Majorthebys
Charming and brutal
TeenzTen
An action-packed slog
Quiet Muffin
This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.
l_rawjalaurence
Don't expect anything much, apart from a stiff performance by Wontner as a Sherlock fond of disguises, but deficient in acting. This plot involves a race-horse and the solution of a conspiracy designed to drug the horse so that he does not win a big race.The action moves awkwardly from inside to a studio-bound exterior shot and back again. It looks what it is - a shoddy effort designed to milk Wontner's status as one of the screen's most famous Sherlocks.
Michael_Elliott
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.
didi-5
Arthur Wortner appeared as Conan Doyle's great detective in six films, four of which survive today. Silver Blaze was the last one, by which time Wortner was over sixty, although still looking the picture of Holmes as he appeared in the Paget illustrations of Strand Magazine.This version of Silver Blaze takes some liberties with the story; it involves Sir Henry Baskerville, plus Professor Moriarty (an engaging and entertaining performance from Lyn Harding), and Colonel Moran from The Empty House. However it retains the same twists and turns which were present in the original story and, as a film, it works very well.Filmed on the cheap with obviously faked sets (notably when Holmes and Watson transfer their investigations to 'the moors') it is good to see Wortner's excellent Holmes, sardonic and sharp. Dr Watson is played by Ian Fleming, who is fairly good as well.John Turnbull as Lestrade is a good foil for Holmes, and one can sense the level of tolerance and grudging admiration that exists between the two crime-solvers.For Sherlockians, this version of Silver Blaze compares well with the one created during the 1980s as part of Granada's TV adaptations, and stands up well in its own right as a B-picture mystery.
Spondonman
Arthur Wontner as Holmes is virtually the only reason to see this film, although it would be a passable time-filler even without him. The production values are erratic, sometimes convincing, sometimes shoestring, but the choppy print doesn't really help.Wontner certainly looked like The Strand's Man, but I find his portrayals almost too eccentric to swallow easily. His devouring of tobacco smoke was made great play of at the beginning, but as the story kicks in we're treated to his more analytical and serious side in the solving of a murder and a mysterious death on the Moors. You've got to admire the effrontery of someone who can identify a horse's horseshoes and pick out and track them miles across the Moors to where a body lay!Having just seen Come on George, made 2 years later than this, I found it disconcerting to hear the stableman Ronald Shiner referred to as a "boy" - was he ever? I would have thought that both Rathbone and Bruce must have seen this series of films, if only for reference, but LeStrade is pronounced LeStrayed here (as it was later on in the Jeremy Brett UK TV series). Favourite bit: Holmes and LeStrade reaching hearty agreement on clearing Trevor's name from guilt. First time of watching, but hopefully I'll come back again sometime for a second helping.
