The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978)

Director:

Paul Morrissey

Writers:

Peter Cook (screenplay), Dudley Moore (screenplay),

Stars:

Spike Milligan, Henry Woolf, Dudley Moore

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Spike Milligan	...	Policeman
Henry Woolf	...	Shopkeeper
Josephine Tewson	...	Nun
Prunella Scales	...	Glynis
Jessie Matthews	...	Mrs. Tinsdale
Lucy Griffiths	...	Iris (as Lucy Griffith)
Dana Gillespie	...	Mary Frankland
Roy Kinnear	...	Selden the Axe Murderer
Kenneth Williams	...	Sir Henry Baskerville
Max Wall	...	Arthur Barrymore
Terry-Thomas	...	Dr. Mortimer
Irene Handl	...	Mrs. Barrymore
Hugh Griffith	...	Frankland
Joan Greenwood	...	Beryl Stapleton
Denholm Elliott	...	Stapleton

Storyline

---

Plot Keywords:

private detective | supernatural | place name in title | nun | ghost | 

---

Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Horror | Mystery

---

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

November 1980 (USA)

Also Known As:

Der Hund von Baskerville

Company Credits

Production Co:

Michael White Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

85 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The last cinema film of Lucy Griffiths.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
Nun: Monsieur le Doctor Watson, what is keeping Monsieur Holmes so long?
Doctor Watson: Oh, reassurez-vous yourselves sisters, your holy relic will be with you momentarily.
Nun: But we have been waiting almost one hour!
Doctor Watson: Mr. Holmes is a very busy man sister. Monsieur Holmes is an, erm, tres occupée sister.
Nun: But tomorrow is the festival of St Beryl, already thousands of blind cripples are flocking to the chapel hoping to kiss the relic. In the name of all the flocking blind cripples, I beseech you...

---

Connections

Version of Das dunkle Schloß (1915)

---

Soundtracks

"Twelve String Ties"
(uncredited)
Music by John Churston (pseudonym of H.M. Farrar)
De Wolfe Music Ltd

User Reviews

Elementary my dear Watson! this stink bomb makes Arthur II: on the Rocks look like Citizen Kane

Looking at today's conveyor belt of mind-numbing remakes of old shows, idiot teen comedies and action fests that have great special effects but little else, it's easy to get very nostalgic about the 1970s. But the decade of Coppola, Scorcese, Altman, Malik, Bogdanovic etc produced its fair share of cow pats and what an 'Annis Mirablis' 1978 was for truly wretched cinema. Hot on the heals of 'Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' (with the Bee Gees), 'Carry on Emmanuelle' and 'Renaldo and Clara' (a Bob Dylan vehicle..don't ask), came this fetid attempt to satire Holmes and Watson. First off, it has to said that the Cook-Moore contribution to postwar British comedy is immeasurable and would probably fit in third place after the Pythons and Goons. But even the greats have their off days and Pete and Dud were well off when they agreed to let Paul Morrisey direct a comedy that manages to bungle every comic moment. The falsetto Welsh accent of Watson (Moore) and the stage Jewish accent of Holmes (Cook) simply irritate and a very strong cast is completely wasted. Why, for example, is Spike Milligan only afforded a 'fleeting appearance'? Others do their best with lamentable gags. The urinating dog of Denholm Elliot isn't funny, simply disgusting and Roy Kinnear's flasher could have been funny but simply falls flat. Morrisey doesn't know whether to be clever and satiric, akin to 'Life of Brian', or cheerfully bawdy like a Carry On movie. The result is a movie that's neither seaside postcard humour nor the anarchistic satire that Pete and Dud had presented so well a decade before. A truly washed out Kenneth Williams, fresh off 'Emmanuelle' (Jesus wept) is slotted in, his usual flared-nostril, bulgy eyed caricature demolishing the myth that he was a great actor trapped by the Carry Ons. Better artistes like Henry 'Arthur Sultan' Woolf and Prunella 'Sybil' Scales simply have walk ons. Meanwhile, the look of the movie is cheap and stagey while Moore's piano score is out of place in a comedy. Given that he and Cook were successfully belting out the punk humour of Derek and Clive at the same time, this dog can't be explained by the fact that Cook was by then alcoholic and depressed. Perhaps Morrisey was really Moriarty in disguise.