The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939), dir. Sideny Lanfield, Twentieth Century Fox
Now we enter the portion of the countdown where we look at a particular actor or character. This year we'll be taking a look at the King of the Bs, John Carradine. Born in 1906, John worked as set designer and various other jobs before he became a stock player with first Cecil B. DeMille and later John Ford. He did plenty of horror movies too, and this was his first.
Sherlock Homes (Basil Rathbone) and Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) are at their rooms when Dr. Mortimer (Lionel Atwill) arrives. He's in quite a state and tells them. Sir Henry Baskerville (Richard Greene) is due to arrive at his ancestral home within a few days. He inherited it after the death of his uncle, Sir Charles (Ian Maclaren). Sir Charles officially died of heart failure, but Dr. Mortimer disagrees.
No, Sir Charles was killed by the Hound! He relates the legend of the hound and the rotten Sir Hugo (Ralph Forbes) and how a violent death has stalked the moors surrounding Baskerville Hill ever since.
Holmes passes on the job, citing a more important case in London that requires his attention. He does send Watson in his place. Watson and Sir Henry arrive at the hall and meet with the regulars. There's his servants Mr. Barryman (Carradine) and his wife (Eily Malyon), plus his only neighbors, naturalist Jack Stapelton (Morton Lowry) and his sister Beryl (Wendy Barrie). There's also Seldon (Nigel de Brulier), an escape convict loose on the moors.
With the braying of a giant hound echoing across the moor, can Sherlock solve the case?
Pretty good all around. Carradine doesn't do a whole lot but he does make his brief screen memorable. Rathbone and Bruce really sell the picture, with Rathbone becoming, for good and ill, THE Sherlock Holmes. Bruce fares a little better, but this would be about as a competent as he would be, with the later films having Watson lose more IQ points the longer the series went.
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