The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959) starring Peter Cushing, Andre Morell, Christopher Lee
Product description of The Hound of the Baskervilles
Editorial review of The Hound of the Baskervilles courtesy of Amazon.com
Sherlock Holmes gets the Gothic treatment in this mix of mystery and supernatural horror from Britain’s Hammer Films. Peter Cushing is perfectly cast as the great detective, the very embodiment of science and reason (which also made him a great Van Helsing in the Dracula series) in a case wound around a legacy of aristocratic cruelty and a devilish dog wandering the swampy moors. Christopher Lee is a less satisfying fit as the last of the Baskervilles, as he waffles between fear and apathetic disregard, but Andre Morell is a fine Dr. Watson and a far cry from Nigel Bruce’s sweet bumbler from the Hollywood incarnation of the 1940s. Director Terence Fisher was Hammer’s top stylist and the film drips with the mood of the moors, mist hanging in the air, the dying vegetation itself threatening to come to life and trap the next unwary traveler. — Sean Axmaker
Movie quotes from The Hound of the Baskervilles
Sir Henry (Christopher Lee): I can understand someone wanting to steal a pair of boots — but one? So there it is.
Doctor Richard Mortimer: But this is remarkable!
Sherlock Holmes (Peter Cushing): Superficial. There is nothing remarkable about using one’s eyes.
Sherlock Holmes (Peter Cushing): This is, I think, a two-pipe problem.
Sherlock Holmes (Peter Cushing): Elementary, my dear Watson. Tarantulas are not from South Africa.
Sherlock Holmes (Peter Cushing): I never relinquish a case!
Sherlock Holmes (Peter Cushing): We shall avenge his death, not mourn it.
[of Sir Henry Baskerville]
Sherlock Holmes (Peter Cushing): I warned him! What could have possessed him to come out here alone?
Sherlock Holmes (Peter Cushing): The depth a human being can sink to!
Sherlock Holmes (Peter Cushing): The dagger’s gone! Don’t you realize what that means? Sir Henry is to die tonight!
Cecile Stapleton: The Curse of the Hound is on you!
Cecile Stapleton: When you’re poor, no one wants to know you.
Sherlock Holmes (Peter Cushing): Sir Henry, keep perfectly still … [Pointing to him] if you value your life.
[last lines]
Sherlock Holmes (Peter Cushing): It’s elementary, my dear Watson, elementary … [Extending it to Watson] Muffin?
Doctor John Watson (André Morell): Thank you.
Trivia for The Hound of the Baskervilles
- The first Sherlock Holmes movie to be filmed in color.
- Christopher Lee readily admits he has a morbid fear of spiders, and the panic on his face during the scene with the tarantula is not due to acting.
- For his role as Sherlock Holmes he of course had to have a pipe but as Peter Cushing didn’t like the taste of the pipe, he kept a glass of milk always to hand to remove the taste.
- The Baskerville Hall set is a redress of that used for Castle Dracula in Horror of Dracula (1958), in which Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing also starred.
- The hound they used was a real dog called Colonel. On the set before the hound attacks Christopher Lee’s character Sir Henry Baskerville, they could not get Colonel to jump on Lee, so they started to — prod’ him into action. Lee gave up and suddenly, Colonel lunged on him and bit right through one of his arms.
- André Morell was one of the first film portrayals to show him as a more than competent colleague of Holmes, rather than the lovable buffoon that Nigel Bruce had portrayed.
