The Hound of the Baskervilles

I've never been much for the character of Sherlock Holmes in his classic form. I've never found him to be a character with any depth. Mystery happens, he shows up, condescends to his partner, solved the mystery, happy ending. It just isn't my bag. But The Hound Of The Baskervilles is a little different. It's the kind of story that gets covered by horror YouTubers and gets counted among the horror movies of the era. That fascinated me, because it added a new flavor to the mix. So I figured if I was going to watch any version of this, it should probably be the OG. The horror elements really do help out the story here. Hound is absolutely dripping in the gothic horror elements that were so prevalent in the 30's, thanks to the success of the Universal monster movie franchise. If this were shown in a marathon with Frankenstein, Dracula, and The Mummy, nobody would bat an eyelash. Between the Victorian mansions filmed with copious amounts of shadow, and the stone structures and omnipresent fog of the moors nearby, Hound is positively drowning in atmosphere, and that's before you get to the potentially supernatural titular dog. There is always a sense of creepiness and lingering doom in Hound, and I loved it. As for the characters, they are exactly what I assumed they'd be. The performances help a lot, especially Basil Rathbone's Holmes; he is as smarmy and condescending as House, a genius who refuses to even consider stooping down to anyone else's level. His performance, and his chemistry with Nigel Bruce's Watson, help elevate characters that are rather one-note in and of themselves. The rest of the cast is fine, although none are given all that much to work with besides "butler who acts suspicious" or "next door neighbor", but they're amiable enough. Where Hound falters hardest, though, is the pacing. It can't be overlooked that the middle of the movie drags, taking detours into short subplots about a seance that goes nowhere, or the light-speed romance between Henry and Beryl. Holmes disappears for a looooooooooong stretch, and only shows up in the most convoluted way that, if you stop and think about it at all, makes no sense in the context of the situation. Watson mostly watches and we get exposition dumps in the form of his mailed reports to Holmes. I've never read the book, so I have no idea how close it runs to the story, but as a movie, it slows things down too much for even the awesome atmosphere to prop up. And the central mysteries are solved out of the blue, without any kind of trail visible to the audience that could give them the satisfaction of playing along. Hound is the kind of movie you come to for the interplay between characters and the atmosphere. Yes, by today's standards, it's corny, hokey, it doesn't play fair with its mystery, and its characters are as shallow as a teaspoon. But the positives here are executed so well, it's hard not to have some fun with it all. I doubt I'll check out other Sherlock Holmes movies, but I'm glad I checked out this one.