The House of Fear *** (1945, Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Dennis Hoey, Aubrey Mather, Florette Hillier) – Classic Movie Review 993

Basil Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce’s Dr Watson are happily back on home turf again in the 1945 film The House of Fear, called in by an insurance company to solve a series of murders in a Scottish mansion ominously called Drearcliff.

In the 1945 film The House of Fear, Basil Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce’s Dr Watson are happily back on home turf again after several movies battling the Nazis, called in by an insurance company to try to solve a series of murders in a Scottish mansion ominously called Drearcliff. Seven rich men, members the Good Comrades club, have retired to the mansion but promptly begin to die in a violent fashion. All of them are heavily insured, with the life insurance of the victim shared between the survivors.

Inspector Lestrade receives a note from a local shopkeeper, who says he has a clue. But when the detective trio visit, they find the shopkeeper killed. Holmes exhumes one of the graves and finds the coffin empty. After the sixth member has been murdered, the sole surviving member, Bruce Alastair (Aubrey Mather), is arrested.

Among the ace cards in director Roy William Neill’s 1945 thriller film’s winning hand are a load of appropriately doomy and gloomy atmosphere, a nice creepy, menacing mood and of course the dignified performances of the classy star duo, who are effectively balanced by the comic relief of Dennis Hoey’s amusingly slow-witted Inspector Lestrade.

There’s a decent mystery, too, in this eighth of Universal studios’ series of 12, loosely based on the 1891 short story The Adventure of the Five Orange Pips by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The title is explained by the fact that the deaths are foretold by the eerie arrival of an envelope with orange pips with the future victim, indicating that he is the next target.

It was released in a double bill with The Mummy’s Curse (1944).

It follows The Pearl of Death, and precedes The Woman in Green.

The cast are Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes, Nigel Bruce as Dr John Watson, Aubrey Mather as Bruce Alastair, Dennis Hoey as Inspector Lestrade, Paul Cavanagh as Dr Simon Merivale, Holmes Herbert as Alan Cosgrave, Harry Cording as Captain John Simpson, Sally Shepherd as Mrs Monteith, Gavin Muir as Mr Chalmers, David Clyde as Alec MacGregor, Florette Hillier as Alison MacGregor, Wilson Benge as Guy Davis, Cyril Delevanti as Stanley Raeburn, Richard Alexander as Ralph King, Doris Lloyd as innkeeper Bessie, Alec Craig as Angus, C E Anderson as Mourner, and Leslie Denison as Sergeant Bleeker.

The House of Fear is directed by Roy William Neill, runs 69 minutes, is made and released by Universal Pictures, is written by Roy Chanslor, based on the story The Adventure of the Five Orange Pips by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is produced by Roy William Neill, is shot by Virgil Miller, and is scored by Paul Sawtell.

Release date: March 16, 1945.

The Rathbone–Bruce series consists of: The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939), The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939), Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942), Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1942), Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943), Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943), The Spider Woman (1943), The Scarlet Claw (1944), The Pearl of Death (1944), The House of Fear (1945), The Woman in Green (1945), Pursuit to Algiers (1945), Terror by Night (1946), and Dressed to Kill (1946).

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 993

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