The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939) – S. Lanfield

One of the first and best of the Rathbone-Bruce Sherlock Holmes mysteries, produced by Twentieth Century Fox before the series moved to Universal and continued to a total of 14 films.  I watched this with my two boys, aged 8 and 6, and the large cast of possible suspects and the twisty plot may have confused them – the oldest was particularly convinced that the killer was the old peddler (who turns out to be Holmes in disguise).  Of course, we also needed to discuss the supernatural elements – a ghost dog and a seance to speak to the dead Sir Charles Baskerville – which we agreed were not true things.  (Fortunately, no questions were asked about Holmes’s final words in the film “Watson, the needle!”).  To recap the plot:  Holmes is recruited by a Dr Mortimer to protect Sir Henry Baskerville, nephew of the now dead Sir Charles who passed mysteriously with footprints of a giant hound near his body, when he returns to his inheritance in lonely Dartmoor, England.  At once, he is subject to spooky goings-on and the threat of death; all of his neighbours are suspects, as are the suspicious house staff.  Dr Watson is left to guard Sir Henry while Holmes uses all of his wiles and powers of deduction in secret.  Of course, the killer is eventually outed once all the pieces fall into place.  Atmospheric and fun (and a bit scary if you are six).