The Hound of the Baskervilles

Watching The Hound of the Baskervilles is, to put it lightly, a chore, and one that should be avoided at all costs. Even fans of stars Dudley Moore and Peter Cook, or of its delightful supporting cast, are well advised to steer clear, as Hound is a dog through and through. It's hard to know exactly where to place the blame for this fiasco, but director Paul Morrissey is as good a place to start as anywhere. Morrissey produced some interesting work with Andy Warhol, but his talents are not appropriate to this kind of material; indeed, at many times, Hound feels as if it is not misdirected but simply undirected. There's no attention to consistency of tone or style, pacing is out the window and vision is totally lacking. The screenplay, devised (it's hard to call it "written") by the director and the stars, is slapdash, haphazard, unfocused, unfunny and unbearable. The stars come off slightly better as performers, but that is small praise indeed, and their work here is light years away from their best work -- or even their second- or third-best work. And much the same can be said about the contributions of such talented actors as Prunella Scales, Joan Greenwood, Terry-Thomas and Denholm Elliott. Hound isn't even of the "so bad it's fun" school; it's simply painful. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide