In the mid 1970s Kevin Francis (son of legendary cinematographer and director Freddie Francis) made a foolhardy attempt to keep alive the tradition of British horror that he had grown up with (and to which his father had made significant contributions). Unfortunately he was tilting at windmills as his company, Tyburn, did not have the financial resources, the distribution capabilities, and ultimately the cinema audience to make his grand scheme work. In 1975 they made three old school films (LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF, THE GHOUL, PERSECUTION) which performed poorly at the box office. Tyburn retreated into television where they kept a very low profile. In 1984 they had a last hurrah by giving Peter Cushing one last meaty role to close out his career. It was a role that he had played in Hammer’s HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (1959) and later on TV in the 1960s. That role was Sherlock Holmes.
Cushing was 71 years old when shooting on the film began. Tyburn surrounded him with several old friends and top flight talent so that THE MASKS OF DEATH would be a grand sendoff. His old Hammer compatriots actor Anton Diffring and director Roy Ward Baker were there and Ray Milland and Anne Baxter were recruited from America to enrich the proceedings. The biggest coup was getting John Mills to play Dr. Watson. Originally James Mason was cast in the role but he died before shooting commenced. Mills is the perfect Watson…intelligent, trustworthy, and devoted to his friend. There is great chemistry between Cushing and Mills which enhances their scenes together and helps to make MASKS one of the better Holmes offerings especially for a film that is a TV movie complete with blackouts. What it lacks due to budgetary restrictions is more than made up for by watching all these old pros in action.
The film opens in 1926 with an aged Watson hiring a stenographer to set down the details of a case that had been suppressed by the British government for more than a decade. Cushing, his frame as thin as ever and now with white hair, epitomizes Holmes with just a roll of the eyes as he urges Watson to get on with it. The bulk of the story takes place in 1913 right before the outbreak of World War I. While investigating the discovery of three bodies, their faces distorted horribly (hence the title), Holmes is approached by the Home Secretary (Milland) and a German aristocrat (Diffring) to drop that case and find a missing member of German royalty. This leads Holmes & Watson in many directions for there is more going on than meets the eye. To say anything else would be criminal except that Warner Brothers, who released this title on VHS, should have released it on home video. They haven’t yet but you can see MASKS on YouTube.
The Capsule Critic 