The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983)

Ian Richardson delivers quite engagingly here as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fastidious detective “Sherlock Holmes” but I didn’t get so much from Donald Churchill’s contributions as his crucial sidekick “Dr. Watson” in this adapted for television movie. They are intrigued by the mysterious death of an aristocrat at his country home on remote Dartmoor and so descend on the place, at the invitation of “Dr. Mortimer” (Denholm Elliott) and with the new lord of the manor “Sir Henry” (Martin Shaw) to try and ascertain whether there is any truth to local rumours of a legendary hound tormenting the ancestors of the “Baskerville” family. Amidst the dense fog and with a quagmire lurking underfoot eagerly awaiting one false step, it’s a dangerous place to be! I thought Shaw, and his dodgy accent, also rather let this down but otherwise the production elements do work quite well and it looks good as they try to piece things together. It is quite tightly scripted; the supporting cast boasts an array of familiar British faces and the story is consistently paced as it builds nicely to a conclusion that isn’t quite as cinematically menacing as from 1939 or from 1959, but it is still quite effective. It’s all in the eyes…!