Sherlock Holmes Screen Spotlight: Basil Rathbone in ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’

Basil Rathbone’s 1939 portrayal of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s iconic detective Sherlock Holmes cemented the character’s image in popular culture, defining nearly every version that came afterward.

Although Basil Rathbone is not the first actor to play Sherlock Holmes onscreen, his portrayal of author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s iconic detective cemented the character’s image in popular culture, defining nearly every version that came afterward. Regardless of how many subsequent films and TV series have been adapted from Doyle’s stories, almost every actor’s performance as Holmes is influenced by Rathbone in some way.

It’s a bit strange, then, to watch 1939’s The Hound of the Baskervilles and discover that Rathbone is second-billed behind the bland Richard Greene, and that Holmes disappears for a long stretch in the middle of the movie. The Hound of the Baskervilles is the first of 14 movies made between 1939 and 1946 featuring Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as his faithful associate Dr. John Watson, but executives at 20th Century Fox were initially skeptical of the commercial prospects of a Holmes film.

It takes only a moment to see how wrong those executives were. As soon as they first appear onscreen, Rathbone and Bruce demonstrate the kind of chemistry that can easily carry a film series, with the familiar semi-antagonistic banter that has come to define the Holmes/Watson relationship. The movie doesn’t begin with them, though, instead opening in rural Dartmoor, where nobleman Sir Charles Baskerville drops dead of what appears to be fright after being chased by an unseen menace.

It’s Sir Charles’ friend and neighbor, Dr. James Mortimer (Lionel Atwill), who travels to London to seek advice and protection from Holmes and Watson, so that Sir Charles’ nephew and heir Sir Henry Baskerville (Greene) won’t suffer the same fate as his uncle. The Canadian Sir Henry is set to inherit the Baskerville estate — as well as, according to Dr. Mortimer, the Baskerville family curse, which dates back to 1650 and has allegedly led to the killings of various prominent Baskervilles by a massive, possibly supernatural hound.

Given the gorgeously moody and foreboding visual style that director Sidney Lanfield brings to the movie’s depiction of the moors, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for viewers unfamiliar with Sherlock Holmes to assume that this really was a story about a monstrous phantom canine. The filmmakers add in a séance sequence that wasn’t in the source material, and the movie spends plenty of time among Dartmoor’s eerie ancient ruins.

Holmes, of course, immediately understands that the murder of Sir Charles is simply the work of greedy, unscrupulous men, although his methods for discovering the culprit and bringing that person to justice are rather unorthodox. Holmes spends a significant chunk of time away from the central action, charging Watson with the direct protection of Sir Henry, so that he can remain undetected while conducting his investigation near the Baskerville estate. Rathbone relishes his amusingly hammy scenes of Holmes in disguise as an unkempt wandering peddler, complete with fake beard and glasses.

Retaining the novel’s 1889 setting rather than changing it to a contemporary time period as in previous Holmes adaptations, The Hound of the Baskervilles captures the gloomy Gothic feel of Universal monster movies and 1939’s popular film version of Wuthering Heights. Accordingly, the filmmakers make changes to Doyle’s novel in order to play up the romance between Sir Henry and his neighbor Beryl Stapleton (Wendy Barrie). That’s part of Greene’s showcase as the leading man, but he has minimal chemistry with the equally dull Barrie, and their banter pales in comparison to the interplay between Holmes and Watson.

Clearly audiences agreed, and Rathbone and Bruce were front and center just a few months later in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. It takes nearly an hour for Rathbone to don Holmes’ signature deerstalker hat and cape, but he fully inhabits the character right away, making Holmes’ arrogance and manipulation into something debonair and charming. It’s easy to see why viewers were eager for more of Rathbone as Holmes — both in 1939 and nearly 90 years later.


Josh Bell is a freelance writer and movie/TV critic based in Las Vegas. He has written about movies, TV, and pop culture for Vulture, IndieWire, Tom’s Guide, Inverse, Crooked Marquee, and more. With comedian Jason Harris, he co-hosts the podcast Awesome Movie Year.