The Hound Of The Baskervilles [1978]
Directed by Paul Morrissey yes he of Frankenstein and Dracula goes carry on fame,he then turned his hand to Arthur Conan Doyle's Hound Of The Baskervilles,It's pretty much the same story we all know and have watched on countless occasions,but with the added attraction of having Peter Cook as a Jewish Sherlock and Dudley Moore as a welsh Watson.The cast is really impressive,Terry Thomas,Roy Kinnear, Max Wall,Penelope Keith as a prostitute, Denholm Elliott and Kenneth Williams and the marvellous Spike Milligan.With this sort of cast no one could really expect anything but the up most silliness I mean its really silly nearly Pythonesque in its silliness.Dudley Moore is exceptional in his daftness,the welsh accent is questionable to say the least but very funny.He also plays Sherlock's mother,sort of cross between old mother Riley and Doris Stokes and Mr Spiggott a one legged man who wants to be a mail runner for Shelock. Cook seems to be on auto pilot,pretty much sleep walking through his part,Terry Thomas is also on hand to give the film abit of much needed class,considering this was his last film performance he looks and acts surprising well,certainly not showing any signs of Parkinson's disease which would finally take him away.Moore also did the musical score,which has a very silent era piano score feel to it,which suits the film down to the ground.Denholm Elliot also appears as the chihuahua loving Stapleton,I don't think ill ever forget the scene were Elliot is holding a chihuahua while it pee's over Moore's face,If you thought some of the performances in Paul Morrissey's previous films was over the top should see Joan Greenwood as Beryl Stapleton doing an impression of Linda Blair from The Exorcist . Daft one liners and stupid accents aside,its not surreal enough to be as good as The Bed Siting Room,and not funny enough to be considered a classic,but it just may be the daftest film you'll ever see...
out 0f 5