A huge disaster for Peter Cook and Dudley Moore as Holmes and Watson in a really bad spoof of the classic Sir Arthur Conan Doyle mystery. It's real foul play for Moore in his comeback year that is loud and obnoxious and completely badly acted by everybody include of some of Britain's greatest comments. Cook and Moore seem to think that they are hysterical, but their overplaying is completely inappropriate and from the beginning makes this a nightmare has tried to get through, more of a nightmare than the attacking hounds committing these vicious murders.
Told in sort of a silent movie themed way with chapter breaks, the script just never shuts up and calms down, and every single character has a level of obnoxiousness that is annoying beyond forgiveness. Such legendary talents as Terri Thomas, Joan Greenwood, Kenneth Williams and Jessie Matthews are greatly abused in a way that makes you wonder why they did not walk off the set. Moore is embarrassingly bad when he puts on drag to become Holmes' mother, and I wonder if he ever begged his friends not to ever watch this.
While this does try to capture the period, that's not good enough to make it worth watching. The direction is all over the place and the plot really makes no sense. There are a lot of scenes that could have been cut out, having no real point in regards to the plot what little there is. In fact, just really doesn't deal with the Baskervilles all that much. I give it a number two as a rating simply because that is truly how it smells, and giving it a one would only indicate that there was something amusing and how bad it was. Absolutely nothing amusing about this in any way. Without a doubt the worst Sherlock Holmes movie ever made.
Told in sort of a silent movie themed way with chapter breaks, the script just never shuts up and calms down, and every single character has a level of obnoxiousness that is annoying beyond forgiveness. Such legendary talents as Terri Thomas, Joan Greenwood, Kenneth Williams and Jessie Matthews are greatly abused in a way that makes you wonder why they did not walk off the set. Moore is embarrassingly bad when he puts on drag to become Holmes' mother, and I wonder if he ever begged his friends not to ever watch this.
While this does try to capture the period, that's not good enough to make it worth watching. The direction is all over the place and the plot really makes no sense. There are a lot of scenes that could have been cut out, having no real point in regards to the plot what little there is. In fact, just really doesn't deal with the Baskervilles all that much. I give it a number two as a rating simply because that is truly how it smells, and giving it a one would only indicate that there was something amusing and how bad it was. Absolutely nothing amusing about this in any way. Without a doubt the worst Sherlock Holmes movie ever made.