Bulldog Drummond - After
The Paramount Series
Bulldog
Drummond Strikes Back (1947) – 6.0
This is a low budget but very competent and decent mystery in the long-running
Bulldog Drummond series of films. There had been an eight year gap between
the Drummond films in the 1930's and when Ron Randell picked up the role for
two films in 1947. John Howard had played Drummond in the previous 7 films
in the 30's for Paramount but the series has now been passed on to Columbia.
This was Randall’s second film – I have been unable to find the first one,
Bulldog Drummond at Bay. Randell was from Australia but I can't say I know
anything of him but he makes an o.k. if not very memorable Drummond. It is
the two dames you will remember from the film. In this little mystery two
women show up stating that they are Ellen Curtiss and that an inheritance
is rightfully hers. Drummond gets involved as he always does. The interesting
thing about the film is that both women are lovely, sincere and seemingly
very nice - but one of them is a liar and possibly a murderer - and it is
never obvious which one it is. None of the characters from the Paramount
series are on hand here – no Phyllis or Algy or the Inspector or even the
butler, Tenny. I rather missed them.
One of the actresses is Gloria Henry who had a fairly obscure career till
she became the TV mother of Dennis the Menace in 1959, 12 years after this
film. I can't say I recognized her - I was a fan of the TV show many years
ago but have not seen it in a long long time. She was quite attractive back
in the day. This has the same title of the Ronald Colman film in 1934 but
the story is completely different.
Bulldog Drummond - The Challenge (1948)
– 5.5
And in this one 20th Century Fox takes the baton from Columbia for two Bulldog
Drummonds. These two are starring Tom Conway. This is clearly B film fodder
but it is always good to come across Tom Conway (brother of George Sanders)
who was The Falcon in a series of films in the 1940's that are enjoyable B
films. He also appeared in three classic Val Lewton films - The Cat People,
The Seventh Victim and I walked with a Zombie. He was to die five years before
his brother committed suicide in 1972. Director Jean Yarbrough made a ton
of B films in his career from the mid-1930s' to the early 1950's before he
got into TV with a bang - among them a bunch for the Abbot and Costello Show,
My Favorite Martian, Petticoat Junction, The Guns of Will Sonnett, Death Valley
Days and many others. Conway makes a fine urbane Drummond.
It is a solid yarn taken from an original story from Sapper. Algy is
back again but being played by John Newland and not quite as exasperating.
He kicks off things by getting out of the rain into an auction house where
someone asks him how much his hat cost - three pounds - and he ends up having
bid and won a model ship called The Flying Dutchman. A woman soon folows
him and offers five pounds for it but his friend Drummond refuses to sell
it. She isn't the only one after it as it is soon stolen and re-stolen and
then suddelnly appears. A couple murders in there as well. It all has to
do with gold that was recovered from a wreck and hidden. All a bit absurd
- what you might expect in a Hardy Boy novel of Morse Code but Conway keeps
it real enough.
Bulldog Drummond - 13 Lead Soldiers (1948)
– 5.5
The video quality of this was quite awful - every scene seems to play out
in murky darkness - but even so this is a very decent Bulldog Drummond film
in this long running series. It stars Tom Conway of The Falcon fame as well
as being George Sander's brother and he is his usual smooth debonair self
where a raised eye-brow is often all he needs. In this one some lead soldiers
from medieval times lead to murder and treasure and the film doesn't slow
down for a minute. A scholar is murdered (why don't people lock their veranda
doors) and two lead soldiers from Medieval days are stolen. A friend comes
to Bulldog saying he also has two of the led soldiers and is nervous and
would like Drummond to safe-keep them. Of course, they get stolen and Algy
is mistaken for Drummond and Drummond for Algy and Algy still can't get laid
(he is single in these ones). It all has to do with a treasure from the Saxons
that they were hiding from William the Conqueror. Both of these Conway films
have clever polts and he is fine and it is too bad that Fox didn't make more
of them. Unfortunately, the videos for both are quite sub-par which biases
the viewing experience.
Calling Bulldog Drummond (1951) – 6/10
Believe it or not, this is the 20th film in the Bulldog Drummond series
of films that goes back to the silent period. In that span Drummond was played
by a number of actors and the films were produced by a few different studios.
Though most of these fall into B film territory, a few well-known actors took
on the Bulldog Drummond character - such as Ronald Colman two times, Ralph
Richardson once, Tom Conway in two films, Ray Milland just the once and here
we have Canadian actor, Walter Pidgeon. Drummond only made it to the big
screen two more times after this film - the very enjoyable Deadlier Than
the Male and Some Girls Do made in the late 1960's with Richard Johnson as
Drummond. These last two are Bondian in nature. Every now and then the studio
tried to make Pidgeon into an action/adventurer - in the three Nick Carter
films and this one but he is always much more memorable in dramas such as
the Mrs. Miniver films, How Green Was My Valley, Forbidden Planet.
Calling Bulldog Drummond produced by MGM is an oddly sedate film that is
decent but generates few sparks. It never feels particularly tense or serious
but has a good plot and good acting. Many of the Drummond films dealt with
spies or international complications, but this one is simply catching a group
of well-trained thieves. Drummond is called out of retirement and goes undercover
along with a police woman (Margaret Leighton) and try to infiltrate the gang
- without much success actually. Also in the film is Bernard Lee (M).
