The Hound of the Baskervilles&Adventures of Sherlock Holmes:Did you pick them up? (1 Viewer)

[Mike Rogers]

I was just curious if anybody grabbed the first two
Basil Rathbone-Sherlock Holmes 20th Century Fox movies,
"The Hound of the Baskervilles" and
"The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes".I watched them back to back when I first got them and the Picture quality was
just SUPERB,especially on the HOUND dvd.

 

[John Hodson]

Yes; excellent. The scuttlebutt was that they weren't up to the standard of the rest, but I was more than pleasantly surprised, and they are, of course, the best movies in the series.

Elementary

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So many films, so little time...

 

[Tom June]

I can't wait to pick these up this weekend. Here's hoping Best Buy has them.

 

[Steve...O]

Tom, Borders Books and Music has these for $14.99 if there's one near you. (HINT: There's a Borders coupon in the coupon forum)

Both DVDs are very well done. There is no way anybody would be disappointed in the quality of these. The commentaries are interesting and entertaining as well.

WELL DONE MPI!! I just wish other studios would show the same respect to their library of classic mystery series.

Steve

 

[Matt Stieg]

I saw both of them crop up in Borders as early as mid-March. I picked up Adventures several weeks ago as I hadn't seen it and already had Hound on VHS. I was very pleasantly surprised by the picture quality, just about as good as the UCLA restorations of the Universal films, only slightly softer image. I look forward to getting Hound asap.

Anyone else snatch the early copies that leaked out?

 

[Dave Jessup]

Picked up copies of both yesterday, along with the Universal boxes of monsters. Sampled "Hound" (jumped through the chapter stops) and was, like others here, quite pleased with picture quality. We moved on to "Dracula"; the Holmes treats will probably wait for this weekend. It's been a long time since I've watched this Hound, and I may have seen "Adventures" only once - nice to have controlled anticipation instead of "it's not available...."

"Watson... the needle!"

 

[Steve...O]

Matt, I picked up both of these up on 3/19. From what I gathered, that particular retailer had them out all over the country.

WORD OF WARNING: the commentary for HOUND reveals the name of the "bad guy" early on with no spoiler warning. If you've never seen the film, don't listen to the commentary first if you don't want the ending spoiled.

I do give the commentator for ADVENTURES credit for putting a spoiler warning on his commentary.

Steve

 

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

I recieved my copies earlier this week, and have now watched 'em both (and sampled the commentaries). Great stuff.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Picked up Adventures. Great sound and the picture rates high marks as well. The only quibble I have is the night scenes of the Tower of London - especially on the rooftop.

Richard Valley provides great liner notes and audio commentary.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

I don't have ADVENTURES yet, but I do have HOUND. The picture quality is fairly good, but the fog scenes near the end are problematic. Very artifacty. I don't know if it's just my DVD player or display, but those scenes don't look very good to me. I do know that fog is a problem with certain DVD transfers.

 

[Steve...O]

Glad to see these films are still generating interest. I didn't notice any particular problems with any of the night/fog scenes on my discs but I'll look at them again.

Ditto on the Valley commentary. I wish he'd done more of them. From what I understand, he's currently working on a book about the Rathbone/Bruce films and radio series.

From all accounts, MPI, a relatively minor player, enjoyed a sales bonanza with these releases. One can only be amazed that a major like Fox continues to sit on their Chan films.

Steve

 

[Lou Sytsma]

It is great revisiting these films - I remember staying up late Friday nights to catch the Rathbone movies.

I am eagerly anticipating working through these and the Brett ones as well - though I wish some of the earlier Brett volumes had been remastered.

I have the Rathbone Hounds and Wilder's Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes ordered next.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Anyone had a look at the Arthur Wortner-as-Holmes movies that have started showing up? I caught a couple of them on late-night PBS, and I quite liked The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes - it struck me as the most faithful pre-Brett version - though wasn't fond of the others.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

No I have not Jason. I believe that this series is coming out in a new DVD set soon.

 

[Steve...O]

I rewatched the MPI "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" DVD this weekend and while it is a good DVD several years of watching Warner and Fox DVDs have spoiled me and "Hound" and "Adventures" look like they could use upgrades as they were not restored at the time of their original release.

Does anyone know if restorations have been done to these titles in the past several years or if any are planned? I'm still not sure how Fox lost these to MPI but it would have been nice to see Shawn Belston and his staff do their magic with these.

Steve