Stars:
Peter Cushing, Andre Morell, Christopher Lee, Maria Landi, and David Oxley
Writer:
Peter Bryan
Based
On The Novel By: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Director:
Terence Fisher
Feature
length: 86 minutes
Extras:
Featurettes With Christopher Lee and Original Theatrical Trailer
Languages:
English, French, and Spanish Monaural Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions and French and Spanish Subtitles
Packaging:
Amaray Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 16
Sound:
Monaural Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 1959/DVD Release: 2002
Theatrical
Distributor: United Artists
Home
Video Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: Not Rated
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
It
is a beautiful thing to see an Actor like Christopher Lee, who has done so much
for genre films, to be discovered by a whole new generation of filmgoers with
starring roles in Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of “The Lord Of The
Rings” trilogy as well as George Lucas’ “Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of
The Clones.” It is an even greater pleasure to see Mr. Lee be acknowledged for
the great body of work and talent he has that goes above and beyond what most
people probably are aware of when they think of Christopher Lee. Mr. Lee is an
accomplished writer as well as a singer and a distinguished presence in his own
right.
United
Artists distributed this Hammer Films Production of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s
“The Hound Of The Baskervilles” in America and now Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home
Entertainment is releasing the film to DVD-Video in America. Starring Peter
Cushing as Sherlock Holmes and Andre Morell as Dr. Holmes along with Christopher
Lee in a role where he gets to play a romantic lead and indeed as a young man
Mr. Lee was a handsome man, now a distinguished man.
Released
in 1959, this Hammer Films adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous
novel was the first Sherlock Holmes mystery to ever be filmed in color. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Home Entertainment’s DVD edition of “The Hound Of The Baskervilles”
presents the film in a beautiful letterboxed (1.66:1) aspect ratio. The
Technicolor picture combined with the gothic signature of Hammer Film
Productions is quite wonderful with vibrant colors. There are a few scratches on
the source print though overall the picture quality is still impressive. It is
only unfortunate that MGM did not make an anamorphic transfer for this film, but
at least the transfer as it is still looks great for a low budget English film
import from 1959.
A
clear Two-Channel English Monaural Soundtrack is included along with French and
Spanish Language Monaural Soundtracks coupled with English Captions and Closed
Captions and French and Spanish Language Subtitles are encoded on to the DVD as
options.
A
brand new videotaped interview with Christopher Lee is also included where he
discusses his role in the film, his friendship with Peter Cushing, and the last
time they met. The interview has an approximate length of 13-minutes. Mr. Lee
also reads two excerpts from the novel with illustrations by Sydney Paget. One
reading has a running time of about 15-minutes and the other reading runs a bit
over 6-minutes. The original black and white (1.33:1) theatrical trailer wraps
up the extra features on this DVD. (Note – Do not watch the trailer,
especially if you have never read the book or saw the film until after reviewing
the DVD. The trailer contains terrible spoilers.) Comparing the black and white
trailer footage to the color film on DVD really adds some appreciation to the
Technicolor film transfer.
The
menus are standard interactive still frames that are easy to navigate. As a
whole this DVD is a great value offering more extra features than one might
initially expect. “The Hound Of The Baskervilles” will debut on DVD-Video
from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home Entertainment on Tuesday, May 7, 2002.
©
Copyright 2002 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.