The Hound of the Baskervilles

Director: Terence Fisher

1959 / 87min / DCP

An ardent aficionado of the work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Cushing takes over the chambers at 221B Baker Street with aplomb and gives us a Sherlock for the ages in Fisher’s adaptation of the 1902 Holmes adventure of the same name, in which our hero is called to Dartmoor to investigate the mysterious death-by-fright of one Sir Charles Baskerville, leaving his estate in the hands of his heir and nephew, Henry (Christopher Lee). With the invaluable assistance of Jack Asher’s subdued Technicolor photography, Fisher wrings every drop of atmosphere out of Doyle’s tale of mist-shrouded moors and ancestral curses, making this one of Holmes’s very finest big-screen outings. (Special mention is due to Fisher’s ingenious use of child stand-ins for his leads to establish the terrible proportions of the eponymous mastiff.)

Distributor: Park Circus

Part of Terence Fisher: Hammer's Master Smith