The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978)

User Rating:

4.6/10   

Director:

Paul Morrissey

Writers:

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

Release Date:

November 1980 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Horror | Mystery

Plot Keywords:

Spoof | Curse | Private Detective | Supernatural | 1880s

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:

Version of Der Hund von Baskerville, 4. Teil (1915)

Moore and Peter Cook Up a Big DUD!

Painful. Wincing. Shameful. Just a few quick words to summarize my experience sitting through what looked to be a promising parody by a couple of generally very funny and talented men - Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. This film starts off badly and then bottoms out within the first ten minutes. The rest of the film really became an onerous chore to sit through and only and I mean ONLY was saved by the promise of seeing some great British character actors and funny men/ladies in bit parts. Unfortunately watching Hugh Griffith, Prunella Scales, Terry-Thomas, and oh so ever did I feel sorry for someone Joan Greenwood embarrass themselves with witless, nonsensical, unfunny material did little to improve matters at all. Peter Cook plays Sherlock Holmes and really misses the character entirely, but he need not fear because Dudley Moore as Watson with a hideous Scottish brogue is even worse. The jokes are stale for the most part - missing hugely. There is a terrible Exorcist sequence that made me just want to fast-forward the rest of the film. but like a trooper I sat through till the end and was relieved when it finally finished. The story has the basic structure of the Doyle novel intact with some obvious changes meant to be funny. And some of the changes would have been funny maybe if a little more had been done with the material. I am not saying there is nothing funny in the film. There are a few bright spots. Dudley Moore with a chihuahua and Denholm Elliot was a decent comedic scene until it just went on and on. And I also liked the sequence with Cook and Moore as a one-legged man trying for a position as a runner on the moors for Holmes. That was, for me at least, easily the funniest scene in the entire film. The rest is a mismatch of things that just didn't work for me at all. Maybe a bit more respect for the material would have rendered this more amusing. Maybe some more realistic characterizations and less broad, really broad, and embarrassingly broad portrayals by Cook and Moore and Griffith as a man with a young girlfriend with the bust of a popular stripper and who enjoys throwing chunks of meat on the moors, Joan Greenwood, yes, Joan Greenwood, vomiting pea soup with spinning head, and Kenneth Williams really going over the top- even for him - toning it down a bit and making their characters a bit more believable might have helped. The script though is woefully lacking even for a farce like this. Director Paul Morrissey show little talent here and it is a real pity when you have such huge talents to work with. Penelope Keith is wonderful in a brief cameo as a bordello hostess(sultry too). Spike Milligan has a fine brief cameo as a policeman. Terry-Thomas is Terry-Thomas in a final bow as that which he basically made his career playing, a cad. This was his last meaningful screen role - a pity for Thomas fans but at least you get an older vintage Thomas nevertheless. More than anything else I was just surprised at the low level of intellect, given a title like The Hound of the Baskervilles, required, nay, even expected, to enjoy this moronic, sophomoric tripe. A real pity as I said.