One year before Sy Weintraub mounted his epic, big-budget all-star cast "Hollywood" style version with Ian Richardson, BARRY LETTS did his BBC shoestring budget videotape version-- with Tom Baker.
But it's not fair to compare THOSE two, even though they're so much alike and yet so different. No, what's fair is to compare this with Granada's version with Jeremy Brett. Because these two ARE SOOOO similar. And yet... I can attest that EVERY scene in the Baker version is SUPERIOR. More ENERGY! More CLARITY! More TENSION! And more DIALOGUE. In many scenes, the exact same words are spoken, which tells me both versions did follow the book, but there's just MORE in this one. In fact, there's so much more, it seems Tom Baker was running off at the mouth at high speed just to fit it all in! NO dead air-- NO long, boring silences. This thing MOVES like lightning!
The supporting cast is mostly unknowns, but do their parts justice. Terrence Rigby, despite doing a low-key "Nigel Bruce", really seems to be trying hard to give us a Watson who's intelligent & caring. Only a year later he returned as "Inspector Layton" in the Weintraub-Richardson SIGN OF FOUR. (There seems to be a lot of that over the years with actors playing more than one part in various Holmes films.) Will Knightley is likable and somewhat eccentric as Dr. Mortimer. Nicholas Woodeson as Henry Baskerville is a bit of a surprise. He seems several inches shorter than I would expect for the part, and yet he brings strength and real character to it, and his growing friendship with Watson is very believable.
As might be expected from the Letts-Dicks team, 3 other DOCTOR WHO actors turn up. I couldn't place him until I looked him up, but Barrymore is played by Morris Perry, who was the unspeakable EVIL "Captain Dent" in "COLONY IN SPACE". Laura Lyons is played by Caroline John, who as "Liz Shaw" remains one of my top favorite WHO girls. And Inspector Lestrade, who arrives at the end, is played by Hubert Rees, who was in "FURY FROM THE DEEP", "THE WAR GAMES", and played opposite Tom Baker in the first 2 episodes of "THE SEEDS OF DOOM" (which I've seen at least a dozen times over the years). All are excellent, although Lestrade barely has any lines at all!
While it bothered me far less this latest viewing, the 2nd half of the film is really cut to the bone, and feels as if two-thirds of the story has been crammed into the 2nd half. Had this been 3 hours instead of 2, I daresay nothing from the book would have been left out. Mr. Franklin is relegated to a cameo, and so we barely have time to grasp his relationship with his daughter Laura. Apart from this, the only place where the budget hurts is that the interior of Baskerville Hall just does not have the "mammoth" feel of nearly every other version I've seen.
I do feel the climax, where they pursue Stapleton, is much better than the limp ending in the Brett version. The killer's possible fate was suggested (but not shown) in the Rathbone version, but the way Holmes delivered the line "...across the Grimpen mire" was quite dramatic and left little doubt. Still, there are times when changes, especially to make things more visual, are definite improvements in a film version.
My feeling is, THIS is the MOST FAITHFUL version. I know, I really should actually READ the book to be absolutely sure, but from closely comparing multiple versions, my instincts tell me this is probably the closest we'll ever see (unless someone ever decides to do a 3-hour version...).
In his autobiography (one of the most disturbing books I have ever read in my life), Tom Baker said he felt he was terrible in this part. I disagree. He may not LOOK like Holmes, but he FEELS like Holmes. And he is, by far, the BEST thing about this version, after the script itself. Although he didn't write it, when "script editor" Terrence Dicks' name came up in the end credits, I APPLAUDED. DAMN, this is GOOD!!!
Of the many versions of "HOUND" over the years, my favorites remain (in no particular order) Rathbone, Cushing, Baker & Richardson. All are worth watching, again and again!
But it's not fair to compare THOSE two, even though they're so much alike and yet so different. No, what's fair is to compare this with Granada's version with Jeremy Brett. Because these two ARE SOOOO similar. And yet... I can attest that EVERY scene in the Baker version is SUPERIOR. More ENERGY! More CLARITY! More TENSION! And more DIALOGUE. In many scenes, the exact same words are spoken, which tells me both versions did follow the book, but there's just MORE in this one. In fact, there's so much more, it seems Tom Baker was running off at the mouth at high speed just to fit it all in! NO dead air-- NO long, boring silences. This thing MOVES like lightning!
The supporting cast is mostly unknowns, but do their parts justice. Terrence Rigby, despite doing a low-key "Nigel Bruce", really seems to be trying hard to give us a Watson who's intelligent & caring. Only a year later he returned as "Inspector Layton" in the Weintraub-Richardson SIGN OF FOUR. (There seems to be a lot of that over the years with actors playing more than one part in various Holmes films.) Will Knightley is likable and somewhat eccentric as Dr. Mortimer. Nicholas Woodeson as Henry Baskerville is a bit of a surprise. He seems several inches shorter than I would expect for the part, and yet he brings strength and real character to it, and his growing friendship with Watson is very believable.
As might be expected from the Letts-Dicks team, 3 other DOCTOR WHO actors turn up. I couldn't place him until I looked him up, but Barrymore is played by Morris Perry, who was the unspeakable EVIL "Captain Dent" in "COLONY IN SPACE". Laura Lyons is played by Caroline John, who as "Liz Shaw" remains one of my top favorite WHO girls. And Inspector Lestrade, who arrives at the end, is played by Hubert Rees, who was in "FURY FROM THE DEEP", "THE WAR GAMES", and played opposite Tom Baker in the first 2 episodes of "THE SEEDS OF DOOM" (which I've seen at least a dozen times over the years). All are excellent, although Lestrade barely has any lines at all!
While it bothered me far less this latest viewing, the 2nd half of the film is really cut to the bone, and feels as if two-thirds of the story has been crammed into the 2nd half. Had this been 3 hours instead of 2, I daresay nothing from the book would have been left out. Mr. Franklin is relegated to a cameo, and so we barely have time to grasp his relationship with his daughter Laura. Apart from this, the only place where the budget hurts is that the interior of Baskerville Hall just does not have the "mammoth" feel of nearly every other version I've seen.
I do feel the climax, where they pursue Stapleton, is much better than the limp ending in the Brett version. The killer's possible fate was suggested (but not shown) in the Rathbone version, but the way Holmes delivered the line "...across the Grimpen mire" was quite dramatic and left little doubt. Still, there are times when changes, especially to make things more visual, are definite improvements in a film version.
My feeling is, THIS is the MOST FAITHFUL version. I know, I really should actually READ the book to be absolutely sure, but from closely comparing multiple versions, my instincts tell me this is probably the closest we'll ever see (unless someone ever decides to do a 3-hour version...).
In his autobiography (one of the most disturbing books I have ever read in my life), Tom Baker said he felt he was terrible in this part. I disagree. He may not LOOK like Holmes, but he FEELS like Holmes. And he is, by far, the BEST thing about this version, after the script itself. Although he didn't write it, when "script editor" Terrence Dicks' name came up in the end credits, I APPLAUDED. DAMN, this is GOOD!!!
Of the many versions of "HOUND" over the years, my favorites remain (in no particular order) Rathbone, Cushing, Baker & Richardson. All are worth watching, again and again!