Silver Blaze

SILVER BLAZE was quite inappropriately retitled "MURDER AT THE BASKERVILLES" when it was released in the US in 1941. though it has nothing much to do with this great Sherlock Holmes story--other than adding the Henry Baskerville character for no apparent reason. Instead, the film is roughly Conan Doyle's "The Silver Blaze"--but with many changes--most notably the addition of Moriarty and Col. Sebastian Moran. Oddly, these characters (especially Moriarty) were included in many Holmes films even though in the books he was only a minor character (the same could be said of Inspector Lestrade). In reality, Moriarty appeared in just a few stories and was ultimately killed in a fight with Holmes mid-way through the series. Unfortunately, the addition of Moriarty didn't do much to bring excitement to the film and this master criminal seemed inexplicably involved in a very petty case that seems beneath his genius.

I really don't want to describe the plot--others have done so and IMDb has a summary. Instead, it's important to talk about the overall effort. The film was made by a "poverty row" studio (Astor Films) and sure bears the earmarks of such a cheap film. Many of the outdoor scenes are clearly sets--and not very good ones. The acting is okay, but combined with a rather dull script and music, it just seems to have no life. Now I am not necessarily blaming those who played Holmes and Watson. Holmes was much closer to the books than the flamboyant character played by Basil Rathbone and Ian Fleming managed to play a decent Watson--not a total idiot like he was in many films (though not in the books). While their performances were decent, they cannot hold a candle to the Granada Television series of the 1980s--the Jeremy Brett series was just perfect and the scripts stayed extremely close to the brilliant original stories.

So overall, this is a very watchable but jumbled film plot-wise. The acting is okay--not great but not bad, however the whole thing lacks energy. Worth seeing if you are a Holmes fan, but otherwise you'll probably find the whole thing a bit dull.

(Some Spoilers) Going to a well deserved vacation at the Baskerville Manor, the sight of one of his most famous cases some 20 years earlier, Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Wootner, and his long time friend and aid Dr. John H. Watson, Ian Flemming,have anything but free time to rest and relax there. Not far from the Baskerville Home there's a racetrack and it's to have it's biggest race of the meet that weekend, The Barchester Cup, with the much heralded horse Sliver Blaze the very heavy betting favorite. Unknown to everyone in and out of the track the brilliantly evil Prof. Moriarty, Lyn Harding, is involved to make sure that Silver Blaze does not only lose the race but is not even on the track the day the big race is to be run.

Being contacted by big time British bookie Miles Standford, Gilbert Davis, and given $10,000.00 to make sure that Silver Blaze is out of the winner circle at the end of the Barchester Cup race Moriarty goes to work overtime to make sure that it happens. Big-time bookie Stanford will end up broke if Silver Blaze win the race since he doesn't have the cash to cover all the winning bets he has on the racehorse. Things start to go into motion days before the race with the stable boy of Silver Blaze found dead and the horse gone. Later the trainer James Straker, Martin Walker, of Silver Blaze in found dead on the moors outside Baskerville Manor with his neck broken. Holmes in his usual and brilliant way picks up the clues that everyone else on the case missed including police inspector Lasterade, John Turnball. Like Sherlock Holmes tells him: "You see what I see but I trained myself to notice what I see".

Holmes deduces that the groom of Silver Blaze died from an overdose of opium that was put in his curry dinner meal that night at the stable by non other the Silver Blaze's trainer James Straker. Straker taking Silver Blaze out to the secluded moors outside the stables tried to cut the horses tendon with a surgical knife so it would break down during the race. The equine instead reared up and broke his neck with a well placed kick killing him.

Finding the horse disguised with his silver blaze across his face colored over with black paint Silver Blaze is entered into the Barchester Cup race only to have his jockey shot, with a hidden air-gun inside a newsreel camera, off the horse during the race thus losing it. Holmes later using Dr. Watson as bait, to find and trap Prof. Moriarty, who's pistol-whipped and taken prisoner blindfolded to the Moriatry hideout by one of his goons Moran, Arthur Goullet.

Afer receiving his $10,000.00 from Stanford for getting Silver Blaze to lose the race Prof. Moriarty has Watson about to be dropped 80 feet to his death Sherlock Holmes and the police comes to Watson's rescue and take Moriarty and his goons, as well as Stanford, into custody.

