There really should be some sort of law on how often a book can be adapted. I would say The Hound of the Baskervilles needs no more. It has run its course. And I have seen many of them. Most of them are decent because it is a great story and you can do only so much to mess it up. This follows the basics but makes a few changes to lighten it up. Matt Frewer played Sherlock Homes four times for TV and certainly injects his own personality into the character. Whether that is a plus or minus is up to you. He is obnoxious, gloating, superior, sarcastic and annoying. So much so that I just find it amusing. If you know the story and who doesn't - in an early scene he and Watson (Kenneth Welch) come back to Baker Street and find a walking stick that someone had left behind. Holmes does his party trick but first asks Watson what he can make of the owner of the stick, He does and feels rather proud of himself - and then Holmes all but says you are an idiot as he walks back and forth only to stop by Watson's ear to tell him what he got wrong. Watson sinks like a beaten dog. Later when the doctor shows up to tell them of the case, Holmes just smirks and rolls his eyes. The weakness of Hounds has always been that Holmes disappears for the middle third as he disguises himself and hides in the moors - but here he vanishes for 60 minutes of the 90 minute running time and leaves poor Watson to do all the work till he shows up at the end to gloat.. Fortunately, this is a smarter Watson than most.


As an aside - I almost died in the Moors back in the 1970s when I was walking and hitchhiking around Great Britain. One day I was walking and saw that the road curved around and thought  I could cut through the land to get there much faster. Walked right into a bog and began sinking. Up to my waist when I was able to grab on to something and pull myself out. Minus my shoes. So whenever I see the film this comes back to me and gives me the shivers.


Just a note. Back in 1965 there was a BBC Sherlock Holmes TV series - first starring Douglas Wilmer and then in 1968 there were sixteen episodes with Peter Cushing. Only five of those exist - A Study in Scarlet, The Boscombe Valley Mystery, The Sign of Four, The Blue Carbuncle and of course a two-parter of The Hound of Baskervilles. This must have felt odd to Cushing since his 1959 Hound of the Baskervilles is considered the best of them all. These are up on YouTube and are quite decent.

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