I just saw this movie for the first time, and I will say I'am very disappointed. I just became a Sherlock Holmes fan of the classic movies with the great Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. This was only my third Holmes film I've seen. The other two are The Secret Weapon which is an excellent film and the other is Dressed To Kill which is a pretty good film. Both are better than this overrated classic. I also just recently bought all the Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories. I can't wait to read those, including the novel of The Hound of the Baskervilles which is got to be better than this movie. The problem I had with the movie is that it didn't have that Holmes like mystery, intrigue, cleverness like the first two Holmes movies I've seen. The antagonists were also very weak, unlike Professor Moriaty in Secret Weapon and Mrs. Hilda Courtney in Dressed To Kill. These two movies were mysteries, while Baskervilles was more like a horror movie. The whole legend of the hound was just corny. It wasn't very convincing and I don't think Holmes was very convinced. The big problem with the movie was the absence of the great Basil Rathbone as a perfect Sherlock Holmes for an half-hour. He exited 22 minutes into the movie and didn't reappear until 52 minutes into the movie. The whole half-hour he was gone a very subdued Watson took over and the whole film slowed down and began to lag. Also the supporting cast surrounding Watson was very weak, including the always great Lionel Atwill who for once was playing a good guy. The whole moor setting of fog and a chill in the air also slowed down the action and I was hoping desperately that the story would go back to London. Where the first 20 minutes of the movie was very entertaining in and around London. When Sherlock does come back on screen with about 25 minutes left of the movie, the film seems to come back to life, but the climax of the film is extremely unsatisfying and predictable. I have never read the book before, but I had the right guess in what was going to happen. Don't want to give away from those who haven't seen it. Like I said before though, Basil Rathbone is terrific as Sherlock Holmes, but his absence for a long period of time throughout the film hurts it tremendously. I somewhat didn't like Nigel Bruce's Watson in this film. His character is too dry and I prefer the humorous Watson in the later and fun Universal Sherlock Holmes films. Maybe in repeating viewings I will start liking the film more, but this Sherlock Holmes film is nothing great or is as good as the Universal films. *1/2 out of ****
Review of The Hound of the Baskervilles