As prof. Moriarty is taken away by the police at the end of the movie he gives the usual "I'll Be Back" speech that you get from movie villains as their arrested at the end of a crime/murder movie. Prof. Moriarty has been coming back, in dozens of Sherlock Holmes films, ever since.

Although Arthur Wontner is little remembered today, in his time he was considered by many to have been the best of those who had portrayed Sherlock Holmes on screen. "Silver Blaze", the last of the Holmes series that starred Wontner, is a solid feature that takes the Doyle story of the same name and adds to it some of the characters and elements from the other Holmes stories.

The strength of Wontner's performance is that he looks very convincing as the Holmes of literature, and he also looks very much at home in the Victorian era settings. While his portrayal of Holmes lacks the sharpness and forcefulness of Basil Rathbone or Jeremy Brett, Wontner is certainly adequate in the challenging role of the great detective. He does well here despite the low-budget look to everything else.

"Silver Blaze" is also of interest in adding Moriarty, Lestrade, and the Baskervilles to the original story. As Moriarty, Lyn Harding has some screen presence, but he doesn't really make Moriarty seem like the brilliant strategist that you expect him to be - here he is more like a tough guy whom you wouldn't want to cross. His role is mainly used to create some extra suspense sequences. The central mystery itself is an interesting one, with some of the unusual details that you hope for in a Holmes story. Overall, this is a solid if unspectacular feature.

Murder at the Baskervilles (1937)

** (out of 4)

Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Wontner) and Dr. Watson (Ian Fleming) investigate a kidnapped horse and the murder of its trainer. Wontner appeared as Holmes in six films, although two are now lost and this one here was the last in the series. I can't say I was really impressed with that much here, although there's one very good sequence when a car is following Holmes and tries to kill him. There's some nice tension in this scene but tension is missing throughout the rest of the film, which moves at a snail's pace. It takes twenty-six minutes for the actual mystery to start and all of the introductions leading up to it are rather bland and boring. The supporting cast doesn't help matters as they add very little to the movie. Wontner on the other hand is quite good as Holmes and he certainly makes me interested in the other films in the series.

Am a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes and get a lot of enjoyment out of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. Also love Basil Rathbone's and especially Jeremy Brett's interpretations to death. So would naturally see any Sherlock Holmes adaptation that comes my way, regardless of its reception.

Furthermore, interest in seeing early films based on Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories and wanting to see as many adaptations of any Sherlock Holmes stories as possible sparked my interest in seeing 'Silver Blaze', part (the last in fact) of the series of film with Arthur Wontner. Would also see anything that has Holmes encountering his arch-nemesis Professor Moriaty.

'Silver Blaze', not just a straight adaptation of just this particular story, but with elements of other Holmes stories (with the interesting inclusion of Moriaty and the Baskervilles) too, is very much worthwhile. Not one of the best Sherlock Holmes adaptations certainly, the best of the Jeremy Brett adaptations and films of Basil Rathone fit under this category. It's also not among the worst, being much better than any of the Matt Frewer films (particularly 'The Sign of Four') and the abominable Peter Cook 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'.

It's not perfect. The sound quality is less than great, while some of the pace could have been tighter, especially at the start as it does take too long to get going.

Some of the dialogue unnecessarily rambles a bit in a particularly talky outing in the Wontner Holmes films, and the low budget limitations do show in the production values (other than some nice shots the film looks pretty cheap, the cheapest looking of the Wontner Holmes films).

However, there are some nice interesting shots that stop the film from looking completely cheap. The writing generally is thought-provoking, Holmes' deductions and crime solving are a huge part of the fun as well as very true in detail and spirit to Conan Doyle's writing, the mystery elements are intact, there are moments of suspense and the story is intriguing and not hard to follow.

Arthur Wontner may technically have been too old for Holmes but he did not look too old and his portrayal is on the money, handling the personality and mannerisms of the character spot on without over-doing or under-playing. Ian Fleming is a charming, loyal, intelligent and amusing Watson, with nice chemistry between him and Wontner, really liked his inferior attempts at deduction. The support is competent without being outstanding or as memorable, Lyn Harding's Moriaty comes off best.

Overall, worth watching and decently solid if not great. 6/10 Bethany Cox