(re)Search my Trash

<body> <div align="left"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" width="800" cellpadding="0" height="100%"> <tr> <td width="100" rowspan="2" background="../stylepix/square.gif" valign="top">  </td> <td width="4" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="592" valign="top"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" width="592"> <tr> <td width="100%">  </td> </tr> </table>   <table border="0" cellspacing="0" align="left"> <tr> <td width="100%">  </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><img border="0" src="../stills/phantom5x5.gif" width="5" height="5"></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%">  </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><img border="0" src="../stills/phantom5x5.gif" width="5" height="5"></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%">  </td> </tr> </table> <p>Sherlock Holmes (Matt Frewer) and Dr. Watson (Kenneth Welsh) are visited by country doctor Mortimer (Gordon Masten), who tells them that one of his friends, Sir Charles Baskerville (Barry Baldaro) has died, and while his death was ruled from heart failure, Dr. Mortimer figures he might have died of fright, tieing in with an old family legend about a devil hound taking the men of the Baskerville family. Of course, Holmes at first thinks it's hogwash, until he learns he and Watson are to play bodyguards to the last heir of the Baskervilles, Sir Henry (Jason London), and Sir Henry, while at the hotel, had one of his boots stolen. So he sends Watson with Sir Henry to the Baskerville estate, with a stern warning for them to stay away from the surrounding moors, especially at night.<p>Once in the countryside, Watson makes some inquiries and learns that Sir Charles' being outside where he died was no coincidence, as an old flame of his (Linda E. Smith) asked him to wait for her - while Sir Henry meets and falls in love with Beryl Stapleton (Emma Campbell), who lives by the moors with her brother (Robin Wilcock), and while she obviously has feelings for him and tries to warn him again and again to stay away from the moors, her brother doesn't really agree on them being together.<p>The servant couple (Arthur Holden, Leni Parker) in the baskerville household seem to act mighty weird, and eventually Watson finds out that they feed a man in the moors, who eventually turns out to be an escaped convict, Seldon (Jason Cavalier) - and also Mrs. Barrymore's brother. Watson and Sir Henry agree to help the Barrymores make good Seldon's escape to Australia - but then he's thrown off a cliff by what appears to be a hellhound.<p>Holmes writes to Watson and Sir Henry to return to London the very next morning, and upon learning that, Beryl asks Sir Henry over for a farewell meeting, but her brother interferes and chases Sir Henry away. Then he releases a hound that's made up like a hellhound. Watson, who watches from a safe distance, tries to shoot the hound but gets into a fight with Stapleton. The hound attacks Sir Henry and maims him quite a bit before ... Holmes emerges from the shadows and shoots the hound. Stapleton makes a run for it, but is ultimately killed by the hound and the two disappear into the moor. Turns out Stapleton was a secret heir of the Baskervilles who would have inherited was Sir Henry out of the way, and Beryl was not his sister but his wife, who despite her reservations saw herself forced to help her husband - but Holmes lets her slip as she had tried to warn Sir Henry more than once ...<p> <p>A pretty ok adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's novel that moves things along at a steady pace while remaining fairly true to the source material and doesn't get lost in subplots. Also, it's one of the few adaptations that actually criticizes Holmes' ruthlessness when it comes to solving the case. Matt Frewer hams it up royally as Holmes, which at times seems to much, but mostly he hits the right notes, and also he adds some humour to the role which seems pretty much in place. That said, he's really not in the film all that much, even less than the novel would suggest. But Kenneth Welsh makes a good Watson who's actually showing some independent initiative for a change. Direction-wise the film is dynamic enough to breathe some new air into the oft-told tale, but where the movie lacks is in a properly creepy atmosphere, owed largely to the fact that the moors look like anything but, so really lack any menacing qualities - in fact the whole countryside the film's set in looks far too lovely to suggest much threat. Still, the whole thing is entirely watchable, if for sure no big revelation.<p>  </td> <td width="4" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="100" rowspan="2" background="../stylepix/squareright.gif" valign="top">  </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="592" valign="top">  <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"> currentyear = "2020"; </SCRIPT> <SCRIPT language="JavaScript" src="../scripts/endcredits.js"></SCRIPT> <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"> dosworsdonn(); </SCRIPT> </td> </tr> </table> </div> </body>