Powerful

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Blistering performances.

Not being, frankly speaking, a 'real' Sherlock Holmes fanatic (Hercule Poirot's more in my line, though he's pretty queer as well; but he DOES have that 'continental' charm), during the fifth and last movie in which Arthur Wontner portrays the famous sleuth (and he's REALLY brought the role to perfection by now), there are moments when he begins to get on my nerves with his constant line 'Elementary, my dear Watson, elementary!", his impossible observations and deductions, and his obsession with his arch-enemy Moriarty... But let's not do this film any wrong! It's a very well written, directed and acted crime mystery (in fact, with a plot feature that's REALLY stunning, although in fact it's so obvious - IF you deduce correctly...), with some beautiful shots of Dartmoor, where Holmes returns to the 'scene of the crime': he visits Sir Henry Baskerville, whom he had saved 20 years ago from the horrible hound; and becomes involved in the local horse racing scene, getting a chance to have a close look at the almost sure derby winner, 'Silver Blaze'. But Moriarty back in London at the same time agrees to a deal with a bookmaker who under NO circumstances wants 'Silver Blaze' to win - and so, soon Holmes and Watson find themselves in the middle of a strange mystery of murder and horse kidnapping...As I pointed out before, Arthur Wontner probably was the most characteristic 'Sherlock Holmes' ever, even more so than Basil Rathbone (he's only better remembered because he did a whole series of 15 Holmes movies for Hollywood's 20th Century-Fox Studios); and it's certainly worth taking a look at those older, genuinely British Doyle adaptations!

This is about on par with the lowest of the Monogram films that the U.S. produced during the '40s--however, it's a British B-film with little to recommend it.Holmes is played by sharp-featured Arthur Wontner (who bears somewhat of a resemblance to Basil Rathbone) and Ian Fleming is a suave version of Dr. Watson. Unfortunately, Lyn Harding is a very unimpressive figure as Professor Moriarty.The story taken from "Silver Blaze," left me uninvolved with its racetrack background. The TCM presentation begins with an announcement that the film has been restored, but you'd never know it. The soundtrack is poor with much of the British dialog unintelligible and the scenes themselves are murky and poorly photographed.I lost count of how many times Wontner says, "Elementary, my dear Watson," but let's just say this will never rank as one of my favorite Sherlock Holmes stories.Summing up: A feeble exercise in mystery that seems longer than its one hour and six minutes.

SILVER BLAZE was quite inappropriately retitled "MURDER AT THE BASKERVILLES" when it was released in the US in 1941. though it has nothing much to do with this great Sherlock Holmes story--other than adding the Henry Baskerville character for no apparent reason. Instead, the film is roughly Conan Doyle's "The Silver Blaze"--but with many changes--most notably the addition of Moriarty and Col. Sebastian Moran. Oddly, these characters (especially Moriarty) were included in many Holmes films even though in the books he was only a minor character (the same could be said of Inspector Lestrade). In reality, Moriarty appeared in just a few stories and was ultimately killed in a fight with Holmes mid-way through the series. Unfortunately, the addition of Moriarty didn't do much to bring excitement to the film and this master criminal seemed inexplicably involved in a very petty case that seems beneath his genius.I really don't want to describe the plot--others have done so and IMDb has a summary. Instead, it's important to talk about the overall effort. The film was made by a "poverty row" studio (Astor Films) and sure bears the earmarks of such a cheap film. Many of the outdoor scenes are clearly sets--and not very good ones. The acting is okay, but combined with a rather dull script and music, it just seems to have no life. Now I am not necessarily blaming those who played Holmes and Watson. Holmes was much closer to the books than the flamboyant character played by Basil Rathbone and Ian Fleming managed to play a decent Watson--not a total idiot like he was in many films (though not in the books). While their performances were decent, they cannot hold a candle to the Granada Television series of the 1980s--the Jeremy Brett series was just perfect and the scripts stayed extremely close to the brilliant original stories.So overall, this is a very watchable but jumbled film plot-wise. The acting is okay--not great but not bad, however the whole thing lacks energy. Worth seeing if you are a Holmes fan, but otherwise you'll probably find the whole thing a bit dull.

Arthur Wontner as Holmes is virtually the only reason to see this film, although it would be a passable time-filler even without him. The production values are erratic, sometimes convincing, sometimes shoestring, but the choppy print doesn't really help.Wontner certainly looked like The Strand's Man, but I find his portrayals almost too eccentric to swallow easily. His devouring of tobacco smoke was made great play of at the beginning, but as the story kicks in we're treated to his more analytical and serious side in the solving of a murder and a mysterious death on the Moors. You've got to admire the effrontery of someone who can identify a horse's horseshoes and pick out and track them miles across the Moors to where a body lay!Having just seen Come on George, made 2 years later than this, I found it disconcerting to hear the stableman Ronald Shiner referred to as a "boy" - was he ever? I would have thought that both Rathbone and Bruce must have seen this series of films, if only for reference, but LeStrade is pronounced LeStrayed here (as it was later on in the Jeremy Brett UK TV series). Favourite bit: Holmes and LeStrade reaching hearty agreement on clearing Trevor's name from guilt. First time of watching, but hopefully I'll come back again sometime for a second helping.