‘THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES’

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33933, 28 August 1975, Page 4

‘THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES’

"Quick, Holmes, the pistols.’’

“But,” I pointed out. "you are Holmes.” Holmes's eyes flashed. “Precisely,” he snapped, “and that is why we have not a moment to lose. Stapelton and his slavering hound have gone to their awful doom in Grimpen Mire, but there is an even greater fiend who awaits our attention. Come.” “In God’s name. Holmes,” j I cried,” who can this archfiend be?”

My friend looked at me gravely. “Steady yourself, Watson,” he said, drawing on his pipe. (I could not .see exactly what he was drawing on his pipe, but it looked like a picture of a certain Royal Personage). “Steady,” he repeated. “The sight you are about to see is not for the frail or the squeamish. But as a medical man I know you have ' a stronger stomach than most.”

He snapped on the television set. and a picture swam into our ken. “Great God.” I cried, recoiling in horror. “Max Cryer.” Holmes nodded. “The same,” he said, grimly. “Or to be more accurate, Assistant Commissioner Gideon Tait, brilliantly disguised as Max Cryer. Now do you perceive the dimensions of the hellish plot which confronts us?” “Holmes,” I cried, “we have not a moment to lose.”

“Watson,” replied Holmes, “that is my line. But for the moment that is not important. Can I count on you?” “Of cdurse, Holmes,” I cried. I lay down on the floor, while Holmes sat on my chest and began to re-

cite: “One, two, three, four, five. ...”

As you will gather from the above, we watched Stewart Granger and Bernard Fox in “The Hound of the Baskervilles’ on Tuesday night. Granger and Fox were the two token Britons in what otherwise seemed to be an all-American cast.

The dramatis personae , played by Americans appeared far more oppressed I by the difficulties of simulating a British accent than by the terrors of the fog. the Mire, the moors and the Hound. Nevertheless, it was an entertaining film, although we were somewhat miffed by the denouncement. Our wife, within five minutes of the commencement of the film, had picked Dr Mortimer as the villain, and we, who had forgotten the story, were just ' congratulating her on her brilliance when the villain turned out to be Stapleton.

However our wife insists that Conan Boyle got it all wrong, that it was Dr Mortimer, and that he got clean away with it. * * *

Because "The Hound of the Baskervilles” clashed with “Town Cryer” we saw only half an hour of the latter. John Casserley’s dancing was marvellous, and he is such an intelligent and articulate man that it was infuriating to have him cut off by Max whenever he appeared in danger of saying something interesting. Maz soon got back to his natural level in an engrossing discussion with June Bronhill as to whether she preferred to be called June, Bronhill. Broon Honjill or Hoon Jonbrill. Miss Bronhill gave us a splendid rendering

of a Donizetti aria, but her ioud. over-articulated version of "Scarborough Fair" was as inappropriate as “Hushabye, Baby” sung through a megaphone. ¥ M "Bless This House," which we will never watch again, was dreadful; it combined the wit of "Its In the Bag" with the sparkle of “Close To Home.” Anyway why can't Television Two give us a local version, entitled "Bless This Block of Ownership Flats?" — A.K.G