AllMovie

This first talkie version of Conan Doyle's classic thriller The Hound of the Baskervilles stars Robert Rendel as master detective Sherlock Holmes. Though the story has been modernized, the basic sequence of events remains. After being apprised of the curse of the Baskervilles by Dr. Mortimer (Wilfrid Shure), Holmes makes the acquaintance of Sir Henry Baskerville (John Stuart), who is quite concerned over a stolen boot. And well he should be: That boot has been pilfered by a master criminal, who hopes to lead Sir Henry to his doom on the Grimpen Mire near Baskerville Hall. It is said that the stately country manor is haunted by the ghost of a gigantic hound, but Holmes suspects that the vicious animal is very much alive, and very much the part of a scheme to murder Sir Henry so that his assailant can lay claim to the Baskerville millions. Complicating Holmes's efforts to shield Sir Henry from harm is the curious behavior of the film's two heroines, Beryl Stapleton (Heather Angel) and Laura Lyons (Elizabeth Vaughan). Though Edgar Wallace's screenplay for Hound of the Baskervilles exists, the film itself has all but vanished; only fragments of the picture negative are known to survive, while the soundtrack has apparently been lost forever.