
  • Inspector Lestrade, who appears in the novel, is omitted from the film.
  • In the novel, the hound is made to look "demonic" through the use of phosphorus paint, but in the film the same effect is accomplished with a mask. The hound was played by a brindled Great Dane.
  • The painting next to the staircase does not go missing in the novel, as Stapleton's webbed hand is a creation of the filmmakers.[4]
  • In the novel, Frankland is neither a bishop nor an entomologist. It is Stapleton, rather than Frankland, who is an acknowledged expert in entomology in the novel.
  • Stapleton does not get mauled to death after being shot by Watson in the novel; he simply disappears and is presumed to have drowned in the Grimpen Mire.
  • Dr. Mortimer is never put in charge of watching over Sir Henry in the novel; therefore he is not considered negligent by Watson when Sir Henry ventures out onto the moor alone. Mortimer in the novel is an "amiable, unambitious, absent-minded" doctor in his late twenties. The film's version is much older and is made deliberatley unlikable from the start as a red herring.
  • The painting next to the staircase does not go missing in the novel, as Stapleton's webbed hand is a creation of the filmmakers.[4]

The Conan Doyle Estate did not approve of the changes made to suit Hammer's more horror-centric success. Cushing, however, took no objection to the changes as he felt the character of Holmes remained intact.

Casting

Cushing was an aficionado of Sherlock Holmes and brought his knowledge to the project.[5] He reread the stories, made detailed notes in his script and sought to portray Holmes closer to his literary counterpart. It was Cushing's suggestion that the mantlepiece feature Holmes' correspondence transfixed to it with a jackknife as per the original stories.[5] However, when producer Anthony Hinds suggested excluding the famous deerstalker Cushing objected, saying Holmes' headgear and pipes would be expected by the audience. Cushing would later reprise the role in the BBC Sherlock Holmes television series nine years later, filming sixteen episodes, two of which were a new interpretation of The Hound of the Baskervilles, this time with Nigel Stock as Watson.

David Oxley had an extraordinarily powerful voice that he used to great effect, being able to fill an auditorium without the aid of microphones, and seen to best effect as Hugo Baskerville.[6]

Locations

Filming took place on location at Chobham Common and Frensham Ponds,[5] both in Surrey.

Critical reception

Peter Cushing's Holmes received good reviews at the time, with Films and Filming calling him an "impish, waspish, Wilde-ian Holmes",[5] while the New York Herald Tribune stated "Peter Cushing is a forceful and eager Sherlock Holmes".[7] André Morell's Watson has been praised for his far more accurate rendition of the character as envisioned by Arthur Conan Doyle, as opposed to the comical buffoon created by Nigel Bruce.[5][7]

A negative review in the Monthly Film Bulletin stated that "any freshly entertaining possibilities in this much-filmed story have here been lost in a welter of blood, love interest and mood music".[1] The review also noted unimaginative staging and direction and "dull performances".[1]

Time Out (London) called it "the best Sherlock Holmes film ever made, and one of Hammer's finest movies".[8] The Hound of the Baskervilles currently holds a 94% approval rating on movie review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based on eleven reviews.[9]

References
  1. "Hound of the Baskervilles, The, Great Britain, 1959". Monthly Film Bulletin. Vol. 26 no. 300. British Film Institute. 1939. p. 94.
  2. Box office information for Terence Fisher films in France at Box office Story
  3. Doyle, Arthur Conan (2014). The Hound of the Baskervilles. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 40. ISBN 978-1442232853. Retrieved 4 September 2014.
  4. Eyles 1986, p. 104.
  5. Barnes 2002, pp. 63–65.
  6. McFarlane, Brian; Slide, Anthony (20 July 2013). "The Encyclopedia of British Film: Fourth Edition". Oxford University Press – via Google Books.
  7. "Peter Cushing and Sherlock Holmes – An Overview". bakerstreetdozen.com. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
  8. "The Hound of the Baskervilles Review. Movie Reviews – Film – Time Out London". Time Out. Archived from the original on 25 December 2013.
  9. "The Hound of the Baskervilles – Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 15 August 2012.

Sources

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