Sherlock Holmes - The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939) Review

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(More customer reviews)With the release of this feature and "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," all 14 classic films by Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce will have finally been released in a quality DVD format. The UCLA Theatre Archives has done an outstanding job in restoring and thus preserving these great films from 35mm master copies into the digital format, sometimes literally being forced to piece together the celluloid remnants they found. It took the archivists years to complete the entire project, but is well worth the wait. The result is that the black and white images seem as fresh today as when the films were released to theatres more than 40 years ago. The archivists deserve a hearty thanks from all movie fans concerned with preserving America's classic cinema heritage for future generations to enjoy.
Atmospherically, "The Hound of the Baskervilles" is arguably the best of the 14 Holmes films, and the only one based specifically on a Conan Doyle story. It, and "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," are the only two "period" films in the series and run longer, the remainder taking place in then modern-day England and America of the late 30s and early 40s and run about 90 minutes each. In both "Hound" and "Adventures," Holmes dons his deerstalker cap, popularized by original Strand Magazine illustrator Sidney Paget who made the image synonymous with the great detective. It is interesting to note that in the first of the non-period films in the series, Holmes reaches for his handy deerstalker, but is stopped by Watson. "Holmes," Watson said, "you promised." Leaving the deerstalker on the peg, Holmes grabs a "modern" hat instead.
Rathbone is especially sharp in "Hound of the Baskervilles," and is partnered by Bruce, who plays a bumbling Watson throughout the 14 films that was not Conan Doyle's vision of the great
sleuth's biographical "Boswell." Nonetheless, the pairing is hugely entertaining and satisfying.
The creation of the moor, the sinister grimpen mire and truly terrifying hound remains fantastic and does much to engender this story as one of Conan Doyle's most popular with modern-day
readers and viewers alike.
The final scene represents the only reference any of the 14 films made to Holmes' "seven-percent" cocaine habit as Rathbone asks Bruce to retrieve "the needle." The scene, criticized as too risque by 1939 audiences, caused the film's producers to make a conscious decision to omit any additional mention of Holmes' recreational drug use in future outings.
I only wish that Rathbone and Bruce had lived to see their great work released to new audiences in this pristine DVD condition.

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The Hound Of The BaskervillesThe most celebrated tale of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s canon, ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ is set in the Victorian Age and was originally released by Twentieth Century-Fox in 1939.It is the first of fourteen Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.When Sir Charles Baskerville is killed outside of Baskerville Hall, his good friend Dr. Mortimer (Lionel Atwill) fears that the curse of the Baskervilles has struck once again.Mortimer enlists the help of Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone), before yet another Baskerville can succumb to the evil legend.Sir Henry Baskerville (Richard Greene) arrives in London to claim his inheritance.Mortimer takes Sir Henry to 221b Baker Street and expresses his fear for Sir Henry’s life.Baskerville soon learns that along with the grand mansion on the moor, comes a devilish curse, a curious butler (John Carradine) and a cast of bizarre neighbors.Holmes, pressed with "other business," sends Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) to accompany Sir Henry to the dreary moor to protect the young Baskerville from the legend of the wicked hound.Of course, with danger afoot, Sherlock Holmes may not be so far from the scene as is assumed.Special Features -Audio Commentary with David Stuart Davies -Selected Theatrical Trailers -Production Notes By Richard Valley -Photo Gallery Run Time- 80 minutes

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Danger UXB Box Set (Volumes 1-5) (1981) Review

