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THE DOG OF DOOM

The poor thing clearly never received proper training.

It was in 1914 that Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1902 Sherlock Holmes mystery The Hound of the Baskervilles was adapted into the first of thirty movies—and counting, as of last year’s actionized Bengali language effort Saralakkha Holmes. But with all those choices we liked the above poster the most, so the iteration starring Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Richard Greene, and Wendy Barrie is the one we watched.

You probably know the story. For centuries every master of majestic Baskerville Hall has died violently, in what is thought by the superstitious to be supernatural revenge for the death of an abducted peasant girl during the 1600s. Holmes is asked by the Baskerville family physician to look into the demise of patriarch Sir Charles Baskerville, who died of alleged fright near the paw prints of an enormous dog. Helping him out is his sidekick Dr. Watson and the latest Baskerville heir, Sir Henry.

The source novel by Arthur Conan Doyle is regarded by many as the best Sherlock Holmes tale. It’s certainly a creepy one. The movie preserves that horror-adjacent mood, via plenty of nocturnal sneaking around, a candlelit seance, mysterious neolithic stones, and lots of howling from the dread bog known as the Grimpen Mire. “I tell you it’s nothing. Nothing but the wind.” We’ve heard plenty of wind, but never any like in this film.

The longfaced Rathbone is a subtle actor here. He makes good use of his eyes, which can be both penetrating and soulful, particularly during moments when important thoughts coalesce. We can’t imagine a better Sherlock. And for the moment, we can’t imagine a better version of this particular Doyle story. The final line of dialogue is this: “Watson—the needle!” Holmes was a recreational user of cocaine and morphine. How did that ever survive the censors? We’ll never know. The Hound of the Baskervilles premiered today in 1939.

England, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Richard Greene, Wendy Barrie, John Carradine, Lionel Atwill, John Carradine, Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes, poster art, cinema, movie review

SEEDS OF TROUBLE

When America's borders are penetrated the government unleashes a load of C-Men.


This is a pretty interesting poster for the crime drama ‘C’–Man, a movie dealing with the intrepid customs men who confiscate contraband passing through U.S. borders and arrest the criminals who broke the law. Though the possibility amuses us in the most juvenile way, we don’t think customs men were ever called c-men, and the reason why is obvious. In any case, Dean Jagger stars as a New York City c-man who investigates the murder of his pal and colleague who’d been investigating a ring of jewel thieves. He goes undercover, takes a couple of beatings, and develops an affection for Lottie Elwen, who plays the dupe girlfriend of one of the smugglers.

This is strictly a low budget affair, barely viable even as a b-movie. It was shot fast, all the sound except for one nightclub scene was recorded natively, and it doesn’t seem as if retakes were usually an option. There’s no doubt the c-men will come out on top, and when you add in the opening thank-you to the “agents of the U.S. Treasury Department, without whose assistance this film could not have been made,” what you have is a cheap propaganda piece, one in which the lauded and noble subjects of the cinematic stroke job don’t even come out looking that great. There are infinitely better vintage crime dramas, as well as better propaganda flicks, so in our opinion you can skip this one. ‘C’–Man premiered today in 1949.
New York City, 'C'-Man, Dean Jagger, Lottie Elwen, John Carradine, poster art, cinema, movie review

SWAMPED AT WORK

A trapper's job turns into a battle of wits and a test of survival.


The movie Swamp Water is based on Vereen Bell’s 1941 novel of the same name. We read the book a while back and loved it, so having a look at the movie adaptation was mandatory. Jean Renoir directs a heavyweight cast: Walter Brennan, Walter Huston, Dana Andrews, an eighteen-year old Anne Baxter, and even John Carradine. Brennan is the key character, playing a murder suspect hiding in the Okefenokee Swamp. He’s considered an all-time great actor, and here he plays a backwoods good ole boy, mouthing dialogue like, “I bet I been cottonmouth bit a dozen times.” When we heard that line we had to laugh, because it prefigures his famous soliloquy from 1946’s To Have and Have Not about being “bit by a dead bee.”

There’s more excellent dialogue in this. Our favorite line: “It’s gettin’ so I don’t expect nothin’ from you ‘cept a bossified tongue and a cussin’ out.”

While the script is fun, we didn’t think Bell’s book would be easily adaptable and we were right. One of the pleasures of the novel is its extensive focus on the geography of the swamp, but there was no way that could fit into the film. The air of deep foreboding and mystery is also missing. For those and other reasons what you end up with is a so-so old movie made from an excellent old book. The script closely follows the source material, so if you want to know a bit more about the plot, we posted a short write-up on the novel here. Swamp Water opened across the U.S. in November 1941, but before its national debut had a special premiere in the town of Waycross, Georgia, where much of the movie was made. That was today, 1941.

Georgia, Waycross, Swamp Water, Walter Brennan, Walter Huston, Dana Andrews, Anne Baxter, Virginia Gilmore, John Carradine, Vereen Bell, Jean Renoir, poster art, cinema, movie review
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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1916—Richard Harding Davis Dies

American journalist, playwright, and author Richard Harding Davis dies of a heart attack at home in Philadelphia. Not widely known now, Davis was one of the most important and influential war correspondents ever, establishing his reputation by reporting on the Spanish-American War, the Second Boer War, and World War I, as well as his general travels to exotic lands.

1919—Zapata Is Killed

In Mexico, revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata is shot dead by government forces in the state of Morelos, after a carefully planned ambush. Following the killing, Zapata’s revolutionary movement and his Liberation Army of the South slowly fall apart, but his political influence lasts in Mexico to the present day.

1925—Great Gatsby Is Published

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is published in New York City by Charles Scribner’s Sons. Though Gatsby is Fitzgerald’s best known book today, it was not a success upon publication, and at the time of his death in 1940, Fitzgerald was mostly forgotten as a writer and considered himself to be a failure.

1968—Martin Luther King Buried

American clergyman and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., is buried five days after being shot dead on a Memphis, Tennessee motel balcony. April 7th had been declared a national day of mourning by President Lyndon B. Johnson, and King’s funeral on the 9th is attended by thousands of supporters, and Vice President Hubert Humphrey.

1953—Jomo Kenyatta Convicted

In Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta is sentenced to seven years in prison by the nation’s British rulers for being a member of the Mau Mau Society, an anti-colonial movement. Kenyatta would a decade later become independent Kenya’s first prime minister, and still later its first president.

1974—Hank Aaron Becomes Home Run King

Major League Baseball player Hank Aaron hits his 715th career home run, surpassing Babe Ruth’s 39-year-old record. The record-breaking homer is hit off Al Downing of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and with that swing Aaron puts an exclamation mark on a twenty-four year journey that had begun with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro League, and would end with his selection to Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame.

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BRAZIL UNDERGROUND

Edições de Ouro and Editora Tecnoprint published U.S. crime novels for the Brazilian market, with excellent reworked cover art to appeal to local sensibilities. We have a small collection worth seeing.

FLUENT IN VIOLENCE

Walter Popp cover art for Richard Powell's 1954 crime novel Say It with Bullets.

IN HOT WATER

There have been some serious injuries on pulp covers. This one is probably the most severe—at least in our imagination. It was painted for Stanley Morton's 1952 novel Yankee Trader.

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