Sat 8 Aug 2015
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: THE HOUSE OF FEAR (1945).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies[5] Comments
THE HOUSE OF FEAR. Universal, 1945. Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Aubrey Mather, Dennis Hoey, Paul Cavanagh, Holmes Herbert, Harry Cording, Sally Shepherd. Screenplay: Roy Chanslor, based on the characters created by Arthur Conan Doyle. Director: Roy William Neill.
Yet another in the superior “B” series produced and directed by Roy William Neill, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. This one — very loosely based on “The Adventure of the Five Orange Pips” — offers a disparate group of bachelors sharing their fortunes at a remote Old Dark House somewhere on the Gothic Coast of England until they start getting murdered one by one, their gruesome demises presaged by anonymous missives filled with orange seeds.
Purists at the time complained loudly about this — Watson actually solves the case before Holmes does — but I found it charming, with the skillful interplay of the leads set neatly off once again by Neill’s off-noir lighting and intelligent pace.
August 8th, 2015 at 3:21 pm
To be honest, I can watch any of the Rathbone/Holmes movies any time and still enjoy them. They’re so fun and charming and likeable that they’re the equivalent of comfort food for me. As soon as I see those two moving out of the fog towards me, together with that familiar music, I can just sit back and relax.
HOUSE OF FEAR isn’t my absolute favourite of the series, but each one has its own particular pleasures. Here it’s the wonderfully flustered Aubrey Mather sighing ‘Oh dear…’ as his companions are apparently murdered one by one.
August 8th, 2015 at 5:33 pm
This was the first Holmes movie that I ever saw, so my judgment may be clouded by nostalgia. Objectively, it is not the best Sherlock Holmes movie,or even the best in the Universal series, but it’s a sentimental favorite. And, even if it is not a classic, it’s very entertaining.
August 8th, 2015 at 5:45 pm
I’ve been a fan of this one, along with all the others in the series, since first seeing them on TV in the late 1960s. I remember giving my own rating to each one after watching it back then, with 1945’s THE SCARLET CLAW getting the highest marks. Not being a die-hard Sherlockian, I never had a problem with Nigel Bruce’s enjoyably humorous interpretation of Watson. Rathbone’s wind-blown coiffure in the first few films was a bit disconcerting, though.
August 9th, 2015 at 6:27 pm
While I prefer THE SCARLET CLAW, this is a close second of the Universal series with WOMAN IN GREEN in a solid third. Even later when the films had much less going for them writers like Frank Gruber, and those solid casts from Hollywood’s British Raj kept them going.
August 10th, 2015 at 3:11 pm
The series was in the theaters when I was young, but I never actually went to one at the time. Don’t ask me why? I do remember seeing the trailer for one of the later films in the series. Years later I watched them over and over on television and then bought a complete set on VHS. By that time I had them memorized so I never bought the complete set on DVD.