I heard about this for decades, finally saw it on Youtube a year or so back, and frankly, ENJOYED it. I guess going in knowing its problems & limitations in advanced helped avoid any major disappointments. I can safely say this is a FUN crime film, and judging by multiple reviews I've read, is apparently more in line with the then-popular "krimi" genre of German films (something I rather suspected tonight) than a "genuine" Holmes film.
Rather like the early-30s Universal horrors, this film seems to exist in NO specific era, and appears even more out of time than the 12 Universal HOLMES films with Basil Rathbone. Then there's the business about Professor Moriarty being a well-known, respected expert on archeology (rather than a professor of mathematics), who the police refuse to believe is a criminal, while those same police insanely insist that unless they specifically ask for his help on cases, that Holmes should stay out of their way or they'll consider him to be "interfering" with their investigations. NONE of this is accurate to Doyle... but then, neither was Johnny Weismuller accurate to Burroughs...
And then there's the MAIN point of contention. You had 3 separate European production companies, none of whom could seem to agree on anything, who insisted on constantly re-writing the story, but, far worse, who somehow bungled it badly by FAILING to get Christopher Lee and Thorley Walters to dub their own voices! CRIMINAL!!
Well, having just watched the brand-new Severin Films BLU-RAY, and by accident watching the GERMANY version with English subtitles, I can attest... this dubbing problem exists on the GERMAN version as well!!! Though I believe the choice of actors ISN'T nearly as bad as it is on the ENGLISH dub. Go figure.
The good points: this is the FIRST time the film has ever been commercially available in a WIDESCREEN print, which is UNCUT and CRYSTAL-CLEAR in both picture and sound! Damn, that kind of thing really goes a long way. The photography in this film is GORGEOUS, even if the directing is only average. And people who insist that Thorley Walters was channeling Nigel Bruce might do well to watch the German dub, as he's no more dim in this than Nigel Stock is in the 1965 and 1968 BBC tv series.
I enjoyed the scene in the pub where a barmaid tries to con Watson into buying her a drink, and maybe even helping pay for her mother's alleged operation. Watson's no fool, and has fun pulling HER leg, especially when he offers to "help" by performing the operation himself for free!
Christopher Lee is a joy to watch in this, as at times he seems to have as much enthusiasm as Holmes as either Ronald Howard, Christopher Plummer or Ian Richardson did.
Hans Sohnker as Moriarty is also a class act. One of my favorite scenes has to be when he meets Holmes on a bench at night and offers him a steady salary and percentage of future takes, suggesting they're wasting their time & talent fighting each other. I don't think I've ever seen that in any other Holmes story.
A surprise was the sequence in the middle where a man, hiding from criminals, winds up killing his own would-be murderer, then trying to fake his own death, a scenario straight out of "The Valley Of Fear". From what I've read, apparently the original intention of this film was to do an adaptation of that story, but incessant rewrites reduced it to just this one small part. It makes me wonder if "Valley" might have been what Hammer had in mind for a 2nd Holmes film, if "HOUND" hadn't somehow bombed at the box office.
What's also curious is how, when Moriarty just walks away at the end (Holmes does suggest having his entire gang in custody may lead Moriarty to be in the dock before long), Holmes mentions to Watson that Jack The Ripper has just killed again. Which make it seem like this film leads directly into "A STUDY IN TERROR", which was made 3 years later by entirely-different hands. As it happens, that's the NEXT Holmes film I plan to be buying.
The Severin disc is not only PRISTENE and as perfect as could be for a film with such an unfortunate reputation, it's also got an audio commentary in addition to being in 2 different languages, and, an interview with Lee! Without doubt, I'll be watching this at least 3 times before I put it up on the shelf.
Since not one person at the IMDB mentioned it, I might as well. Around 30 years later, Lee recorded a whole series of Holmes "books-on-tapes", which included "The Valley of Fear". I found that on cassette back in the 90s, and was blown away at how Lee performed EVERY voice in the story. If you didn't know, you might never guess that ALL the voices were his! What a talent he was.
Rather like the early-30s Universal horrors, this film seems to exist in NO specific era, and appears even more out of time than the 12 Universal HOLMES films with Basil Rathbone. Then there's the business about Professor Moriarty being a well-known, respected expert on archeology (rather than a professor of mathematics), who the police refuse to believe is a criminal, while those same police insanely insist that unless they specifically ask for his help on cases, that Holmes should stay out of their way or they'll consider him to be "interfering" with their investigations. NONE of this is accurate to Doyle... but then, neither was Johnny Weismuller accurate to Burroughs...
And then there's the MAIN point of contention. You had 3 separate European production companies, none of whom could seem to agree on anything, who insisted on constantly re-writing the story, but, far worse, who somehow bungled it badly by FAILING to get Christopher Lee and Thorley Walters to dub their own voices! CRIMINAL!!
Well, having just watched the brand-new Severin Films BLU-RAY, and by accident watching the GERMANY version with English subtitles, I can attest... this dubbing problem exists on the GERMAN version as well!!! Though I believe the choice of actors ISN'T nearly as bad as it is on the ENGLISH dub. Go figure.
The good points: this is the FIRST time the film has ever been commercially available in a WIDESCREEN print, which is UNCUT and CRYSTAL-CLEAR in both picture and sound! Damn, that kind of thing really goes a long way. The photography in this film is GORGEOUS, even if the directing is only average. And people who insist that Thorley Walters was channeling Nigel Bruce might do well to watch the German dub, as he's no more dim in this than Nigel Stock is in the 1965 and 1968 BBC tv series.
I enjoyed the scene in the pub where a barmaid tries to con Watson into buying her a drink, and maybe even helping pay for her mother's alleged operation. Watson's no fool, and has fun pulling HER leg, especially when he offers to "help" by performing the operation himself for free!
Christopher Lee is a joy to watch in this, as at times he seems to have as much enthusiasm as Holmes as either Ronald Howard, Christopher Plummer or Ian Richardson did.
Hans Sohnker as Moriarty is also a class act. One of my favorite scenes has to be when he meets Holmes on a bench at night and offers him a steady salary and percentage of future takes, suggesting they're wasting their time & talent fighting each other. I don't think I've ever seen that in any other Holmes story.
A surprise was the sequence in the middle where a man, hiding from criminals, winds up killing his own would-be murderer, then trying to fake his own death, a scenario straight out of "The Valley Of Fear". From what I've read, apparently the original intention of this film was to do an adaptation of that story, but incessant rewrites reduced it to just this one small part. It makes me wonder if "Valley" might have been what Hammer had in mind for a 2nd Holmes film, if "HOUND" hadn't somehow bombed at the box office.
What's also curious is how, when Moriarty just walks away at the end (Holmes does suggest having his entire gang in custody may lead Moriarty to be in the dock before long), Holmes mentions to Watson that Jack The Ripper has just killed again. Which make it seem like this film leads directly into "A STUDY IN TERROR", which was made 3 years later by entirely-different hands. As it happens, that's the NEXT Holmes film I plan to be buying.
The Severin disc is not only PRISTENE and as perfect as could be for a film with such an unfortunate reputation, it's also got an audio commentary in addition to being in 2 different languages, and, an interview with Lee! Without doubt, I'll be watching this at least 3 times before I put it up on the shelf.
Since not one person at the IMDB mentioned it, I might as well. Around 30 years later, Lee recorded a whole series of Holmes "books-on-tapes", which included "The Valley of Fear". I found that on cassette back in the 90s, and was blown away at how Lee performed EVERY voice in the story. If you didn't know, you might never guess that ALL the voices were his! What a talent he was.