The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978)

A Sherlock Holmes spoof about a family that has been haunted for years by the curse of a horrible hound.

Director:

Paul Morrissey

Writers:

Peter Cook (screenplay), Dudley Moore (screenplay)

Stars:

Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Denholm Elliott

1 win & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Peter Cook	...	Sherlock Holmes
Dudley Moore	...	Doctor Watson / Mrs. Ada Holmes / Mr. Spiggot / Piano Player
Denholm Elliott	...	Stapleton
Joan Greenwood	...	Beryl Stapleton
Hugh Griffith	...	Frankland
Irene Handl	...	Mrs. Barrymore
Terry-Thomas	...	Dr. Mortimer
Max Wall	...	Arthur Barrymore
Kenneth Williams	...	Sir Henry Baskerville
Roy Kinnear	...	Selden the Axe Murderer
Dana Gillespie	...	Mary Frankland
Lucy Griffiths	...	Iris
Penelope Keith	...	Massage Receptionist
Jessie Matthews	...	Mrs. Tinsdale
Prunella Scales	...	Glynis

Storyline

A Sherlock Holmes spoof about a family that has been haunted for years by the curse of a horrible hound.

---

Plot Keywords:

bestiality | bestiality joke | bestiality played for laughs | low brow | effeminate man | 

---

Taglines:

You may simply DIE laughing . . .

---

Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Horror | Mystery

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Denholm Elliott (Stapleton) later played Dr. Mortimer in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983).

---

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...

---

Alternate Versions

The UK R2 DVD contains 2 versions of this film. The original 1978 theatrical print that runs 85 mins and a re-edited re-release print that runs 74m. The major differences are (a) in the theatrical print the opening credits are postioned after the scene with the 3 nuns and roll over various amusing shots of Holmes and Watson in their Baker Street study (Holmes is reading a book by Freud called Guilt without Sex). In the re-edited print, the credits are positioned over the pages of the book after the intro scene with Dudley Moore on the piano. These credits are much abbreviated compared to the theatrical print and run much shorter. (b) When Holmes is first seen in shadow playing the violin the re-edited version then cuts back to Watson with the nuns saying he is Budapest and Holmes appearing behind him. The theatrical print extends the footage of Holmes in shadow so he now gets up, turns a light on, turns off a gramophone player and spits out his coffee before meeting the nuns. (c) the scene in which Watson meets Dr Franklin is much abbreviated in the re-edited version. In this version the scene ends after a brief conversation between the two in front of Franklin's shack. The theatrical print continues on with the scene for several minutes as Watson enters the hut with Franklin, views various stuffed animals' heads, and they have a conversation about why Franklin hated the late Sir Charles - jealously over his mistress. Franklin's mistress then enters the hut, the conversation continues, and then Franklin gets insanely jealous and starts strangling his young mistress as Watson crawls out of the building. The longer theatrical cut makes more sense and is better than the shorter print.

---

Connections

Version of Sobaka Baskerviley (1971)

---

Soundtracks

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

User Reviews

Worse Than Its Reputation

Hound of the Baskervilles, The (1978)

BOMB (out of 4)

As a fan of bad movies I quite often find myself trying to track down and locate some of the worst films ever made. Sometimes these bad movies turn out to be entertaining but sometimes they turn out to be so bad that I often wonder why no one was seeing how bad the dailies were and didn't try to pull the plug. That's what I felt here. This story has been told countless times and since it's the most popular perhaps that's why everyone involved decided to shoot it. We have Peter Cook playing Holmes and Dudley Moore playing Watson but it really doesn't matter because I think anyone could have been in the roles and things would have been bad no matter what. Cook, Moore and director Morrissey wrote the screenplay her and I can't help but picture the three of them sitting around, passing a joint and laughing their heads off at what they were writing. That's the only thing I can think of that would make any of them feel as if they had anything working in this screenplay. The movie gets off to a horrendous start and it doesn't improve any and in the end I couldn't help but scratch my head and wonder why no one put a bullet in this sucker before it could hit theaters. The deadliest sin a comedy can make is that it's not funny and this movie makes the unforgivable sin of not having a single laugh. For the most part we have various characters acting gay and this appears to be the only joke going. Everyone acts extremely strange and that includes Holmes who we first see as some sort of sissy and I guess the screenwriters through this would be hilarious. The rest of the jokes are just downright flat and it almost seems like no effort was made to make any of them funny. For the life of me I couldn't understand how anyone could find this mess entertaining and most of the blame is right on the screenplay. As far as the performances go they're just as bad as the writing. The film ends with many bizarre jokes including an extremely bad spoof of THE EXORCIST that comes out of no where and seems out of place. I tried to think of at least one nice thing to say about this film but couldn't think of one as even the titles are boring and the music (by Moore) is pathetic. A complete disaster this one is and I'm sure you can safely call this the worst Holmes movie in history.

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

November 1980 (USA)

Also Known As:

Der Hund von Baskerville

Filming Locations:

Bray Film Studios, Windsor, Berkshire, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Michael White Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

85 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1