- I'll fully admit that I watched The Hound of the Baskervilles because I was tired of people screwing up Sherlock Holmes. In my apparently lone opinion, the new BBC series is intolerably obnoxious, overwrought, and completely undeserving of its two talented lead actors. Guy Ritchie's efforts, too, make considerable misuse of Robert Downey Jr.'s myriad abilities, not to mention the fact that watching them feels like getting trampled by an unruly mob. Leave it to Hammer Films, the company most famous for its long-running horror series and, for lack of a better term, "cave girl" exploitation pictures of the 60's and 70's, to adapt a better version of the world's most famous literary detective than anybody working today.
- As Holmes, Peter Cushing is perfect. He's overbearing and arrogant, to be sure, but not as completely misanthropic as most modern incarnations of the character. It's as though the filmmakers realized that it is better for the audience not to hate the hero of the piece, a consideration that is sadly lacking from many modern stabs at drama (yes, I'm looking at you, Dr. House). His constant companion, Dr. Watson (Andre Morell), is plenty competent and reliable, but just ordinary enough to be the perfect foil for Holmes. Add in Christopher Lee as Sir Henry Baskerville, heir to the Baskerville estate and possible target of the mysterious family curse, and you have three actors who should be able to command the audience's attention in any halfway decent production.
- And that, in essence, is why The Hound of the Baskervilles succeeds. Hammer Films delivers a (perhaps precisely) halfway decent production that merely supports, rather than attempting to overshadow, a set of characters who are actually both interesting and pleasant to watch. The visual gimmickry and abrasive characterizations of BBC's Sherlock or boisterous action setpieces and gratuitous slow motion shots that pervade Guy Ritchie's films would have no place in this world. Instead, we get a good, old-fashioned Sherlock Holmes tale that is perfectly content to let its star detective do all the showing off. Maybe it's not the best adaptation of the character ever, but I obviously regard it as being quite far from the worst.
