adie53 Review of The Hound of the Baskervilles

The Hound of the Baskervilles (2002 TV Movie)

Yet another travesty of interpretation

[1/10 · 27 December 2002]

The Hound of the Baskervilles is one of the most gripping,brooding and atmospheric thrillers ever written. It perfectly captures the Victorian psyche incorporating as it does all the elements of gentlemanly chivalry and courage against fiendishly twisted evil and callousness. Add a dose of the supernatural set against the dark and forbidding moors of Dartmoor and the stage is set. Unfortunately this film achieves the almost impossible in capturing absolutely nothing of the original. The main characters are preposterous and bear no comparison whatever with Conan Doyle's description. I am not aware that Sherlock Holmes had a convoluted mixture of Southern Hemisphere accents and Watson reminds me of an East London spiv.The plot does not stay true to the book and the drug taking scenes are not in context and appear merely as gratuitous. There is no need for the makers to have "improved" the original story by adding scenes of their own e.g Watson being shot,Holmes falling into the mire etc. Best of all the Hound ,when eventually seen, is obviously an import from "The Lost World" looking as it does a cross between a sabre toothed tiger and a crocodile. This is poor fare and a waste of a lot of money and time. Worse it is the latest in a long line of failures to tell this story with the imagination and attention to detail it deserves. Conan Doyle has done the work ,it merely needs faithful reproduction. Sadly it appears there is no one able enough for this task.