The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978)

User Rating:

4.5/10   

Director:

Paul Morrissey

Writers:

Peter Cook (screenplay) &
Dudley Moore (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

November 1980 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Horror | Mystery

Plot Keywords:

Private Detective | Supernatural | Place Name In Title | Nun | Ghost

Cast

Spike Milligan	...	Policeman
Henry Woolf	...	Shopkeeper
Josephine Tewson	...	Nun
Prunella Scales	...	Glynis
Jessie Matthews	...	Mrs. Tinsdale
Lucy Griffiths	...	Iris (as Lucy Griffith)
Dana Gillespie	...	Mary Frankland
Roy Kinnear	...	Selden the Axe Murderer
Kenneth Williams	...	Sir Henry Baskerville
Max Wall	...	Arthur Barrymore
Terry-Thomas	...	Dr. Mortimer
Irene Handl	...	Mrs. Barrymore
Hugh Griffith	...	Frankland
Penelope Keith	...	Massage Receptionist
Joan Greenwood	...	Beryl Stapleton

Runtime:

85 min | USA:78 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:6 | Finland:K-12 | UK:PG | Australia:PG

Company:

Michael White Productions

Trivia:

Cinematographer John Wilcox became terminally ill during production and was replaced by Dick Bush.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Nun: Monsieur le Doctor Watson, what is keeping Monsieur Holmes so long?
Doctor Watson: Oh, reassurez-vous yourselves sisters, your holy relic will be with you momentarily.
Nun: But we have been waiting almost one hour!
Doctor Watson: Mr. Holmes is a very busy man sister. Monsieur Holmes is an, erm, tres occupée sister.
Nun: But tomorrow is the festival of St Beryl, already thousands of blind cripples are flocking to the chapel hoping to kiss the relic. In the name of all the flocking blind cripples, I beseech you...

Movie Connections:

Spoofs The Exorcist (1973)

Horrible!

A wonderful cast are here involved in what must be the lowest point in all their careers.For some reason Dudley Moore plays Dr.Watson as a high voiced Welshman,and Peter Cook gives Holmes a "stage Jewish" accent!Made up of series of draggy sketches,everything but the kitchen sink gets thrown into the pot-including "The Exorcist" and Pete and Dud's "one leg short" sketch;the result is an incoherent mess.Most potentially amusing moments are killed dead by the sloppy approach of Paul Morrissey's direction.No attempt is made to capture the mystery of the original story, and the players shout,mug and flail around among pathetic threadbare sets.According to Harry Thompson's biography of Cook,Pete and Dud were deeply unhappy about Morrissey's approach to the material,and saw they'd got themselves into a disaster.

No wonder the off screen audience throw rotten vegetables at Dudley at the end.A truly stupid film. .....that rumbling noise whenever this film is shown is old Sir Arthur spinning in his grave!