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Sherlock Holmes and the House of
Fear (1945)
Country of Origin: USA
Year of Production: 1945
Running Times: 69 mins 69 mins 21 sec (UK - theatrical)
Format: black and white 35mm
Ratio: 1.37:1
Sound: mono
CREDITS
PRODUCTION
Production Company: Universal Pictures
Producer: Roy William Neill
SCRIPT
Script: Roy Chanslor
Story: The Adventure of the Five Orange Pips by Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle
DIRECTION
Director: Roy William Neill
Assistant Director: Melville Shyer
PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Virgil Miller
EDITING AND POST PRODUCTION
Editor: Saul Goodkind
MUSIC
Musical Director: Paul Sawtell
Music: Hans J. Salter
SOUND
Sound: Bernard B. Brown
Sound Technician: Wm. Hedgcock
DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Art Directors: John B. Goodman, Eugène Lourié
Set Decorators: Russell A. Gausman, E.R. Robinson
MISCELLANEOUS
Dialogue Director: Raymond Kessler
CAST
Basil Rathbone
(Sherlock Holmes)
Nigel Bruce (Dr John H. Watson)
Aubrey Mather (Alastair)
Dennis Hoey (Inspector Lestrade)
Paul Cavanagh (Dr Simon Merivale)
Holmes Herbert (Alan Cosgrave)
Harry Cording (Captain John Simpson)
Sally Shepard (Mrs Monteith)
Gavin Muir (Mr Chalmers)
Florette Hillier (Alison MacGregor)
David Clyde (Alex MacGregor)
Richard Alexander (Ralph King - uncredited)
Wilson Benge (Guy Davies - uncredited)
Alec Craig (Angus - uncredited)
Cyril Delevanti (Stanley Raeburn - uncredited)
Leslie Denison (Sergeant Bleeker - uncredited)
Doris Lloyd (Bessie - uncredited)
Hobart Cavanaugh, David Thursby (bit parts - uncredited)
SUMMARY
The exclusive gentlemen's club The Good Comrades
are being murdered one by one at the ominously named Drearcliff, the
ancestral home of their oldest member Bruce Alastair. Each murder is
presaged by the arrival of an envelope addressed to the future victim
and containing nothing but orange pips. Enter Holmes and Watson...
CAPSULE REVIEW
Although it has some fine attributes (unusual lighting,
a fantastically creepy location, a strong collection of eccentric supporting
characters), House of Fear is a rather dull affair in which Holmes takes
far too long to solve what is in truth a rather mundane mystery. It
remains watchable thanks to Neill's moody direction but the series was
clearly beginning to lose its way by now.
AVAILABILITY
UK
Theatrical Distributor: General Film Distributors
USA
Theatrical Distributor: MCA / Universal Pictures
Video Distributor: Fox Home Entertainment
CENSORSHIP HISTORY
Finland
Rating: K-12
UK
Rating: A
TIMELINE
1944
November
10: UK - rated A by the BBFC (for theatrical release)
1945
March
16: USA - theatrical release
May
Day Unknown: UK - theatrical release
1948
December
10: Finland - theatrical release
1954
October
8: USA - television broadcast (on CBS)
1960
May
5: UK - television broadcast (on Rediffusion)
1993
March
10: USA - video release (Fox Home Entertainment)
2000
June
29: UK - television broadcast (on BBC2)
POSTER TAGS
6 guests of death!
Walls of hate... holding an orgy of murder - as crime's
Master Minds crack their weirdest case!
ALTERNATIVE TITLES
La casa del miedo - Spain title
La casa del terrore - Italian title
Das Haus des Schreckens - German title
The House of Fear - UK title
Ihmeitten linna - Finnish title
LINKS
SEQUEL TO
The Hound of the Baskervilles
(1939)
The
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939)
Sherlock
Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942)
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret
Weapon (1942)
Sherlock
Holmes in Washington (1943)
Sherlock Holmes
Faces Death (1943)
Spider Woman (1944)
The Scarlet Claw
(1944)
SEQUELS
Pursuit to Algiers
(1945)
The Woman in Green
(1945)
Terror by Night
(1946)
Dressed to Kill
(1946)
REFERENCES
MAGAZINES
The Dark Side 63 p.26 (UK)
review
Kine Weekly 31 May 1945 (UK)
review
Monthly Film Bulletin vol.12 no.138 (June
1945) p.73 (UK)
credits, review
Motion Picture Herald vol.158 no.12 (24
March 1945) (USA)
credits
New York Motion Picture Critics Reviews vol.2
no.8 (19 March 1945) pp.439, 440 (USA)
credits, review
Today's Cinema vol.64 no.5191 (25 May 1945)
(UK)
review
BOOKS
Universal Horrors by Michael Brunas, John
Brunas and Tom Weaver (Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co (1990))
credits, review
KEYWORDS
Sherlock
Holmes; detectives; sequels
Last Updated:
10 August, 2009
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