On Screen -- The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)



Rathbone, Greene, and Atwill

 
 "The Hound of the Baskervilles" is a very entertaining mystery based on a story written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  This is the first on screen pairing of Basil Rathbone as "Sherlock Holmes" and Nigel Bruce as "Dr. John Watson".  The chemistry between these two actors is pure magic.  I'm not going to write too much about the story because I'm sure everyone knows it by now.  Basically Holmes and Watson are brought in to investigate the legend of a vicious hound that menaces the descendants of Sir Hugo Baskerville.  Holmes not believing in the legend of the hound rounds up the probable suspects in his own elementary and often imitated style.

This is probably one of the best known big screen versions of the story, and Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce went on to star together in a total of twelve Sherlock Holmes films.  This film also has a strong supporting cast including  Richard Greene who plays a dual role as both Sir Hugo and Sir Henry Baskerville.  Greene achieved fame in the 1950s as televisions' "Robin Hood".  Also costarring are Lionel Atwill as "Dr. Mortimer", John Carradine as "Barryman" the butler, and Wendy Barrie as "Beryl Stapleton". 

TCM Trivia Note  --  In the original novel, and in all later film versions, the butler is named Barrymore. In 1939  this had to be changed to Barryman because the famous Barrymore family was still acting in films.  In fact, John Barrymore himself portrayed Sherlock Holmes in a 1922 silent feature.

On Screen -- Grand Hotel (1932)



Joan Crawford


Where do I start ??  As the resident doctor at the "Grand Hotel" states "People come -- people go -- nothing ever happens ..."  This could be the greatest understatement ever uttered in cinema history.  The cast assembled for this film may only be rivaled by the cast of "Dinner at Eight" (1934) or "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" (1963).  The collection of characters is amazing - a tormented/eccentric ballerina, an aristocratic hotel thief, a pompous textile magnate, a sickly and dying bookkeeper, and a flirtatious stenographer are the main characters whose lives intertwine over the course of 24 hours at the "most expensive hotel in Berlin" the Grand Hotel. 

The stellar cast includes Greta Garbo in a  heartbreaking portrayal of "Grusinskaya the dancer".   John Barrymore evokes a sense of pity from the viewer as "the Baron".   Wallace Beery seems larger-than-life as "Director Preysing".   Joan Crawford is young and beautiful as "Miss Flaemmchen".  Lionel Barrymore is the underdog that you root for throughout the entire film as "poor Mr. Kringelein", and Lewis Stone lives out a seemingly wasted life as drunken "Dr. Otternschlag".  Lewis Stone also played opposite Garbo in "Queen Christina" (1933). Grand Hotel was the "Best Picture" Oscar winner in 1932 and was directed by Edmund Goulding ("Dark Victory" and "The Old Maid", both from 1939).