One risks being scoffed at in asking an educated audience (barring today’s Gen Zee) if they’d read the ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’. Most of our contemporaries and the Gen Next too would have savoured this novel not once but several times in formative years. Possibly the most loved & widely read crime fiction set in England’s Dartmoor, Devon, it’s a gripping tale of the deadly curse on the Baskerville family told through the legend of a diabolical hound and the super sleuth Sherlock Holmes who unravels the sinister plot and mystery surrounding it. The story is too well known to be repeated here.
When I had first read it what struck me was the sense of fear, foreboding and eeriness that master writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creates as he weaves a story of honour and courage of the protagonist & cunning plot to kill and seek revenge that plays out in vast moors leading to a death-trap and and lurking in the dark, a vile blood-curdling creature that kills. It was first published in 1902 but was the third of the four ‘Sherlock Holmes’ mystery novels that Doyle wrote. This was reportedly the first appearance of Holmes since his apparent death in “The Final Problem” and the success of ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ led to the character’s eventual revival.
What is fascinating apart from the timelessness of this crime fiction, that it’s recorded that there have been over 20 film and television adaptations of the great book, making it one of the most filmed Sherlock Holmes stories, with notable versions including the classic 1939 film with Basil Rathbone, the iconic 1959 version with Peter Cushing, and several BBC TV serials, with specific versions appearing in the 1920s, 30s, 70s, 80s, and 2000s. However, my favorite actor playing ‘Sherlock’ has always been Jeremy Brett !
Yesterday, we happened to discover an oldish version of the film on ‘Fawesome’ Movies (surfing Amazon Prime) and Tandra and I sat down with lots of popcorn & soda, like old times when we watched old classics. As it happens, she has been an acclaimed teacher of English Literature and had taught ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ to school students years ago. For her, this was revisiting old ‘teaching’ days & had it’s share of nostalgia !
Her memory, sharp as ever could recall all the sequences and dialogues while passage of time had made things bit hazy for me and I tried to concentrate on the intricate plot and characters. But I needn’t have worried – she’d time to time let the ‘cat out of the story’s bag’ so to say..‘This guy is pretending that she’s his sister but actually she’s his wife’. At the opportune moment with the suspense building up, she revealed to me : ‘the gypsy is actually Sherlock in disguise’& so on. The film was quite enjoyable, I liked Sir Henry !
What’s good about watching a movie ? It’s watching & enjoying an old classic together !
Working on Living 