Silver Blaze [Murder at the Baskervilles] *** (1937, Arthur Wontner, Ian Fleming, Lyn Harding, John Turnbull, Minnie Rayner) – Classic Movie Review 4,480

The likeable and entertaining 1937 British double-murder mystery thriller film Silver Blaze stars the ideal Arthur Wontner in his fifth and final portrayal of Sherlock Holmes.

The 1937 British black-and-white double-murder mystery thriller film Silver Blaze stars the near-ideal Arthur Wontner in his fifth and final portrayal of Sherlock Holmes.

Director Thomas Bentley’s likeable and entertaining 1937 British black-and-white double-murder mystery crime thriller film Silver Blaze [Murder at the Baskervilles] stars the near-ideal Arthur Wontner on rather splendid form in his fifth and final portrayal of Sherlock Holmes.

This time, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson take a supposedly restful and recuperative holiday in the English Westcountry and stay with Holmes’s old friend Sir Henry Baskerville (Lawrence Grossmith). But the sleuthing duo soon find themselves in the middle of a mystery involving a double-murder and a missing racehorse. Professor Moriarty (Lyn Harding) is at the back of it, and now they have to find the evil mastermind and the stolen much-fancied racehorse Silver Blaze before the great horse race and before there are any more murders.

[Spoiler alert] Unusually, the horse did it! Holmes finds that the racehorse has killed the groom-trainer by death-inducing kicking and galloped off from the scene of the crime.

Wontner, Ian Fleming as Dr Watson, Lyn Harding as Professor Moriarty and John Turnbull as Inspector Lestrade are all on fine form in this very fair if not quite outstanding British Holmes series entry, based by screen-writers Arthur Macrae and H Fowler Mear on a neat and nifty Sir Arthur Conan Doyle short story, The Adventure of Silver Blaze. The film is entirely likeable, entertaining and enjoyable, playing fair to Doyle’s complicated, far-fetched story, and with plenty of baffling plot to fill the 71 minutes of running time satisfyingly. It’s nice to see Minnie Rayner one more time as the housekeeper Mrs Hudson, even if she has too little screen time.

Unfortunately the film is again set in its Thirties period of making, with a car chase and Holmes, Watson and the Chief Constable attacked by a Tommy-gun-armed Colonel Sebastian Moran (Arthur Goullet). Also, unfortunately, the studio-based production (at Twickenham Film Studios) is often very cheap looking, particularly the inadequate moors set, though at other times it looks just fine (Baskerville Hall is really quite lavish, considering).

The film completely ignores the events of the previous episode, The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes (1935), where Holmes had left Baker Street to retire to the country and he had killed Moriarty. 

Also in the cast are Judy Gunn, Lawrence Grossmith, Arthur Macrae, Eve Gray, Martin Walker, and Robert Horton.

It is produced by Julius Hagen for his Twickenham Film Studios Productions.

Basil Rathbone was to be the next and arguably the definitive Sherlock, but Wontner certainly does not need to be forgotten. He needs to be remembered and celebrated.

It was released in the United States by Astor Pictures in 1941 as Murder at the Baskervilles, retitled to cash in on the success of Rathbone’s Holmes film, The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939). The original running time of Silver Blaze is 71 minutes but the US version runs 65 minutes, which is the TCM print and the one on the Internet. But, happily, the English version is available, and the print is in good condition.

Neither Professor Moriarty nor Sir Henry Baskerville appears in Conan Doyle’s 1892 short story, and in a way it’s a pity that they are in the film. They slightly get in the way of the plot, entertaining though Lyn Harding’s Moriarty is.

English playwright and comic actor Arthur Macrae (real name William Arthur Schröpfer, 17 March 1908 – 25 February 1962) is the uncredited screenwriter and gives himself a role as Jack Trevor.

The cast are Arthur Wontner as Sherlock Holmes, Ian Fleming as Dr Watson, Lyn Harding as Professor Moriarty, John Turnbull as Inspector Lestrade, Robert Horton as Colonel Ross, Lawrence Grossmith as Sir Henry Baskerville, Judy Gunn as Diana Baskerville, Arthur Macrae as Jack Trevor, Arthur Goullet as Colonel Sebastian Moran, Martin Walker as James Straker, Eve Gray as Mrs Mary Straker, Gilbert Davis as Miles Stanford, Minnie Rayner as housekeeper Mrs Hudson, D J Williams as Silas Brown, Ralph Truman as Bert Prince, and Ronald Shiner as Simpson the Stable Boy / Jockey.

Silver Blaze is directed by Thomas Bentley, runs 71 minutes or 65 minutes, is made by Twickenham Film Studios Productions, is distributed by Associated British Picture Corporation (UK) and Astor Pictures (US), is written by H Fowler Mear (adaptation, uncredited) and Arthur Macrae (writer, uncredited), based on the Arthur Conan Doyle story The Adventure of Silver Blaze, is shot in black-and-white by Sydney Blythe and William Luff, is produced by Julius Hagen, and is scored by H Baynton Power.

Release date: June 30, 1937 (London) and January 15, 1941 (US).

German-born British film producer Julius Hagen [Julius Jacob Kleimenhagen] (1884–1940) From 1928 to 1937 he controlled Twickenham Studios and became one of the most successful producers of quota quickies. He directed one of the earliest quota quickies: The Passing of Mr Quin, an Agatha Christie adaptation.

The 2012 Guinness World Records lists Holmes as the most portrayed literary human character in film and TV, with more than 75 actors playing the part in more than 250 productions.

The Wontner Holmes series: The Sleeping Cardinal (1931), The Missing Rembrandt (1932), The Sign of Four (1932), The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes (1935), Silver Blaze (1937).

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4,480

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