AMUSEMENTS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20120, 14 December 1939, Page 3

AMUSEMENTS

KING’S THEATRE “TIIE THREE MUSKETEERS” Comedy and melodrama have been brilliantly blended in the 20th Century Fox ' film, “The Three Musketeers,” which will be shown for the last time to-day at the King's Theatre. 'The three 'Ritz Brothers are responsible for the picture’s most hilarious moments, while, as Alexandre Dumas’ fiery D'Artagnan, Don Ameche is perfectly east. —"The Hound of the Baskervilles”: Conan Doyle’s Mystery To-morrow The thrilling screen version of Conan Doyle’s famous novel, "The Hound of the .Baskervilles," opens a three-day season at (he King’s Theatre to-morrow. In the role of Sherlock , Holmes Basil Rathbone's performance is convincing. The ghostly mists of the eerie moors round the ancestral heme of the Baskervilles have hidden many horrible sights, and the legend is well known of the inheritors of the estates who all met sudden and horrible deaths. Sir Henry (Richard Greene), the young heir just returning from Canada, may be destined for just such a horrible death, tout Sherlock Holmes ( is called in by a neighbour of the Baskervilles. Met in London toy (Holmes and Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce), Sir Henry scoffs at the warnings he receives about, the risk he takes by going to the home where his uncle recently met a sudden death. That the footprints of a huge hound were found near the body does not convince him that his -uncle’s heart failure was not a natural occurrence. At his home on Dartmoor Sir Henry is happy enough, and more so after making the acquaintance of Beryl Stapleton (Wendy Barrie). With him also is Dr. Watson,, while .Holmes has supposedly been left in London. (But soon frightening events occur. The howling at night and one of the servants found signalling to someone out on the moor make Sir Henry a little nervous. Then Watson discovers that an old hermit living out on the moor is Holmes. Holmes is on the scene at last, and everyone is very thankful. .Front now on things happen in a terrifying atmosphere of suspense, the servants in the manor behave most suspiciously, with obvious motive, it seems, and the mystery of why two of Sir Henry’s boots were stolen from his hotel in London has not yet been solved. Eventually one realises that they will provide a scent for the horrible beast to trail. An occasional joke from 'Dr. Watson gives a moment to take a .breath, but the situation 'becomes still more tense, the mists still hang gloomily round the crags out on the moor, and the howling is still heard at night. Yet even now no one is sure if the beast exists: Excitement grows, and one wonders whether Holmes knows how to handle the problem; one wonders, for instance, why he seems so interested in an old portrait of one of the former Baskervilles. But Holmes has seen a resemblance in that portrait, and even a distant relative might be the next of kin who would have a motive for killing Sir Henry. Not once in the film does the old catch-phrase. “Elementary, my dear Watson.” occur.