Film Review
A spooky old house is the setting for the tenth outing of Basil Rathbone
and Nigel Bruce as Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, and neither actor
shows any sign, yet, of tiring of the part which he had played on film
and radio for almost six years. In the opening credits,
The House of Fear claims to be
based on the original Conan Doyle story
The Adventure of the Five Orange Pips,
whereas in fact it merely takes one plot idea from the story, namely
that the murder victim receives orange pips prior to his death.
In fact, the story is nearer to the Agatha Christie novel
Ten Little Niggers, and bears a
striking similarity with René Clair's adaptation of this novel,
And Then There Were None,
released in the same year as
The
House of Fear.
This is one of the more enjoyable and polished of the twelve Sherlock
Holmes films made by Universal in the 1940s, effectively combining the
elements of the classic British murder mystery and the old dark house
thriller, with a fair helping of slapstick to help relieve the wartime
blues. The heavily stylised design and cinematography show the
influence of German expressionism, with bold shadows and slanted camera
angles creating an unsettling sense of menace and tension, typifying a
style that we now recognise as
film noir.
To counterbalance the darker moments of the story, its authors manage
to crowbar in some comedy, with Nigel Bruce and Dennis Hoey performing
what looks suspiciously like an Abbott and Costello tribute act.
By this stage, Bruce and Hoey have succeeded in reducing the combined
I.Q. of Watson and Lestrade to a single digit number and you
now understand just why Holmes keeps saying "elementary". The
Sherlockian purists may cringe but it's still all good fun.
© James Travers 2009
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Next Roy William Neill film:
The Woman in Green (1945)
Film Synopsis
Drearcliffe House, a remote Scottish castle, is home to seven retired
bachelors who refer to themselves as the Good Comrades. When two
of the men die in mysterious circumstances, their insurance agent
invites Sherlock Holmes to investigate, convinced that foul play is
afoot. Each of the seven men has taken out an insurance policy,
naming his six companions as his sole beneficiaries in the event of his
death. Holmes is intrigued when he learns that the two dead men
each received an envelope containing some orange pips. When one
of the five surviving comrades receives a similar envelope, no one
doubts that another death is imminent. Can Holmes prevent it...?
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.