Director Terence Fisher, actors Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, and Andre Morrell, and the Hammer production crew bring Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous story of the legendary hound of the Baskervilles into colour for the first time. In point of fact, this is the first Sherlock Holmes story filmed in glorious colour, and it does the story proud with its phospherescent glow on the dog, its swirling mists, and the natural tweed colours of Holmes and Watson. Though some argue that Cushing was miscast as Holmes, I argue most vehemently THAT he is perfectly cast as the great detective. His features cry out Doyle's character, and his obvious inner quest for perfection resonates strongly through the character as well. Cushing lends his class to the role and, in my opinion, gives us a fine Holmes, perhaps one of the screen's best. I always enjoy watching a Cushing performance as he was an actor that loved to play with props, and as Christopher Lee states in his autobiography, a man who could play with the prop and act to perfection, often making it look so very elementary. Watch his Holmes. Very few scenes go by where he isn't playing with something. Lee is good in his role, though the part is rather lacklustre. Andre Morrell is a fine Watson. He does not do the Nigel Bruce buffoon act, but rather he plays a man capable of having graduated from medical school. The rest of the cast is good with Francis DeWolff standing out as a doctor in love with himself and the sound of his voice and the ever affable Miles Malleson adding comic relief as a befuddled bishop. The story stays pretty close to the word according to Doyle. Fisher gives what you would expect: tight direction, lush cinematography, and loads of beautiful shots of the fog-ridden moors. The film has a clever prologue about the curse of the Baskervilles as an introduction, and it is wonderfully executed.
