Sherlock Holmes and the Masks of Death

One of the main reasons for purchasing this movie on VHS was because Peter Cushing is in it, who makes a good Sherlock Holmes.

Sherlock Holmes comes out of retirement to investigate some strange murders in London's sewers. He teams up with Dr Watson once again. The the case takes them to Buckinghamshire. They end up back in London and down the sewers again, they discover a lab where poison gas is being made and these people are responsible for the murders and are arrested.

This movie is worth having just for the cast alone, many of them ageing: Peter Cushing (The Curse Of Frankenstein, Star Wars), Sir John Mills (Scott of the Antarctic, Tiger Bay), Ray Milland (The Man With X-Ray Eyes), Anton Diffring (Circus of Horrors, The Beast Must Die), Gordon Jackson (The Great Escape, The Ipcress File), Anne Baxter (I Confess) and Susan Penhaligon (The Land That Time Forgot). All play good parts. Of these people, only Sir John Mills and Susan Penhaligon are still alive today.

I enjoyed this movie ans is worth looking at.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

The story is a little on the thin side, if decidedly chilling at the climax. But the pleasure of watching a first-rate assortment of mature actors go through their paces makes this a show worth watching again and again. Peter Cushing's Holmes is severe, ascetic and all business, John Mills' Watson cheerful and worth having in a tight spot, and Anne Baxter's Irene Adler a genuinely charming and intelligent lady.

A now retired Holmes (Peter Cushing) is called on one last time to assist Scotland Yard with a strange case, that they can shed no light on. Three bodies have been found, one in the Thames and two others in Whitechapel, all bearing a hideous look of fear on their faces, but all showing no signs of cause of death. Holmes is intrigued enough to take the case and with Watson (John Mills) in tow he sets out to solve it. However before he can, he is called on by the Home Secretary (Ray Milland) and a stranger who wants to keep his identity to himself, their plea is for assistance in the case of a missing German envoy, his disappearance, they claim could cause the outbreak of War between England and Germany. The stranger is Graf Udo Von Felseck (Anton Diffring) a German diplomat close to the Kaiser, Holmes impresses Von Felseck as he deduces both his name and his political affiliation. Holmes takes the case and soon finds himself mixed up with a plot to kill millions, he also gets involved with "That Woman" again, one Irene Adler.(Anne Baxter) Pretty decent TV movie from Tyburn films, with a good intricate plot and a fantastic cast, Cushing even this late in his career shows he still had the mental and physical agility to take on the role.

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE MASKS OF DEATH (1984) a final TV outing for Peter Cushing, is one of those films that's been sat on by Tyburn's Kevin Francis for decades due to his rumoured greed. While it's not a classic on par with THE GHOUL or LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF, it is a shame that such a star-studded production, directed by Roy Ward Baker no less, no languishes in obscurity. The story isn't based on Conan Doyle's efforts but instead sees an aged Sherlock coming out of retirement to investigate the kidnapping of a German prince.

There are some big holes and inconsistencies in the plotting but it just about keeps you watching, although a great amount of it seems to be a wild goose chase. The outset-of-WW1 setting is a good one and the cast is excellent. Cushing always delights as Holmes while Watson couldn't be more dependable in the form of John Mills. Then you get Anton Diffring, Anne Baxter, Susan Penhaligon, Ray Milland and plenty of others besides harking back to the golden age of cinema in a kind of last-gasp sayonara which tugs at the heartstrings a little. Lots of incident, some mystery, even a few action scenes take place here, so it's hard to dislike it too much.

Above all else, this TV movie was most welcome for giving Peter Cushing a chance to end his acting career on a high note and in one of his most celebrated roles (he appeared in one more film after this one but this was to be the last lead role of his long career). He'd first played Sherlock Holmes twenty-five years previously in a Hammer movie, and then in a 1968 BBC television series. Here, he revisits the character in a later stage of life and, accordingly, this time his rendition of the great detective is less agile and prone to moments of impatience and tetchiness. Cushing is just one of a number of senior actors in the cast, many of them sadly fast-approaching the end of their careers... Anne Baxter, Gordon Jackson, Anton Diffring... Ray Milland also sadly was not in great health at the time and it shows. Nevertheless, all give very good performances as one would expect from such distinguished names. The piece is nicely filmed with good location work and the music is okay too but unfortunately everything is let down by the plot. Much of the narrative involves Holmes and Watson investigating a supposed kidnapping which ultimately proves to be nothing more than a red-herring, conceived to keep Holmes distracted from another more important matter. One can't help wondering if it would have been easier for the villains to have simply assassinated Holmes if they were so worried about him bringing them to justice. And once this duplicity is discovered, the characters involved just vanish from the action and the story suddenly shifts to a climax that is, in itself rather unsatisfying. Why do Holmes and Watson, two ageing men, risk their lives in flushing the villains out of their lair when the police apparently have the whole place surrounded anyway?

It was a nice idea to see a more elderly Holmes in action for once and even better to have Peter Cushing playing him once again, and it's a shame that plans for a proposed follow-up never came to fruition, because a better story might have worked wonders. A good attempt that just doesnt quite come off.