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To have a few days of rest & relaxation, Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Wontner)
decides - on Dr. Watson's (Ian Fleming ... nope, not the James Bond-Ian
Fleming) advice - to take a few days off on Sir Henry Baskerville's (Lawrence
Grossmith) country estate ... & he even decides to develop an interest in
horsebetting, which is just as well, since on the very first night of his
arrival, Colonel Ross' (Robert Horton) prizewinning horse Silver Blaze is
stolen & the stableboy murdered ... & inspector Lestrade, who just
happens to work in this area of the country right now & who's always one
quick to jump to conclusions, arrests Jack Trevor (Arthur Macrae), the fiancé
of Baskerville's daughter Diane (Judy Gunn) for the murder ...
Now Holmes just can't but investigate, & he soon finds more & more
clues the inspector has overlooked, including the dead body of Straker (Martin
Walker), owner of the stable Silver Blaze was kept in, & finally Holmes
even finds the horse itself ... at the neighbouring stables of stableowner
& horsethief Silas Brown (D.J.Williams), whom Holmes can persuade to
secretly deliver the horse to the racetracks in time for the next races in
exchange for his freedom.
Holmes soon finds a way to tie the whole case to his favourite enemy
Moriarty (Lyn Harding) & his henchie Moran (Arthur Goullet), who he thinks
have blackmailed Straker into poisoning the horse, but Holmes' theory is only
ridiculed by Lestrade ... until Moriarty & Moran make an unsuccessful
attack on the car he's driving in ...
At the day of the races Silver Blaze does indeed start courtesy of Silas
Brown, & almost wins, too, but is gunned down just before the finish line.
At the races, too, Holmes figures out that Moriarty was hired by Stanford
(Gilbert Davis), who has placed a huge bet against Silver Blaze, & he has
Watson follow Stanford's every step to find Moriarty's new headquarters. Watson
does as asked but ends up as a prisoner of Moriarty, & is to be thrown down
an elevatorshaft when Holmes & the police emerge from exactly that shaft to
arrest Moriarty ...
This Sherlock Holmes-movie, the 5th & last of a series with Arthur
Wontner in the title role, is probably the best of the bunch since it moves at
a reasonable pace, is less talky & stagey than its predecessors (which is
also achieved by a frequent change of scenery) & does keep up a certain
suspense throughout. That said though, the movie suffers from some major
plotholes & leaps in reason. Who for example has murdered Straker, as it
was established that it was neither Moriarty & his henchmen, who needed
Straker alive to get his assistance, nor Silas Brown, whom Holems lets off very
easily, why was it necessary for Straker to kill the stableboy when he after
all had the horse in his stables, how did Silas Brown get the horse, why would
Moriarty come up with an overly difficult plan to poison the horse when he
could have just shot it (as he did in the end), ... ?
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