Plot
The infamous and cruel aristocrat, Sir Hugo Baskerville (David Oxley), is hosting a party at Baskerville Hall, when a dead man’s daughter escapes from the mansion, angry at Baskerville for treating her badly. In spite of his friends’ warnings, Baskerville pursues her throughout the moor and stabs her to death in the nearby abbey ruins. However, a huge dog-like creature suddenly appears and kills Baskerville. From then on, the hound of hell has become known as the Hound of the Baskervilles and, any strange night a Baskerville is alone on the moor, the hound will come and kill him.
Several centuries later, the death of Sir Charles Baskerville is being reported by his best friend Dr. Richard Mortimer (Francis de Wolff) to Sherlock Holmes (Peter Cushing) and Dr. Watson (André Morell), who are willing to meet the new owner of Baskerville Hall, Sir Henry (Christopher Lee). After meeting Sir Henry, Holmes remembers that he is going to be away on the day Sir Henry arrives at Baskerville Hall, so he puts Watson in charge of watching over him. A tarantula attacks Sir Henry briefly; Holmes suspects foul play. Before he leaves, Holmes reminds Watson not to let Sir Henry go out onto the moor after dark.
On the way to Baskerville Hall, the coach driver Perkins (Sam Kydd) warns that a convict named Selden (Michael Mulcaster) has escaped from nearby Dartmoor Prison two days ago. Watson the case: Seldon was convicted of murdering a number of street women; due to some talk of him being insane, he was sentenced to life imprisonment instead of hanging.
While at Baskerville Hall, Watson meets a man named Stapleton (Ewen Solon) and his daughter Cecille (Marla Landi), who save him from sinking into quicksand in the Grimpen Mire. Cecille seems to act strangely around both Sir Henry and Watson. At night, Watson sees a light shining out upon the moor and starts to suspect that something is going on. He and Sir Henry investigate the mysterious light. While they are out upon the moor, the Baskerville hound howls, causing Sir Henry to suffer from heart problems. As they leave, a strange man rushes past. The two pursue the man, but he gets away; they go back to Baskerville Hall.
Soon, Watson discovers that the strange man was actually Holmes in disguise; Holmes had arrived hours after Watson did. They find out that the convict, Selden, who is actually the butler Barrymore’s brother-in-law, was the one signaling with the light the other night, and that Barrymore and his wife were the ones returning the signal. Several events occur, such as Sir Henry being invited to dinner by Cecille and Stapleton, the hound mistakenly killing Selden because Selden is wearing Sir Henry’s clothes, and finally Holmes’ almost being trapped inside an old mine while investigating.
Cecille takes Sir Henry out to the moor one night. By now, Holmes has solved the case: The Stapletons are actually illegitimate descendants of Sir Hugo and are next in line to get the Baskerville fortune and mansion if all of the Baskervilles are killed off. Cecile has taken Sir Henry out onto the moor so that he may be killed by the hound - an actual, living dog bought by Stapleton, not a ghost as many were led to believe. Holmes and Watson rush out just in time to hear Cecile reveal her intentions to a horrified Sir Henry. Stapleton appears and attacks from behind, but in turn is shot in the side by Watson. The hound of the Baskervilles suddenly appears and attacks the group but desists when shot by Holmes; it then mauls Stapledon to death. Cecille flees while Holmes kills the beast, revealing it to be a normal dog with a mask on to make it look more terrifying. Cecile accidentally falls into the mire and slowly sinks to her death. Holmes and Watson take a shocked Sir Henry back to Baskerville Hall, as the case is solved.
Read more about this topic: The Hound Of The Baskervilles (1959 Film)
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“James’s great gift, of course, was his ability to tell a plot in shimmering detail with such delicacy of treatment and such fine aloofness—that is, reluctance to engage in any direct grappling with what, in the play or story, had actually “taken place”Mthat his listeners often did not, in the end, know what had, to put it in another way, “gone on.””
—James Thurber (1894–1961)
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—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)