Moviecut—Murder at the Baskervilles

source: Murder at the Baskervilles

Silver Blaze

Hopelessly muddled (I still don't know who committed the second murder, nor do I care), plodding and crudely made, with a terrible soundtrack; this one is only for diehard Sherlock Holmes addicts. Arthur Wontner was an enjoyable Holmes, but all his (surviving) films suffer from low budgets and faulty prints. ** out of 4.

To bring back Baskerville Hall as nothing more than a location, not use it as a significant part of the plot is a disappointment. The movie is really about a horse racing Sherlock Holmes episode called "Silver Blaze." Professor Moriarity has great interest in a horse, which will bring him an incredible amount of money. He hires some henchmen to do his bidding, but once again Sherlock interrupts his dealings. The movie wanders about, part the story of the horse, the other the mania of Moriarity. Holmes sort of poses for the camera and makes pronouncements. It's never quite clear how he solves the crime, but he does, of course. It's worth watching, just to see Arthur Wontner looking so much like those illustrations from the Strand. Watson is also a bit formidable. The rest of the cast is sort of thrown in there. The final scene isn't so final.

Just caught this as a restored version on TCM. I thought the most interesting (or comment-worthy) aspect of this film was the use of camera by director Thomas Bentley. Some interesting shots (low angle of Moriarty as he enters his new lair), tracking/dolly shots that tie aspects of the scenes together (dolly along the Baskerville terrace when Holmes arrives) and quick pans which bring characters together in scenes. Although I don't consider myself an expert on this period of production, I generally find many lower-budget films of this era were fairly static visually. It definitely improved my enjoyment of the film as a Holmes fan.

This is about on par with the lowest of the Monogram films that the U.S. produced during the '40s--however, it's a British B-film with little to recommend it. Holmes is played by sharp-featured Arthur Wontner (who bears somewhat of a resemblance to Basil Rathbone) and Ian Fleming is a suave version of Dr. Watson. Unfortunately, Lyn Harding is a very unimpressive figure as Professor Moriarty. The story taken from "Silver Blaze," left me uninvolved with its racetrack background. The TCM presentation begins with an announcement that the film has been restored, but you'd never know it. The soundtrack is poor with much of the British dialog unintelligible and the scenes themselves are murky and poorly photographed. I lost count of how many times Wontner says, "Elementary, my dear Watson," but let's just say this will never rank as one of my favorite Sherlock Holmes stories. Summing up: A feeble exercise in mystery that seems longer than its one hour and six minutes.

Murder at the Baskervilles (1937) ** (out of 4) Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Wontner) and Dr. Watson (Ian Fleming) investigate a kidnapped horse and the murder of its trainer. Wontner appeared as Holmes in six films, although two are now lost and this one here was the last in the series. I can't say I was really impressed with that much here, although there's one very good sequence when a car is following Holmes and tries to kill him. There's some nice tension in this scene but tension is missing throughout the rest of the film, which moves at a snail's pace. It takes twenty-six minutes for the actual mystery to start and all of the introductions leading up to it are rather bland and boring. The supporting cast doesn't help matters as they add very little to the movie. Wontner on the other hand is quite good as Holmes and he certainly makes me interested in the other films in the series.

This is the second Arthur Wontner-Sherlock Holmes movie I saw on a two-sided dollar DVD (The first was The Sign of Four). Silver Blaze has Holmes and Watson (Ian Fleming, no not THAT one!) visiting the Baskerville house to spend a little holiday there. The title character is a horse that a bookie doesn't want to win since he'll lose his shirt if that horse finishes first. Holmes' nemesis Prof. Moriarty (Lyn Harding), for a certain amount, will make sure that won't happen. A bit talky for my tastes until the end when Watson gets...Well, I'll just leave it to anyone who reads this to seek this movie out. The print I saw was a little better looking than The Sign of Four though it still could have used some improvements. Well worth seeing for any Holmes fans or even those who love '30s British pictures.