The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939) is surely the only movie directed by Sidney Lanfield that is ever likely to get the kind of deluxe treatment that it has been accorded on this DVD from MPI. Far and away the director's best movie, it still stands up well 60-plus years later, despite some flaws in its structure and some mild flatness to the direction. The new transfer (full-frame, of course, i.e. 1.33:1) brings out the virtues of the handsome 20th Century Fox production and the darkly atmospheric cinematography by J. Peverell Marley (as captured here, it's worth the price of the disc). The movie is enhanced by the presence of a commentary track by David Stuart Davies, a noted Holmes scholar and enthusiast, who walks us through the movie in his droll, British way, very different from the boundless enthusiasm displayed by Richard Valley in his commentary on The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (a DVD release which coincided with this film's issue). Davies is a little less attuned to the film's production than Valley, and closer to the literary side, which is fascinating in itself. He doesn't really slight the movie, as a subject, so much as start from the literary side; he does delve deeply into the layers and currents rippling through the movie. In addition to the commentary track, the movie is supported by a montage of still art and promotional and advertising materials set to music, and there are three reissue trailers, for Dressed to Kill, The House of Fear, and The Pearl of Death. None looks or sounds in terribly good shape, but all are fun to watch. The 13 chapters easily support and enhance the 80-minute movie. The disc opens up automatically to the multi-layered menu, which is a little bit harder to move around in, between the movie and the bonus features, than it needed to be.