The Hound Of The Baskervilles is a 1959 film adaptation of the original novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, produced by Hammer Film Productions. Directed by Hammer regular Terrence Fisher it features Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes, Andre Morrell as Dr. Watson, and Christopher Lee as Sir Henry Baskerville.
The film follows the usual story, as Sherlock Holmes is hired to protect Sir Henry Baskerville from the mysterious family curse that seemingly claimed the life of his uncle.
Notably this was the first adaptation of the novel to be filmed in colors. Cushing would reprise his role as Holmes for a BBC series.
This Adaptation Contains Examples of
- Abandoned Mine: An old tin mine shows up on Stapleton's property and Holmes gets briefly trapped after a cave-in. It's revealed that Stapleton was using the mine tunnels to hide the Hound.
- Adapted Out:
- The cut and paste warning letter Sir Henry received at his hotel
- Dr. Mortimer's wife and his spaniel
- As usual Laura Lyons is omitted.
- The role of Inspector Lestrade is cut
- The specific backstory of Stapleton from the book, namely that he's the son of Sir Charles's younger brother Roger and his history as a former schoolmaster is omitted.
- Adaptation Deviation: Quite a few
- The legend's details are altered somewhat with the girl Sir Hugo pursued being the daughter of one of his servants and Hugo murdering the girl himself at the ruins of an abbey rather than her dying from exhaustion under a pair of standing stones.
- Sir Charles' body was found at the abbey ruins rather than at the lane near his house.
- There an a murder attempt on Sir Henry via poisonous spider while he's at the London hotel
- Selden's body is mutilated in a apparent ritual sacrifice
- The revealing portrait is removed by Stapleton and concerns an inherited deformity rather than a family resemblance.
- The terror of the Hound is enhanced by use of a mask rather than luminescent prosperous.
- Adaptation Expansion: The film also begins with an extended prologue involving Hugo Baskerville and the vile acts he commits to (supposedly) bring a curse down upon the family.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Dr. Mortimer is more curt than his gregarious book counterpart to set him up as a potential suspect.
- Adaptational Nationality:
- Sir Henry goes from being Canadian to being South African presumably so Christopher Lee could use his natural accent instead of a North American one.
- Stapleton's wife is mentioned to have been Spanish rather than Costa Rican.
- Adaptational Personality Change: In the book Jack Staple put on a gregarious front playing the insect enthusiast with shades of Crazy Jealous Guy. Here he's much more standoffish and grumpy in his role.
- Adaptational Villainy: Beryl Stapleton's equivalent Stapleton's daughter Cecile is willingly involved with her father's scheme to murder Sir Henry and Sir Charles, intentionally luring both Sir Henry (and before him, Sir Charles) to death.
- Adaptational Wimp: Sir Henry suffers from a heart condition he did not have in the book.
- Age Lift: In the book, Stapleton was a young man of Sir Henry's age, here he's old enough to have a full grown daughter.
- Canon Foreigner: Cecile Stapleton is not in the original book, serving as a stand-in for Beryl Stapleton.
- Character Tics: Peter Cushing's Holmes has a habit of raising his finger in exclamation. Christopher Lee would often tease him about it.
- Composite Character:
- Cecille Stapleton's daughter combines Beryl Stapleton and Laura Lyon's roles.
- Stapleton's role as an entomologist is given to Frankland.
- Death by Adaptation:
- Beryl Stapleton as Stapleton's wife is mentioned as having died in the backstory
- Decomposite Character:
- Thanks to Stapleton's wife being dead, her story role of acting as a Honey Trap for Sir Henry is given to her daughter here.
- Stapleton's interest in entomology is given instead to Frankland.
- Barryman's book description as a middle aged man with a black beard is given to Dr. Mortimer.
- Destination Defenestration: The film opens with Sir Hugo Baskerville throwing a hapless servant through a window at Baskerville Hall.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation:
- In the prologue, the girl Hugo Baskerville kidnapped is stabbed to death by him rather than dying from exhaustion of the chase.
- Stapleton is shot by Watson and has his throat torn out by the Hound rather than his presumed death in the Grimpen Mire from the book.
- Distant Prologue: The film opens with a sequence telling the story of Hugo Baskerville and his death.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- In the prologue, Sir Hugo's entourage of drunken jerks are horrified when he calls for his hounds to be loosed upon the girl they intended to rape, who has escaped; apparently even boozed-up would-be rapists draw the line at having someone ripped to pieces by dogs (making the maniacal Hugo irredeemably evil by comparison).
- Stapleton rescues Watson from the Grimpen Mire, implying he draws the line at letting a bystander perish in the mire.
- In Name Only: Frankland has nothing in common with the litigious man of the book, being cast instead as a kindly bishop with an interest in entomology.
- Karmic Death: Cecile Stapleton meets her end in Grimpen Mire, much like how she initially tried to kill Watson the same way.
- Mistaken Identity: Stapleton initially mistakes Watson for Sir Henry. It's implied that Cecile mistook Watson for Sir Henry and tried to lure him to his death in Grimpen Mire.
- Quicksand Sucks: Watson falls into the Great Grimpen Mire while following Cecile but gets rescued by Stapleton. Cecile herself falls in at the film's end and doesn't escape.
- Red Right Hand: Both Sir Hugo and his descendant Stapleton have a webbed right hand.
- "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: Like the original novel, the legend of the Hound of the Baskervilles is used by Stapleton to terrify Sir Charles to death by use of a fake Hound.
- Spiders Are Scary: Sir Henry is petrified when a tarantula gets on him.
