Audience Rating: Unrated Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 0010083040213 Format: NTSC Label: Warner Home Video Manufacturer: Warner Home Video Publisher: Warner Home Video Release Date: March 26, 1996 Running Time: 72 minutes Sales Rank: 50918 Studio: Warner Home Video
Rating: - A nostalgic look at The Great Detective as, aging, impatient and in retirement, he once more saves England
The year is 1926 and the place is a sitting room in London. An elderly gentleman is preparing to dictate a story to a young stenographer, a story which had until recently been kept a top secret by the British government. It concerned a situation which could have led to the excruciating deaths during The Great War of untold thousands of Londoners. Sitting nearby, smoking his pipe and reading the London Times, is the irascible old man who is the subject of the story. The gentleman getting ready to dictate (arthritis makes it difficult to write nowadays) is, of course, Dr. John Watson. His subject ... Read More
Rating: - second only to Rathbone
This is among the most satisfying Holmes-Watson films.
Brett's hamminess is fun, unlike the scenery-eating sonorities of Williamson, Plummer, et. al. But Cushing shares Rathbone's ability to convey the rapier intelligence of Holmes as intrinsic, "matter-of-fact brilliance."
And fondness for Bruce's Watson suggests that many subsequent Watsons have either been stodgily underplayed (which is fine) or else "enriched" with personal embellishments (notably Mason's engaging but speciously enhanced characterization in MURDER BY DECREE).
Rating: - A Charmingly Odd Little Film
This is an odd little TV film that is certainly "small potatoes" in the grand list of Sherlock Holmes films. But I seem to come back to it again and again. First, Peter Cushing is one of my very favorite Holmeses, and even as feeble as he is in this 1984 movie, he charms. Second, John Mills serves as a delightful older Watson, and his portrayal ranks right up there with that of James Mason in the marvelous MURDER BY DECREE. And despite quite a few problems with its canonicity, MASKS OF DEATH is clever fun. Now, if only it would become available on DVD (my VHS copy is wearing thin).
Rating: - His Last Bow
Not really based on Doyle, but Holmes does come out of retirement to foil a German plot in 1913. The plot itself is only fair, but Cushing and Mills more than make up for that in their performances and teamwork. They have the best chemistry as Holmes and Watson since Rathbone and Bruce. It's too bad failure to find financial backing and Cushing's failing health prevented any further films from being made. The supporting cast was also good. Gutsy casting, not one major player cast was under sixty at the time!
Rating: - Sherlock Holmes returns.....
Peter Cushing O.B.E. returns to the role of Sherlock Holmes 27 years after he made Hound of the Baskervilles for Hammer in 1959. An austere, civilised actor - even in his most disturbing horror roles! - Cushing pulls it off professionally as always (despite being well past his "retirement"), with fine support from Sir John Mills as Dr Watson. And well he should have - not only did Cushing make a Holmes TV series for the BBC in the 1960s, but he was an Honorary Member of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London. Following Masks of Death, Channel 4 tried to persuade Cushing to make another Holmes film, ... Read More
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