Horror Film countdown 2013, part 17

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959) dir. Terrence Fisher, Hammer Film Productions

By this point in time Hammer Studios was on a roll. With Fisher as their main director and the two powerhouse talents of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, there was nothing stopping them save themselves. Still working in the horror genre, they instead moved into what is now considered gothic horror.

 

Some time ago, Sir Hugo of Baskerville Hall (David Oxley) was entertaining his friends by torturing a servant. The servant incurred Sir Hugo’s wraith by asking the man to reconsider forcibly having sex with his younger daughter. The daughter, upon hearing her father’s cries, opts to escape the Hall and flees to the moor.

Sir Hugo, not to be denied anything, gathers his men, horses, and dogs to go on what he charmingly calls a nighttime hunt. As the group pursues the girl, each man and dog is frightened off by the cries of something monstrous on the fog enshrouded moor, to the point where only Sir Hugo remains. He finds the girl in the ruins of an old abbey and murders her. He doesn’t have long to relish the sight, however, as a hellish beast springs from the fog and rips him apart. Ever since then, no Baskerville is safe upon the moor.

Skipping ahead to the then present day of 1899, Dr. Mortimer (Francis de Wolff) is recapping the story to Sherlock Holmes (Cushing) and Dr. John Watson (Andre Morell). It seems Dr. Mortimer’s close friend Sir Charles Baskerville died under odd circumstances, being found dead of a heart attack on the moor, large paw prints around him. Dr. Mortimer insists that Sir Charles was murdered and wishes to hire Holmes to protect the new owner of Baskerville Hall, Sir Charles’s distant relative Sir Henry (Lee) who recently arrived and is staying in London currently. Holmes considers the matter unimportant, but upon meeting Sir Henry is barely in time to save him from a deadly spider that somehow got into his boot.

 

Upon arriving at Baskerville Hall, seemingly everyone within twenty miles has reason to do Sir Henry in; there’s the Hall’s servants Barrymore and his wife (John Le Mesurier and Helen Goss) who seem oddly hostile to their new boss, there’s the Hall’s only neighbors the Stapletons, the father (Ewen Solon) and his daughter Cecile (Marla Landi), who seem to despise Sir Henry on sight. Then there is the bishop (Miles Malleson) who collects poisonous spiders as a hobby, leaving us the question of who isn’t trying to kill Sir Henry?

The film does take some liberty with the source material, but Fisher manages to make everything work. Cushing would later go on to play Holmes again for another series on the BBC, but this outing would be the last time Hammer did a Holmes story. Which a great shame, as evidenced here Hammer knew how to craft a perfectly decent atmosphere.