Sherlock Holmes: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

3. Peter Cushing - The Hound Of The Baskervilles

At the opposite end of the fidelity spectrum to Brett's ultra-researched take on the pipe smoking crime solver was Hammer's delightfully lurid version of the most famous (and, not coincidentally, most gothic) Holmes story of them all. Having helmed their biggest hits, Hammer brought in Frankenstein and Dracula director Terence Fisher to bring his and the horror-loving studio's unique style to the decades old story. Naturally, Fisher brought his Van Helsing and Victor Frankenstein along to play the lead. Every bit the Holmes aficionado that Brett was, Cushing ensured that little details from the Conan Doyle stories were included in the film, although arguably the picture's strength is in ramping up the gothic horror elements with the likes of poisonous spiders and ritual sacrifice (neither of which appear in the book). Cushing certainly looks the part, with his high cheekbones and arched eyebrows, but he also brought a forceful energy to Holmes, in the same way that he had rescued the part of Van Helsing from being a fusty academic and made him a man of action. There is, equally, a wry, whimsical quality to Cushing's performance that means you never quite know what he will do next. Cushing would return to the role in the late 1960s for the BBC's low budget and somewhat rushed adaptations of Conan Doyle's stories, including a more faithful but far less fun Hound Of The Baskervilles. Old frenemy Christopher Lee appeared in the Hammer film as Sir Henry Baskerville, as well as in Wilder's Private Life... as Mycroft and a handful of passable TV appearances as Holmes himself.