Page 6, Retriever, 29 September. 1975 ,Film

The Hound of the Baskervilles, the 1939 character actors like John Carrdine, Baskervilles. definitive screen-' version of the Sherlock Lionel Atwill and Beryl Mercer in their One of the major reasons to go see-this Holmes mystery, is being re-released heyday. now, in re-release, is that a vintage Fox amid a great resurge of interest in For the devotees of Holmes films, Hound Movietone short is being shown with it. mysteries, as well as one of the most phony represents the first and finest of the Rath­ The short is a monologue given by Comin and pretentious promotional campaigns bone-Bruce series. Mter The Adventures Doyle, himself, in which he discusses the ever. of Sherlock Holmes (1938), the films were origins of Holmes and his (Doyle's) in· Accompanying the newspaper ads, is a taken from Fox to Universal studios and terest in spiritualism. This is a rare ex· blurb that states that Holmes is "the an inferior director (Roy William Neill). perience for any fan of Doyle. first hip cop," that the film "struggled out As the series ~ent through the early '40's , Those fans will undoubtedly approve of of Hollywood" and that it was "highly they became less adaptations of Conan this re-release while - others who are censored. " Doyle's work and more Hollywood egged-<>n by outlandish promotional First, not oply was Holmes not hip, but propaganda for the War effort. It is these material will be confused and extremely he was never a cop. Second, the "con­ later films that are dated by the passage of disappointed. BEN MALINOWSKI !iracy" and censoring wa~ merely routine time, certainly not Hound of the _ work done by the Heyes office. Third, less than one minute was cut out from the original. Is -that "highly censored?" The Dance minute that was cut contained visual illusions as to what Holmes really smoked in that pipe and a verbal illusion to his drug addiction in his last line: "Watson, bring the needle." That's it! What makes all the false publicity seem Forti Draws Ambivalent·Response so bad is that Hound of the Baskervilles doesn't need it. It's not all that dated, and it can stand on it's own merit as a faithful, briskly-paced and atmospheric screen In Progressions Series Performance adaptation. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce are Holmes and Watson. They have made the roles uniquely their own. Rathbone is The exploratory dance of Simone Forti the only outstanding objects on it. Mter a her. This was not only refreshing but ~rfection as Holmes. Bruce has made the was the second performance of the UMBC brief intermission she did any ipteresting delightful as she proceeded to explain how most of what in writing was little more Progressions Series. whistle in which she traced the outlines of she goes about observing, then imitating than an exposition character. He has Held ,last Tuesday in the dance studio, various facial profiles with a long ' stick animal movements, or when she began made Watson a speaker for the audience Ms. Forti's work drew an ambivalent connected to the whistle. The result was a crawling about demonstrating how it was as we jump to conclusions only to marvei response from her·audience. Though much peculiar sequence of sounds. She also not possible to sit down in one movement at Holmes' wit at proving us wrong. Some of what she did was interesting for its walked around blowing a piece of coiled from a crawling position and still be facing critics feel that Bruce made Watson too uniqueness, at times it went a little too tubing creating musical tones. Her the same direction. much .of a simp. This isn't true, it is merely slowly for some people's taste. ,IJ"ogram was concluded by a flowing This is not meant to imply that she is an a kind of contrast. She began her show by singing an Italian series of explorati>ry movements to the immature dancer. Quite the cont:rary, In the Hammer production of Hound of . folk song while a Beatles record, "The recorded music of Japanese baby rattles some of the positions she attained and held the Baskervilles (959), Andre Morell Fool on the Hill" in the background. Then composed by Peter Van Ripers: On reflected a remarkable amount of portrayed Watson as a rather able-minded ' she read a series of short animal Wednesday she held a seminar at 2 where flexibility and control. ;;idekick. As a result, his Watson was movement stories, each about two sen- \ she talked about her work. For me, it is always interesting to ex­ colorless and Peter Cushing's Holmes tences long. Next she did a choreographed If any adjective can be ascribed to Ms. perience new experimental, or rather oon­ :lidn't seem all that superior in com· piece called Sleep Walkers to the tinkling Forti's art, it would have to be "subtle." conventional, art forms; in t~at art is, in a Jarison. The role cried out for some of of wind chimes activated by an electric fan There was a very calming affect that she • cet:tain sense, a continuing experiment in Bruce's stuttering and mumbling---which which also fluttered a big sheet onto which had on her audience. Some unfortunately human expression and conception. Thus I ~;!S thought of as mere comic relief. she had projeCted the slide of a mesa were so calmed that they became bored. am looking forward to the next artist in T.his earlier version of Hound also region with a pillar and an odd animal as In talking to her afterwards I noticed a this series, Charles Dodge. glves you the opportunity of seeing good thing called "Faces Tunes" with a slIde 'kInd of childlike curiosity ,she had about BERNARD PENNER

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