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(More customer reviews)The setting is England, 1940. A young, newly-commissioned officer arrives at his headquarters. Whatever he may be expecting, it is not to find out that his first appointment is heading up a bomb disposal unit. It is an assignment in which the life expectancy is ten weeks, and the disposal men die at a rate of one per day. When Lieutenant Brian Ash (played superbly by Anthony Andrews (Brideshead Revisited)) realizes that there has been no mistake and that, with no previous knowledge, training or understanding of bombs or bomb defusal, he is to take charge of one of the units, the look on his face is worth a thousand words. I for one certainly felt a shiver go down my spine. You see, as the officer in charge, it will be Ash's duty to physically disable the bombs. The rest of the unit--the sappers, as they're called--are there to do the digging and wood-framing around the bombs so that the officer in charge can access them and so that they can be lifted out and carted away for detonation once they're disarmed.
Produced and written (for the most part) by John Hawkesworth, who is most famous for having brought us both Upstairs Downstairs and The Duchess of Duke Street, Danger UXB is a 1979 production and is an absolutely superb period drama--every bit as good as his two better-known offerings and sure to be enjoyed by those who've enjoyed either of those series. This series, which consists of thirteen 50-minute episodes, revolves around Ash and his unit as they fight the neverending battle of getting rid of unexploded bombs. The Germans actually used to drop bombs that were designed to remain intact upon impact, often until such time as they were tampered with or until a certain amount of time had passed. The British were initially unprepared for such a tactic, and with no instruction manuals, they had little choice but to learn about the types of bombs and how best to defuse them through observation and experimentation and with the aid of a lot of luck. To make matters worse, the Germans kept redesigning the bombs in order to thwart the efforts of the defusers. As a point of interest, over 20,000 UXBs were moved by disposal units during the war.
DVD extras: A 45-minute "History Channel" documentary (an American production) about modern-day bomb disposal units which includes interviews with the men who do the job wherein they share their experiences and reasons for choosing such a high-risk occupation. One nice thing about this DVD set is that the four discs come in extra-skinny cases (half as thick as the usual cases), which makes it much more compact for storage!
In conclusion, this is an intelligently written, superbly acted British suspense-drama (indeed, the suspense is almost unbearable at times!), and the information about the types of bombs and how they work is accurate and informative--so informative that when the series was broadcast in England, a viewer apparently realized that one of his child's toys was in fact a butterfly bomb! This is a series which will of course be of immense interest to fans of the war genre, but the appeal is broad enough that I would highly recommend it to fans of period productions in general or to anyone looking for a good suspense drama. Personally, I debated getting it, as I don't really care for war shows, but I'm glad I took a chance on it, as it's as much about relationships and individuals as it is about the dramatic and suspenseful war-time jobs the men do. With a little of something for everyone, this was a show that both the men and the women in our family thoroughly enjoyed.
Extremely highly recommended!


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Sherlock: Season One Review

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(More customer reviews)Sherlock Holmes....makes brainy sexy. Sure he's a self described "high functioning sociopath", with no people skills; but he's brilliant, driven and dresses wonderfully. Dr. John Watson is not a patsy (not a sidekick - he's a partner); sharp, wry, worldly man of action who tolerates Sherlock's idiosyncrasies because he misses the adrenaline edge of combat and seeks meaning in a life after war. They are evenly matched although Sherlock draws the attention and enmity of their foes - Watson is a good second.
The writing is engaging, cheeky, smart and fast paced. It rolls current technology into the stream of consciousness. The looks of awe when Sherlock figures it out - and his amusement when he learns he's alone are priceless. The cinematography, costumes, lighting and use of text overlays to move the story along are well placed and impressive on their own.
But the intelligence of the show is its presumption in the interest of the watcher; therefore moving with alacrity, flexibility and certain undefinable element of charm missing from many US shows (the brilliant but cancelled Life with Damian Lewis excluded). I'm a US viewer lucky enough to have a friend in the UK - but this show should gain followers worldwide with the power to draw from the past literary works and latch onto the current to slingshot us into the future of TV - for thinking people.

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A contemporary take on the classic Arthur Conan Doyle stories, Sherlock is a thrilling, funny, fast-paced adventure series set in present-day London. Co-created by Steven Moffat (Doctor Who, Coupling) and Mark Gatiss, Sherlock stars BAFTA-nominee Benedict Cumberbatch (Hawking, Amazing Grace) as the new Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman (The Office, Love Actually), as his loyal friend, Doctor John Watson. Rupert Graves plays Inspector Lestrade. The iconic details from Conan Doyle's original books remain--they live at the same address, have the same names and, somewhere out there, Moriarty is waiting for them. And so across three thrilling, scary, action-packed and highly modern-day adventures, Sherlock and John navigate a maze of cryptic clues and lethal killers to get at the truth.

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