Surprisingly unatmospheric
I've always loved the story of Hound of the Baskervilles, with its creeping terror that ultimately gives way to science. It's like the ghost story you're having when it turns out there aren't really any ghosts.
I've just watched this Hammer version for the first time, and while I really enjoyed it overall and would rate it fairly highly, I was surprised at how little of the horror element this version seemed to catch. It was particularly surprising, I thought, since it was a Hammer production.
Most of the performances were fine, and Cushing made a good Holmes (though maybe a little too ascerbic at times?). I quite liked Morrell's Dr Watson, and Christopher Lee seemed appropriately doomed and aristocratic, and it's always a delight to see old favourites like Miles Malleson.
But the supernatural side of the myth never really came through, as I've seen in some other filmed versions of the story. I quite like that it's all a bit spooky, until Holmes' science and pragmatism wins through. But in this version there was never any question at any point of whether there really was a curse on the family, and no sense of a supernatural larger-than-life Hound of Hell stalking Sir Henry, something which I think gives the story its frisson.
I really missed that aspect of it. Heck, we didn't even get a sense of the vicarious horror of the crofter's daughter drowning in the mire, which was coyly kept off-camera, and unfortunately our heroes' inaction at that moment, followed by expressions of regret, sounds hollow and unintentionally funny.
Overall, this was a mostly-efficient telling of the tale, so thumbs up for that, but with no hint at any point that there was ever anything other than a mundane, almost banal explanation for it all, this was like the James Randi version of the story.
You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.