The Masks of Death

The Masks of Death
File:TheMasksofDeath.jpg
Directed by	Roy Ward Baker
Written by	Anthony Hinds N.J. Crisp
Starring	Peter Cushing John Mills Anne Baxter Ray Milland Anton Diffring Gordon Jackson Susan Penhaligon
Cinematography	Brendan J. Stafford, BSC
Edited by	Chris Barnes
Production company	Tyburn Film Productions Limited
Distributed by	Lorimar Home Video
Release dates	23 December 1984
Running time	78 minutes

The Masks of Death (1984) is a Sherlock Holmes film directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring Peter Cushing as the sleuth and John Mills as Doctor Watson.

Synopsis

The story takes place in 1913. Sherlock Holmes, virtually in retirement, is persuaded by Inspector Alec MacDonald of Scotland Yard to take on a baffling case. Three dead bodies have been found in London's East End, all with no discernible cause of death, but the expressions on their faces suggest that they all died in a state of terror.

Holmes, accompanied by Dr Watson, begins an investigation, but before he can make any real progress he is visited by the British Home Secretary and a German Diplomat, Count Udo von Felseck, who tell Holmes that a German envoy, on a secret mission to Britain, has disappeared from Felseck's house in Buckinghamshire. Unless Holmes can track him down, war between the two countries will become imminent. Holmes considers the possibility that the two matters are related and that someone is not telling him the truth.

Cast

• Peter Cushing - Sherlock Holmes
• John Mills - Doctor Watson
• Anne Baxter - Irene Adler
• Ray Milland - Home Secretary
• Anton Diffring - Count Udo von Felseck
• Gordon Jackson - Inspector Alec MacDonald
• Susan Penhaligon - Miss Derwent
• Marcus Gilbert - Anton von Felseck
• Jenny Laird - Mrs. Hudson
• Russell Hunter - Alfred Coombs
• James Cossins - Frederick Baines
• Eric Dodson - Lord Claremont
• Georgina Coombs - Lady Claremont

Production

Executive producer Kevin Francis had previously attempted to raise funds for a new version of The Hound of the Baskervilles. Francis intended to cast Peter Cushing as Holmes, which would be Cushing's third take on the Doyle tale after the 1959 Hammer production and the two-part production for the 1968 television series, and feature a stop-motion dog created by Ray Harryhausen.

While funding for the proposed film collapsed, it led to Francis discussing an original tale with writer Anthony Hinds. Peter Cushing considered Sherlock Holmes to be his favorite role but his age, Cushing being in his 70s, required the part to be written for a much older Holmes.

The trouble is that I'm 70, far too old to play Holmes as he appears in the stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Filming began in the summer of 1984 at Twickenham Film Studios with location work at Buckinghamshire and London.

There were plans for a followup entitled The Abbot's Cry but the film never materialized due to Cushing's declining health.

Trivia

• This is Cushing's final portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. He first donned Holmes' deerstalker in Hammer's The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959). Later, he took over from Douglas Wilmer in the BBC television series Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes in the late 1960s.

External links

• The Masks of Death at IMDb
• The Masks of Death at AllMovie