The Hound of the Baskervilles Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		2.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

The Hound of the Baskervilles Blu-ray Movie Review

"There is more evil around us here than I have ever encountered before."

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown January 6, 2025

Sandpiper Pictures has released director Terence Fisher and screenwriter Peter Bryan's The Hound of Baskervilles, an adaptation of the classic Sherlock Holmes story that stars Peter Cushing as Holmes, André Morell as Doctor Watson, Christopher Lee as Sir Henry Baskerville, Marla Landi as Cecile Stapleton, David Oxley as Sir Hugo Baskerville, Francis de Wolff as Doctor Richard Mortimer, Miles Malleson as Bishop Frankland, Ewen Solon as Stapleton, John Le Mesurier as Barrymore, Helen Goss as Mrs. Barrymore, Sam Kydd as Perkins and Michael Hawkins as Lord Caphill. Previously released on Blu-ray in 2015 in the UK by Arrow Video and 2016 in a Twilight Time Limited Edition in the US, the BD struggles with problematic video, rises with above average audio, but drops again with a lack of supplements. The previous releases, by contrast, featured three different audio commentaries, a string of featurettes, Christopher Lee readings, an isolated score track, and more. (Each edition included different content. See our previous reviews, linked below, for additional details about each disc.)

"It's elementary, my dear Watson. Elementary."

The novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that inspired Terence Fisher's "The Hound of the Baskervilles" is legendary. It has been adapted numerous times over the years, with some of the earliest films dating back to the 1930s. In turn-of-the-century England, Sherlock Holmes (Peter Cushing) and his good friend Doctor Watson (André Morell) travel to Baskerville Hall where Charles Baskerville has been found dead. An old curse is blamed for the tragedy, but Holmes is convinced that there is a logical explanation and possibly even a killer that is still on the loose. The new Baskerville heir, Sir Henry (Christopher Lee), who has recently arrived from America and inherited the property, does not yet know what to think of the curse.

Click here to read the rest of Svet Atanasov's 2015 review of the film, which he calls "rather entertaining," however warning that it "offers a very different interpretation of the classic novel." Jeffrey Kauffman agrees in his 2016 review, noting "Doyle purists will probably find more to fault in it than the casual viewer, but even for those who have memorized the original Holmes canon, this version has an undeniably Holmesian ambience even if it doesn't hew to Doyle's proscriptions one hundred percent of the time."

The Hound of the Baskervilles Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Something foul is afoot with The Hound of the Baskervilles' 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation, with issues far and wide. My video score is actually lower than that of both my colleagues, though I suspect its simply subjective analysis at the root rather than a lesser transfer. Colors are warm but muddy, with at-times flushed, at-times ruddy skin tones, muted primaries, and such an abundance of over-dark, poorly contrasted earthtones that the image appears downright muddled and impenetrable on far too many occasions. Black levels are so overpowering, in fact, that crush and middling shadow delineation are more common elements of the picture than anything that rises to something one might call impressive detailing. Edges are fairly sharp and well-lit, often interior close-ups fare pretty well, but so much of the presentation's clarity seems to be the product of sharpening and grain reduction, irritants to be sure. There are also compression artifacts throughout (faint, fleeting but all too obnoxious) and print specks and intermittent blemishes and damage aren't uncommon. This is a film sorely in need of a restoration or proper remastering, though the likelihood of that happening anytime in the next decade is slim to none.

The Hound of the Baskervilles Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Hound of the Baskervilles offers the same two-channel mono audio as its previous releases, despite the fact that the Arrow edition delivered it via LPCM uncompressed audio and the Twilight Time version introduced the lossless DTS-HD Master Audio featured here. Of the mix, Atanasov writes, "Clarity is good, but depth occasionally fluctuates a bit. James Bernard's quite dramatic orchestral score, however, easily breathes and balance is good. The dialog is stable and easy to follow, but there some room for improvement with the high-frequencies. A few tiny pops can be heard. There are no audio dropouts or digital distortions to report." Kauffman concurs, writing "Aside from just a couple of brief pops, The Hound of the Baskervilles' lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track sounds very good, with a nicely full bodied midrange and lower end which helps to support the great score by James Bernard. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly and effects (including the haunting howl of a certain doggie) come through with good force. There are no issues with distortion or dropouts."

The Hound of the Baskervilles Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

"My professional charges are upon a fixed scale. I do not vary them, except when I remit them altogether."

The 2015 Arrow release of The Hound of the Baskervilles included an audio commentary with Hammer experts Marcus Hearn and Jonathan Rigby, an isolated score track, two readings of excerpts from the novel by Christopher Lee, four featurettes and production documentaries, photo galleries and more. The 2016 Twilight Time Limited Edition include two additional audio commentaries (the first with David Del Valle and Steven Peros, the second with Paul Scrabo, Lee Pfeiffer and Hank Reineke), the Christopher Lee readings, and two of the aforementioned featurettes. But the 2024 Sandpiper release? A trailer. Nothing more, barely anything to offer that would amount to less. Such a shame.

The Hound of the Baskervilles Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It may not serve up the perfect Doyle adaptation, but The Hound of the Baskervilles allows modern cinephiles the chance to see Grand Moff Tarkin... ahem, Peter Cushing in his late career prime. The story remains as classic as ever, despite changes in the adaptation, and the cast has plenty of good, chummy fun that's as entertaining as it ever was. Sandpiper's Blu-ray doesn't hold up nearly as well, with problematic video, solid audio, and a near-barebones supplemental package (a particular sin considering how much content is included with two previous Blu-ray releases).