Shot at Bray and Surrey by Jack Asher.
It passes the time, and looks quite cool in its fifties colour (Eastman, of course).
Tuesday, 3 January 2017
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959 Terence Fisher)
A Time Out reviewer (David Pirie) described it - in the late eighties - as 'The best Sherlock Holmes film ever made, and one of Hammer's finest movies'. Hm. Good pairing though of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, with Andre Morell, Matla Landi, David Oxley, Miles Malleson, John Le Mesurier.
Shot at Bray and Surrey by Jack Asher.
It passes the time, and looks quite cool in its fifties colour (Eastman, of course).
Shot at Bray and Surrey by Jack Asher.
It passes the time, and looks quite cool in its fifties colour (Eastman, of course).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Whatever happened to David Oxley? He had such a striking presence. I personally feel the 1983 version is the worst particularly how they treat Francesca Gonshaw in the Hugo flashback.
ReplyDeleteI have an interpretation of Hugo shielding his face with his hands, as though he not only is futility trying to get away from the horror about to avenge the girl’s death but suddenly realises the consequences of his actions . Based on this, it highlights Hugo’s sudden realisation he has damned his very soul. So, the sudden shielding hands over face in shame still harbors so some sort of twisted sense of guilt for his actions. Of course, in that moment, he was damned, Was there ever a more terrifying, evil, rip snorting, bag of fury than Oxley's portrayal of Sir Hugo Baskerville? I must be honest, I actually find him more frightening than the hound! It is also a nice attention to detail, that when he sees the unseen hound, the demonic hound happens to terrify a demon in human form. He is probably aware that the things he did are terrible but not believing in God, and relishing in his misdeeds, make a jab about the hounds of hell taking him. He sees an actual hellhound coming for him like a vengeful wraith, his eyes widening with terror, and him shaking his head in disbelief "No. No." as he is unable to fanthom that he is seeing an actual hellhound before him, and his eyes widen in pure terror as the hound approaches him, as he realizies that he's damned for all the evil he's done, finally letting out the last sound being an actual scream of terror and shielding his hands with his face, dropping the dagger as the hound mauls him.
ReplyDeleteI think it is no coincidence that when Hugo meets his well-deserved fate to the hound, he drops the dagger, instead of using it to defend himself against the hound, instead shielding his face with his hands. As his final sane thought comes into his head, he realises that the hound, being a ghost dog, cannot be injured or killed. In a way, his shielding his face is almost like a mixutre of sudden shame (as if suddenly realising how evil he himself has fallen) and fear (as if he is now seeing the gates of Hell opening up for him); even his blood cludding screams turn into a gurgle as we hear the hound chewing nosily, as if it is inflicting pain on him in his last moments on Earth, before it takes him to the next world. Having the hound itself not be shown is so good, since a) the fake hound the Stapleons uses is not really effective on screen, and b) we can imagine the actual hellhound however we see it in our own minds' eye that way, and no one has to feel like "that's not what I always thought the hellhound looked like!"