Scotland Yard greift ein!

...he can ever stop working on a case long enough.

In this Bulldog Drummond film, Hugh (John Howard) and Phyllis (Louise Campbell) are close to their wedding, when he becomes involved in the protection of a new explosive, recently invented by a scientist. Supposedly this explosive is fragile and will go off if you even brush past the container.

The explosive is in a suitcase, which is stolen. For something that will go off if you breathe on it, this suitcase was thrown, dropped, you name it, and it never blew up.

Phyllis, in her sweet way blew up, however, and wondered if she could marry Hugh Drummond when he's so involved in detective work.

John Barrymore again gets top billing as the Colonel, and he's great. Howard is an excellent Drummond, Reginald Denny is on hand as the confused Algy, and E.E. Clive is the butler who is so much more. It's a nice cast.

These Drummond films are B movies and are enjoyable and entertaining. They shouldn't be judged in comparison to Citizen Kane. The Saint, Bulldog Drummond, Charlie Chan, Mr. Moto - all second features that are delightful.

The title in this film, Bulldog Drummond's Revenge is a bit of a misnomer because John Howard as the intrepid Bulldog is not out for any personal vengeance in this case. What he's looking to do is stop an international crook played by Frank Puglia from stealing a new, but as yet unstable explosive compound. In some of these B films the studios were never really careful.

Howard is once again planning his wedding with his ever faithful Louise Campbell who seems to be more faithful to him than Olive Oyl was to Popeye. A chance visit to his bete noire, John Barrymore as Colonel J.A. Neilson of Scotland Yard has him learn of the experiment of scientist Matthew Boulton. The source is of all people, a Japanese diplomat played by Miki Morita. This was probably the last time, other than in Mr. Moto films that a Japanese was given friendly treatment in an American film.

Matthew Boulton plays Sir John Hackston and of course he's named the stuff Hackstonite. It seems to come in grains and small pebbles and you never can tell when it will blow up, like liquid nitroglycerin that way. Anyway Puglia stages an elaborate plane crash killing Boulton and gets away with the stuff. The rest of the film is Drummond with his team of silly friend Algy, Reginald Denny, and his intrepid butler Tennison played by E.E. Clive. Clive actually proves in the films I've seen to have a head on his shoulders.

Not too bad, but did Louise ever get the slippery Bulldog to finally say 'I do'?

I had never seen one of these before, so I wasn't aware of the dynamics of Drummond, his fiancée, the butler, and the scatterbrained friend, Algie. Obviously, the play for humor often trumps the seriousness of the events unfolding. In this one, a secret explosive is concealed in a suitcase that finds its way from person to person, with most not knowing that even a small amount of the junk could send everyone up in smoke. The suitcase is jarred, thrown, kicked, run with, but, of course, remains inert. The byplay with the regular characters is okay, once you get used to the fact that 1937's humor is a bit different than 2006. The one character that I couldn't tolerate was Algie's significant other who cackles and squawks and runs off at the mouth. Once we get into the intrigue and figure out who is who, it is a nice little spy story. Drummond, of course, is the playboy type never becomes flustered and treats things that are deadly serious as a joke. One thing that has bothered me in the three I have watched is how seldom the character listen to each other.

This is the eleventh Bulldog Drummond film, and the second starring John Howard as Drummond. It was released in December, 1937. Once again, the lead billing is instead given to John Barrymore as Inspector Nielson, in deference to his star status, despite the fact that he is only a supporting player who walks through his part, turning his Barrymore glare on and off again like a traffic light. This is a particularly good Drummond film, with lots of interesting second unit shots of London and Dover in 1937 and some amusing and original scenes (it starts with a joke about Americans chewing gum). Later Drummond films tended to be more set-bound, probably to save costs. John Howard is marvellous as Drummond, full of youthful buoyancy (not what Sapper the author intended, but still refreshing to watch), E. E. Clive is magnificent as always as Tennie the gentleman's gentleman, and Reginald Denny is the engaging and lovable but bumbling and clumsy twit Algy Longworth, Drummond's 'chum'. The plot is unimaginative, concerning a scientist who has invented a new high explosive ('one hundred bombs of it would wipe London off the map'), and baddies want to steal this and sell it to a hostile foreign power. The whiff of war to come was very much in the air when this was made. This film and the one preceding and following were extremely annoying for containing the insipid and irritating Louise Campbell as Phyllis Clavering, Drummond's fiancée whom he is always trying to marry, but crime always interferes. In the fourth Howard film, she was replaced, thank goodness. Also annoying in this and the following Drummond film is Nydia Westman, as Gwen Longworth. Her high-pitched chattering is infuriating and incomprehensible babble. The two women in this film could thus be described as: tedious, tepid, fainting all the time, dull, stupid, presumptuous, arrogant, feeble, useless, maddening, vacuous ... (That's enough adjectives, ed.) Despite the dreary women, the film moves along with jollity, firmness of purpose, good pace, and clicks like a train on a track. (I mean of course a 1930s track, before long rails were invented.) Yes, this is a good 'un.

The best part of this movie is unintended: 1937 England preserved with its autos, planes, streets and attitudes. The plot is hardly new. There's an invention (crystals in this case) that would prove disastrous if it should fall into the hands of the wrong people. Just who the wrong people are is not mentioned, but in retrospect they would seem to be the Nazis. Anyone who has watched many movies or serials from the period will recognize the plot quickly--and anticipate the ending.

The Bulldog Drummond hero bears little resemblance to the character created by "Sapper" McNeile. His marvelous series of books are about a much rougher individual who, having enjoyed the adventure and danger of the World War, advertises in the newspaper for interesting quests and assignments. Drummond of the novels is more of a daredevil than a detective.

For reasons I'd be hard pressed to explain, the makers of this movies inserted some really insipid humor--rather, attempts at humor. Drummond's sidekick, Algy, and Algy's stupid girlfriend aren't funny. They are merely annoying.

Still, this is an enjoyable view of a world now gone. Not only that, it has John Barrymore in a role that is a considerable comedown for his talents.