Breakinger
A Brilliant Conflict
SeeQuant
Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction
Benas Mcloughlin
Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.
Rainey Dawn
This is your average crime film of the 1930s. Our "hero" is the gentleman adventurer Bulldog Drummond. I think there are 23 films surrounding this character based on H. C. McNeile books.In this "episode" Bulldog has to protect a heiress from impending danger of an espionage organization out to get her inheritance.Really nothing special at all. It's a very average and typical crime film of the 1930s. I think the only people interested are those that are fans of the Bulldog Drummond books and movies. There are better crime films from that time era.2/10
utgard14
Ray Milland's only outing as Bulldog Drummond is a pretty good start to Paramount's series. The story is about Drummond trying to help a woman who's being kept prisoner by her nefarious guardian at the ominously-named Greystone Manor. There's also a subplot about Drummond's right-hand man Algy being a nervous wreck waiting on his wife to give birth. Milland makes for a charming and lively Bulldog Drummond. He was one of three actors to play the character in 1937 alone and, for my money, he was better than the other two. Reginald Denny and E.E. Clive offer fun support. Lovely Heather Angel plays the heiress and has a nice playful chemistry with Milland. She's also something of a tough cookie, helping fight the bad guys instead of just standing around doing nothing. The rest of the cast features fine actors like Porter Hall, Walter Kingsford, Fay Holden, and Guy Standing. This was Standing's final movie, dying from a rattlesnake bite (!) a month after this was released. The Bulldog Drummond series wasn't one of my favorites of the many detective film series that littered the '30s & '40s but I have liked many of them. This one is particularly enjoyable with lots of humor and some nice foggy atmosphere. Short runtime and good pace also help.
Robert J. Maxwell
In this modest, unambitious crime mystery, Ray Milland is Bulldog Drummond, an adventurous, thumotic young fellow who looks for crime everywhere he goes and, as Inspector Nielson observes, always seems to find it. I don't see anything special about that. Lots of fictional detectives find crime wherever they go, even when they're trying to get away from it. Can Hercule Poirot escape murder, even when he takes a paddle boat up in the Nile on vacation? No. No, he can't. And look at Inspector Morse. A quiet little college town like Oxford is turned into a charnal house. There should be a big "Second Coming" headline: JESSICA FLETCHER DESTROYS CABOT'S COVE. Let's face facts. These guys are detriments to society. You want to rid the world of crime? It's simple. You just lock up all the detectives. The only fictional detective who ever found himself between cases was Sherlock Holmes, and he had his cocaine to liven up his life.In this one, which I believe is the only film in which Drummond was played by Milland, the detective has his car stolen by a pretty woman, traces her to a mental institution for the up-trodden, finds she is being held prisoner because of something to do with fake war bonds, enlists the aid of his pal Algie and his butler Tenny, rescues her after many tribulations, and rushes off to get married.Either Milland or the director, James P. Hogan, made a mistake, I think, in allowing the character of Bulldog Drummond to be played as an eager Eagle Scout. Milland never put such energy into another role. (He was a fine, suave villain in Hitchcock's "Dial M For Murder," by the way.) Here, his eyes bulge, his vocal contours take on the outline of a roller coaster, and overall he's very animated. (Some might call it "overacting.") The rest of the cast go through their B-movie motions, hit their marks, and say what they're supposed to say. The young woman in jeopardy is Heather Angel. She has a great name but little to do. Porter Hall isn't really convincing as the chief heavy. He's not the criminal director of an insane asylum. He's an ordinary guy from Medford -- Medford, Oregon.The plot has a lot of twists and turns but none are particularly memorable. They've all been used at one time or another in some Charlie Chan movie. Let's see, there is a lot of sneaking around in the shrubbery in the fog, a pistol slowly extrudes from behind a curtain, there's a secret door in the wall that's activated by pressing a button, a body sinks into a dangerous marsh, the hero sneaks into the nest of vipers through a window, a running gag is that poor Algie is about to become a father and continually tries to get to a phone and find out what's happening, Porter Hall fires his pistol holding it chest high and close to his sternum (which I think I prefer to his holding it at arms' length sideways), a couple of constables guarding Milland are served drugged drinks, Milland never loses his fedora or finds his necktie askew.All in all, a fast-paced, good-natured slog through very familiar territory. It does what it was presumably designed to do -- entertain and distract an audience on a Saturday afternoon in 1937. They had plenty to be distracted from.
robert-temple-1
Three Bulldog Drummond films were made in 1937 in quick succession, this being the first, and the only one starring Ray Milland as Drummond. It was the eighth Drummond film to be made. It came out in April, 'Bulldog Drummond at Bay' came out in July, and 'Bulldog Drummond Comes Back' came out in September. Each had a different leading man, the next two in succession being John Lodge and John Howard. In this one, the young Ray Milland was amusing and engaging, but over-acted in a way which was not helpful. He portrayed the hero as someone with adolescent, almost juvenile, attitudes, thereby turning Drummond into a rather idiotic parody, and making the whole film too much like a comedy, despite its scenes of danger and distress. The producers instantly realized they had made a mistake and had endangered their plans for a series of films, so they sought someone with more gravitas. The next film used John Lodge once. But after that, inspiration finally came in the form of John Howard, who was perfect casting and would go on to make many Drummond films, with just the right combination of gravitas mixed with a residual boyish sense of fun, openness (never Milland's strong point), and solid, sporting good humour. In this film, Phyllis Clavering is introduced for the first time, and inspired casting occurred when Heather Angel played the part. The producers made a big mistake in having Phyllis played for three more films by the boring Louise Campbell, but Heather Angel would reappear the next year five films later (Phyllis does not appear in one of them), and carry on for several films to great effect. Phyllis enters the world of Drummond as a helpless imprisoned maiden in distress, whom he rescues. Eventually she ends up suspended in his arms, kissing him, with marriage beckoning. (As all Drummondonians know, this marriage would be 'interruptus' on numerous future occasions.) Guy Standing is boring as Inspector Nielson in this film, and they got rid of him too. E. E. Clive as Tennie the Butler, and Reginald Denny as Algy are in fine fettle for this episode, and were to grace the series for a long while with their charm and talents. There is a curious scene in this film where the villains are driving through the gates of a great house in a Rolls Royce. This shot is actually cut from the 1929 'Bulldog Drummond' and re-used! Much of this film is spent with Algy Longworth desperately trying to phone the hospital to see if his wife has had her baby yet. In 'Bulldog Drummond Comes Back', he will be desperately trying to make it to that same baby's christening, while Drummond will be desperately trying to marry Phyllis, the villains preventing both of these things. This film is entertaining and lively if one is not fussy, and has humour as well, so it is good viewing. As Tennie the Butler would say: 'That is my thought exactly, Sir.'
