The original Sherlock Holmes? (Murder at the Baskervilles (DVD))

Member Name: Ailran

Product:	Murder at the Baskervilles (DVD)
Date:	06/09/09 (83 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good mystery, some great acting

Disadvantages: Too many chatacters thrown into the story that shouldnt be there.

In the world of Sherlock Holmes there are two very well known screen portrayals of Conan Doyle's immortal detective. Jeremy Brett on the TV screen in the 80's and 90's and Basil Rathbone on the cinema screen in the 40's. There have been many other versions of the character in both formats but most of them are lesser versions, unable to match the style and quality of these two.
Before even Rathbone played Holmes though there was a British series of Holmes films starring one Arthur Wontner.

Murder at the Baskervilles was made in 1937 and is one of five Holmes films made in the thirties starring Wontner. One of these is lost forever, a second is rarely seen but the other three are all available on DVD very cheaply. My copies came from the much lamented Murder One shop in central London, a shop that sadly vanished very recently from its location near Leicester Square Underground station.

Murder at the Baskervilles is the third, and final, of Wontners five outings as Sherlock Holmes that is still available to watch now. It is a strangely titled movie as it has nothing at all to do with The Hound of the Baskervilles like you imagine. Instead what the writers have done is to merge the story 'Silver Blaze' with the location of the Baskervilles (Silver Blaze was set on Dartmoor so it isn't really that much of a stretch for it to be connected) and then throw in Moriarty and Lestrade as well!

The story starts with Holmes (Wontner) and Watson (Ian Fleming) being invited to the home of Sir Baskerville for a short break. Holmes and Baskerville seemingly having become firm friends since that dashed awkward affair with a large hound. Once there Baskerville shows Holmes his prized horse... Silver Blaze.
When the horse disappears overnight it seems as if another mystery has arrived at the doorstep of both Holmes and Baskerville Manor.

Why the writers felt the need to adapt Silver Blaze so much and too include a whole slew of characters that had nothing to do with the original story I can only surmise, but it is a strange decision.
The inclusion of the Baskervilles makes a certain promotional sense in that 'The Hound' is the most recognisable name in Holmes lore and in that both stories were set in the same area.
The reasoning behind bringing in Moriarty though (and Colonel Moran for that matter) makes no sense. Maybe the makers were so impressed by Llyn Hardings performance as him in Triumph of Sherlock Holmes that they wanted him back.
Even more ludicrous though is that Lestrade is there, replacing the local Police Inspector from the short story. The reasoning given in the dialogue for him being miles away from his patch is just brainless.
Still I guess from an iconic viewpoint this film includes pretty much all the big names from the Holmes canon... Baskerville, Lestrade, Moriarty and 'the second most dangerous man in London' Moran.

All this does though is confuse the main story, which is actually a very good one, but then most of Doyles were just that... damn good!
The disappearance of Silver Blaze is a clever little mystery in and of itself. It didn't need the alterations to include the more famous villains, though I can see how it would look much better on the posters and lobby cards if you emblazoned those names across them.

While the locations are obviously sets (never has the countryside looked so bland and uninteresting) it doesn't overly effect the film. A lot of it is set inside and the story is tailored, as much as it can be anyway, to make use of the sets and the interiors they have discovered.
The Baskervilles abode does look like a place where danger lurks everywhere though. Dark corners, turning corridors and the like give the director ample opportunity to use shadows to create the odd jump or two. Murder doesn't do this too often though because, as stated before, the story is based around a good complex regular Sherlock Holmes one.

With the new Guy Ritchie (spit, spit) Sherlock Holmes just around the corner now it is good to see how the character was treated way back when in the earliest days of cinema. Murder is an entertaining little curio that Sherlock Holmes fans everywhere should try and track down.

You should be able to find it online quite easily, especially on Amazon.com and eBay.

Summary: Sherlock Holmes before Rathbone and Brett