Popular reviews

• 

  Review by Ian West ★★★★ 9

  Super fun Hammer Holmes outing with Cushing in full pimp mode as the famed sleuth and Hammers usual wonderful atmos on full display. Cushing really falls right into the role and it kinda makes you sad that there wasn’t a whole damn series of these with him in the title role.

  Happy belated birthday to Peter Cushing and Happy birthday to Christopher Lee!

  ❤️❤️❤️

• 

  Review by Tony the Terror ★★★½ 3

  Hooptober V

  20/31: before 1970

  
  I make no secret nor have any shame about my love for/attraction to Peter Cushing so I’m automatically going to like anything he’s in, but I’m especially fond of his Hammer work. This wasn’t the best one I’ve seen but when you pair him up with Christopher Lee then you’re pretty much guaranteed a decent time at minimum.

  It’s a little slow in a couple of places, but then watching all the adorable little quirks that Cushing puts into his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes just made me silly happy. I especially loved it when he was sitting in the carriage after the cave collapsed all “lol u mad?” and then started bitching about being hungry. Relatable content.

  Also, that hound reveal at the end was great with the lighting, camera angle, music, all of it. Really good stuff.

  Bananameter: 🍌 tarantulasploitation 🍌

• 

  Review by Slig001 ★★★★ 2

  Hammer's rendition of the most famous Sherlock Holmes mystery is a rather straight affair, sticking closely to the the original material rather than putting a new spin on it as was the case with Dracula and Frankenstein. The story, which focuses on a family curse and an apparent monster that stalks the moors, seems a good fit the studio and they really make good on it. The atmosphere is set by the Dartmoor location; director Terence Fisher keen to overlay these scenes with plenty of mist effects to set a real macabre tone. The script is sharp and the film benefits immensely from the great Peter Cushing in the lead role, who captures just the right mix of eccentricity and…

• 

  Review by haley ★★★½ 1

  this may not be the best sherlock holmes film you'll see, but it's got a heavy atmosphere, blood, and it's a really good time. what else can you ask for?

• 

  Review by Josh Gillam ★★★½

  Peter Cushing, André Morrell and Christopher Lee star in a gothic mystery, based on Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel, in which Sherlock Holmes must investigate a family curse.

  Cushing makes for a great Holmes, giving the role a sharpness and eccentricity that fits the story well. I also really liked Morrell’s take on Watson, making him much more capable and realistic compared to Nigel Bruce’s more bumbling sidekick role in earlier adaptations.

  The film has a great atmosphere, especially in the prologue and climax, bringing the horror-tinged elements to the forefront in a distinctively Hammer way. However, I think that the film could have gone further with this, as some scenes could have used more of a gothic style, feeling a bit too conventional in places.

  Overall, a great version of a classic story which could have leaned into the suspense aspects slightly more, but was still very entertaining.

• 

  Review by Naughty aka Juli Norwood ★★★ 1

  #27 of 31 - CineMonster's HOOPTOBER 4.0

  I was enamored with the 1939 version as a youngster so I decided to give the 1959 Hammer version of the film a shot! While I found it to be a satisfying experience I discovered that I preferred the earlier film starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes!

  What this one got right was the gothic atmosphere, the moors have always been terrifying locales in horror films that truly haunt and fascinate me at the same time! The acting was great I mean come on with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee you can't go wrong! I can't quite put my finger on why the other film was that much more frightening to me as…

• 

  Review by Deckk ★★★

  The nobleman Baskerville dies under mysterious circumstances, just like his forefather, rekindling a legend about a monstrous hound terrorising the family line. Cue Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson finely dissecting fact from myth.

  I recently went onto a short vacation to Germany with a friend of mine to do some rock climbing (bouldering specifically). We spent our evenings playing this cooperative board game he introduced me to: Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, which you may have guessed is about solving murder mysteries. It's so much fun! Back at home I immediately bought another edition for my girlfriend and I to play together. Now we're both hooked on detective stories, so when compiling my Hooptober 8.0 list, I couldn't help but notice…

• 

  Review by threepenny ★★★★★ 4

  Terence Fisher, Peter Cushing, and Christopher Lee transformed horror movies together in the late fifties, and sandwiched between their Frankenstein, Dracula, and Mummy was this gorgeous and monstrous re-telling of the classic Arthur Conan Doyle story, bringing Holmes and Watson to technicolor life and splashing them with blood in true Hammer style.

  I have always loved this movie and this latest viewing was no exception. If anything, I took even more delight at Andre Morell's Watson, not just a bumbling fool but a big part of the investigation.

  And I had to laugh this time at Peter Cushing's Holmes as he meets the biologist and asks about his missing tarantula. "Of course they are perfectly harmless," Holmes casually says to…

• 

  Review by noir1946 ★★★★ 2

  “This, I think, is a two-pipe problem.”

  “There is more evil around us here than I have ever encountered before.”

  “Hounds! Let loose the pack!”

  Holmes by Hammer is a solid adaptation of ACD’s most famous novel. When you first hear that Hammer will do The Hound of the Baskervilles, you think it’s obvious that Christopher Lee will be Holmes and Peter Cushing will be Watson. That’s not the case, but the film is still lively and entertaining.

  Any version of Baskervilles places a burden on whoever’s Watson since the doc has a larger role than usual, and Andre Morell is very good, making Watson an appealing action hero, ready to deal with any and all crises. Between Morell and…

• 

  Review by RanchoTuVu ★★★★

  Hammer Studios lends its atmosphere, arguably its best director, and its two most iconic stars to probably the one Sherlock Holmes mystery that fits the style of films for which the studio is best known, that being the folkloric legend of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" about a killer hound that's haunted the Devon moors since 1650. Peter Cushing offers incredible levels of incisiveness as Holmes. Christopher Lee does a sense of gullibility as the heir of Baskerville Hall, Sir Henry Baskerville. No fangs but just knowing it's Lee gives him kind of a presence that seems automatically towering. Marla Landi's saucy Cecile Stapleton is pretty interesting. Atmosphere starts taking over in the ruins on the moors with the Hound baying and the sticky mire.

• 

  Review by AndrewC ★★★½

  Given Hammer's penchant for making long-running series out of their characters, how well their style fits the source material, and Peter Cushing's great interpretation of the role, you would think that the studio could've made more Sherlock Holmes films than just one with The Hound of Baskervilles. Alas, this is their only outing with the iconic detective but at least they made a picture that is quite good, a deliciously stylish Gothic mystery film with tinges of horror. The story is well-told and Hammer's usual colourful style really enhances the experience and vibes of its mystery, resulting in a wonderfully atmospheric movie. Cushing is also very good as Holmes and the film suffers whenever he's offscreen, which is a bit…

• 

  Review by DBC ★★★★ 2

  Hooptober Fest 5.0
  Film 24/46
  1 Terence Fisher Film
  --
  There's a straight-forward clear-eyed brilliance to Peter Cushing's portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles, and it's a good match for the film itself. Both the film and its hero aren't flashy, loud, or (overly) eccentric, but are instead competent, energetic, and clever to the point of brilliance.

  The sets, costumes, and camerawork are all completely solid. The script is laced with enjoyable dry humor and the direction builds suspense rather nicely at times. This all makes for a good movie, but Cushing's performance is so hugely charismatic and entertaining that he easily carries this Hammer film into classic horror territory. A young Christopher Lee is great too, and already his and Cushing's chemistry feels well-honed. A very enjoyable watch that left me excited to go check out the 1939 version.