Welcome to Ele-May-ntary! All throughout the month of May, I’ve been counting down my Top 31 Favorite Portrayals of Sherlock Holmes, from movies, television, radio, and even video games!
We’re growing closer to the end of this countdown, and our last few Holmes portrayals are arguably some of the most definitive and nostalgic. Today’s entry is no exception.
Number 4 is…Peter Cushing.
Peter Cushing was a phenomenal and versatile actor best known for his appearance as the Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars, as well as his roles as Professor Van Helsing and Dr. Frankenstein in various Hammer Horror movies. Alongside these roles, however, Cushing also made a name for himself playing Sherlock Holmes on numerous occasions. Cushing was actually a major, MAJOR fan of the original Conan Doyle stories; just as Eille Norwood did back in the silent era, every time Cushing handled the role of the Master Detective, he carried annotated copies of the stories with him for reference purposes. Cushing was as meticulous to detail in crafting the character as Holmes was when solving a case: if he disagreed with something in a script, he would either ask for permission to have it adjusted, or simply ad-lib and change things via his own judgment. Given his stardom and sense of refinement, scarcely anybody argued his creative choices: so much of what makes his Holmes great comes from the man himself.
As I mentioned when I spoke of Douglas Wilmer, who played Holmes in the 1960s BBC TV series, Cushing took over from Wilmer when the show went into its second, full color season. Despite his high placement on this list, I must confess that – at least for THAT particular take on Holmes – I actually prefer Wilmer slightly more. Cushing’s Holmes – perhaps due to backlash to Wilmer’s more hardened portrayal – is a more playful and tender-hearted take on the character in that show. However, I do think he has much better chemistry with his Watson in that outing, Nigel Stock, than Wilmer did: the two bounce off each other beautifully and their friendship is genuine and warm, despite all the frustrations they occasionally cause each other. Cushing’s Holmes in this outing is by no means bad, but of the occasions he played the character, this is my least favorite. This may partially be due to the fact that Cushing had a hard time with the somewhat rigorous television schedule, claiming that he often felt he was struggling to remember his lines: perhaps that lack of temerity contributed to his performance.
Of much greater success, in my mind, were Cushing’s two film-length takes on Holmes. One was “The Masks of Death,” which is another film that depicts an older Holmes and Watson – nearing retirement – attempting to solve a final case, this time involving an equally aged Irene Adler (played by Olga, Queen of the Cossacks herself, Anne Baxter). Originally, the film was just going to be a typical Holmes adventure, so to speak, but when the decision to cast Cushing was made – the man was already in his 70s at the time – the script and direction was changed, so that more emphasis was placed on Holmes’ age and mortality, and the way the world had shifted around both him and Watson by the time of this great caper. It’s a fascinating picture, and one that I often feel people don’t look into enough. Alongside Ian McKellen, Cushing brings to life perhaps the definitive “Old Holmes.”
Cushing’s finest outing as Holmes, however, was undoubtedly his first…and, perhaps predictably, it was a Hammer production. Having handled such properties as Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Mummy, Hammer decided to take a crack at Holmes with their own version of “The Hound of the Baskervilles.” Since Cushing was their biggest cash cow at the time, and since his love of the stories was known to several people involved in the production, he was given his first chance to play the Master Detective. If you’re going to watch only one Cushing Holmes outing, see THIS one: his Holmes in this movie is GLORIOUS. The character’s role is actually slightly expanded from the book (“Hound” is, in some ways, more a Watson story than a Holmes story, in the original book), and Cushing gets tons of time to relish the part. He’s energized and quick, shifting moods and approaches so fast it’s honestly hard to keep up at times. He’s theatrical and eccentric, but also calculating and logical. He can be curt and patronizing, but he can also be kind and sympathetic. He’s all over the place, while also being entirely in control: just the way Holmes should be. To me, Cushing’s take on the character in Hammer’s Hound is one of the most definitive…especially interesting, considering the many liberties that adaptation takes with the source material, but that’s another story.
We’re about to enter the Top 3! Who will be next? Check in and find out!