The Hound of The Baskervilles (1959 Film) - Changes From The Novel

Changes From The Novel

There are several significant changes in plot details. Among them:

• Sir Henry arrives from Toronto in the novel, while he arrives from Johannesburg in the film.
• Sir Henry does not suffer a minor heart condition in the novel, as he does in the film.
• There is nothing involving a ritual sacrifice, a tarantula or a mine shaft in the novel, nor is Holmes thought to have been accidentally trapped in a cave-in.
• Rather than being Stapleton's daughter, Miss Stapleton is Stapleton's wife in the novel and is playing the part of his sister. In the novel, Holmes, Watson and Lestrade eventually find her bound, gagged and badly bruised after being mistreated by Stapleton. She does not hate Sir Henry, as she does in the film, and is a far more sympathetic character in both the novel and in nearly all the other film versions of the story. (In the 1939 film version she is really Stapleton's sister, but he never mistreats her or forces her to deceive anybody, and she is completely unaware of his criminal actions until Holmes reveals the truth. Miss Stapleton falls in love with and presumably marries Sir Henry in the 1939 film.)
• Miss Stapleton survives in the novel, whereas in the film she drowns in the Grimpen Mire.
• In the novel, the hound is made to look "demonic" through the use of phosphorus paint, but in the film the same effect is accomplished with a mask. The hound was played by a brindled Great Dane.
• There is no attempt on the life of Sir Henry in the hotel, as in this film.
• The painting next to the staircase does not go missing in the novel, as Stapleton's webbed hand is a creation of the filmmakers.
• The bishop and Frankland in the novel were two separate characters entirely.
• Stapleton does not get mauled to death after being shot by Watson in the novel; he simply disappears and is presumed to have drowned in the Grimpen Mire.
• Dr. Mortimer is never put in charge of watching over Sir Henry; therefore he is not considered negligent by Watson when Sir Henry ventures out onto the moor alone.