greenbudgie

I felt thankful this Thames TV episode had been saved as I soaked up the Gothic atmosphere while watching Uncle Silas. Not all of the Mystery And Imagination series has survived at all while some have only been saved as audio only. This dramatization of J. Sheridan le Fanu's story is atmospheric with dark mansions and graveyards. It revolves around Maud Ruthyn whose life is about to change when her father dies. She is curious about her mysterious uncle who has a past that the family doesn't like to talk about. Maud is terrified of her French governess who has macabre likes which include talking to the dead in the local cemetery. The governess is sent away after she is caught meddling with the last will and testament of Maud's father, which also hastens also hastens the man's death. Because she is still a minor, Maud is sent to live in the care of her mysterious uncle until she reaches her majority when she is due to inherit. Her uncle's mansion is a creepy place which she is not allowed to stray too far from and Maud's discomfort increases when the French governess turns up again. I reckon this is better than the 1947 Jean Simmons movie version of Uncle Silas, released as The Inheritance in the US. My favorite character is Madame de la Rougierre, the impish and creepy French governess played with wicked relish by Patience Collier.

John Beal plays a doctor who in an absent-minded moment places some addictive and dangerous pills in his pocket at a research laboratory. He is feeling washed-out with attacks of migraine headaches when he takes the dangerous tablets in mistake for those he usually takes for migraine. He discovers the pills he has taken in error are concocted of the blood of vampire bats which are present at the laboratory. There the researcher has died along with the research animals except for the bats. John Beal gives a good performance as the tormented doctor who believes he is responsible for three deaths although he has no memory of actually killing. Like the Lawrence Talbot character of Universal's Wolf Man movies, through no fault of his own he has turned into a monster who kills at night. I like Dabbs Greer who gives good support as Dr. Beaumont who tries to save John Beal from his addiction to the pills. Also James Griffith as Beaumont's assistant Henry looking sinister with dark glasses and a creepy smile playing on his lips. Suspicion could have easily fallen on him as he is a withdrawn character who was traumatized by a gas explosion in his childhood. There are some good eerie images like the laboratory mansion half-hidden by trees and Woodend Cemetery where the exhumation of one of the victims takes place. This movie was made in just seven days but I reckon this is up there with the best of the 1950s b-horror films.

In this review, I just want to highlight the differences in the main characters of the Sherlock Holmes stories between the Basil Rathbone series and this TV presentation. The movie-going had long identified Rathbone with Sherlock Holmes so it was always going to be interesting what changes this 1954 series would make. Basil Rathbone was aged 47 to 54 when he played Holmes onscreen whereas Ronald Howard was 36. So immediately it is the level of maturity that comes into play when comparing the two. Basil Rathbone's Holmes did occasionally err but he was always mature and immediately chided himself for his mistakes. Ronald Howard's Holmes makes more mistakes because he has some hotheaded immaturity about him. Howard's rendition is more relaxed after seeing Rathbone's edginess as Holmes. Ronald Howard himself declared that his Holmes was "not an infallible, eagle-eyed, out-of the-ordinary personality, but an exceptionally sincere young man trying to get ahead in his profession." Moving to Watson, I have a soft spot for Nigel Bruce but I think Howard Marion Crawford insisted he wouldn't play a Nigel Bruce type Dr. Watson. Bruce's muttering and slow-witted Watson didn't always appear to be a boon to Holmes but often his Watson would turn up in the end to save Holmes to make up for it. Crawford's Watson seems to be a more visible help to the detective and does keep a protective eye on Holmes throughout each case, making him appear more on equal terms.