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The Hound of the Baskervilles 1939 ★★★★
This adaptation of perhaps the best known Sherlock Holmes story assembles a fine cast with the stars of the era like Lionell Atwill, Wendy Barrie and most notably Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes.
Rathbone, fresh of an Oscar nod for If I were king, would spend a good chunk of the fourties portraying the mythical detective. And based on this performance, I look forward to check out the other Holmes movies. He makes Holmes cocky and arrogant, but also plays him thus to command a natural authority. Which makes me curious to compare this to RDJ's take. Also: For some reason, I would now like to see Ryan Reyolds as Holmes. What do you think?
The focus is more on the mistery and the thriller. It has your classic whodunnit structure with the necessary red herrings. While Letterboxd classifies this as horror, there is very little of that in here. Apart from maybe the moment where the titular hound attacks Sir Henry.
Good acting, decent pace and build up, good action set pieces. Solid across the board. The 80 minutes flew by.
Four stars well deserved. Check it out.
The Blob 1958 ★★★½
I have often seen the remake with Shawnee Smith and Kevin Dillon, but for some reason the fifties original has always eluded me. Luckily, I managed to get a hold of the DVD and and seized the opportunity to watch it.
It's a fun little fifties horror romp in that we do not get many special effects. That's one domain where eighties horror benefited from better and more credible special effects (as incredible as the premise is).
The story and the characters had a bit of a Happy Days-ish vibe over them (minus Tom Bosley and The Fonz) and the funny thing is that thr original blob does not instill a sense of urgency until it eats the doctor, and even thing, there is still a sense of fifties cosiness to the proceedings. Now, now,... now then, now then... now,... calm down... calm down now.
To be honest, the only scary scenes are when the leads are stuck in the diner. Which reminds me: I like the diea of the insect being dropped in the Arctic. That matter of fact ish solutions adds an unwanted bit of camp to the story and makes you think of climate change.
Also also: Maybe it's me, but Steve McQueen seemed like an old looking 28 year old.
3.5 stars. Fun watch for fifties horror fans.
The Death Kiss 1932 ★★★
This 1932 flick has a nice little opener. A man gets kissed by an apparently strange woman and then oops, shot. Turns out this was just the set of a crime movie and oops. This guy is really dead.
The cops bumble their way through the investigation, but David Manners takes manners into his hands and the most useful leads come from his work and the help of a studio janitor like type.
Manners is very good as the cheeky hero and lead detective. Meanwhile, Bela Lugosi lurks in the back as a stern producer.
Three stars. Fun little watch for fans of Lugosi and, by extension, vintage films.
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