Der Hund von Baskerville

This first attempt at bringing Sherlock Holmes's most famous case to the big screen is not great -- not because it's a silent film with the usual exaggerated pantomime style performances -- but because it shows complete disregard (or disrespect) for the source material, the plot bearing very little resemblance to Arthur Conan Doyle's novel.

In this very loose adaptation, the villain of the piece is Rodger Baskerville (Friedrich Kühne), who, having already done away with Sir Charles through the use of the Baskerville hound (a very friendly dog seen licking Sir Charles to death), now tries to get rid of his cousin Henry Baskerville (Erwin Fichtner), heir to the Baskerville estate. Posing as Stapleton, a friend of Sir Charles, Rodger foils an attempt to contact Holmes for help, and then disguises himself as the renowned detective - and nobody suspects a thing!! Reading about the fake Holmes in the paper, the real Sherlock travels to Baskerville Hall, and decides to play Rodger at his own game by disguising himself as Stapleton - and nobody rumbles him! It's all very daft.

As if that wasn't silly enough, the film throws in some old dark house nonsense with secret doorways, a bust of Napoleon with removable eyes so that Rodger can spy on Holmes, and a booby trapped chair that sends the detective down a chute into the slobbering hound's lair. And for some reason, all of the staff at Baskerville Hall (located in Dartmoor in Devon) wear kilts and sporrans. What gives?

I guess if you don't care about how faithful the story is, there's fun to be had with the stupidity on display, but as a fan of all things Sherlockian, I wasn't impressed.

3.5/10, rounded up to 4 for Holmes shooting the burning fuse off a bomb and then using it to light his cigarette - that was admittedly cool.