Bulldog Drummond's Peril

Murder and robbery drag the adventurous Drummond away from his wedding and he pursues the villains behind diamond counterfeiting, and finds himself in trouble.

Slightly weaker entry to the ones I had seen, mainly because Phylis, Algy and Tenny aren't in the focus much, and also the plot can be confusing. It also meanders a little. Still it's entertaining; there's a good stunt Tenny does as he transfers himself from his bycycle to a van and a rousing scene of Drummond fencing with a man with a whip.

Hugh Bulldog Drummond (John Howard) is about to marry his great love, Phyllis, when the wedding has to be delayed.

One lovely wedding gift they received was a beautiful diamond, which turns out was created by the father of Phyllis' friend Gwen. He is very excited about presenting a paper at a conference and to be the first one who has created the gem. He's interested in credit, not money; in fact, he plans on giving the formula away.

At the party to celebrate the upcoming nuptials is Sir Raymond Blantree, a jewel magnate. He wants the formula and Gwen's father, Professor Goodman to sink the invention before it wrecks the value of jewels everywhere. The oil companies have done this for years with alternate fuel patents.

Professor Goodman isn't inclined to sell.

Everybody wants this formula, and in fact, a detective at the party is found murdered as a result of the diamond itself being stolen.

When Blantree finds out that Goodman is going to borrow equipment from a gemologist, Dr. Botulian, he devises a plan to steal the invention.Little does he know that Dr. Botulian has a plan of his own.

Well, this is where the movie goes off the rails. Blantree is having someone impersonate Dr. Botulian and show up at 9 p.m. Botulian himself plans on showing up earlier. Unfortunately I just couldn't tell who was who and before you knew it, I was totally confused.

John Howard is a dapper and charming Drummond, and Algy (Reginald Denny) and Tenney (E.E. Clive) are on hand to help him do what he can to catch the criminals.

Not on board and mad as hell and not going to take it anymore is the Colonel (John Barrymore) who is sick of Drummond's machinations. He's great. Phyllis (Louise Campbell), who thought her future husband was retiring, at one point tells him she never wants to see him again. We know she doesn't mean it.

Of course today we have all kinds of lab-created diamonds: Brilliant Earth, Moissanite, Affinity, etc. Brilliant Earth and Moissanite cost a fortune. I would have told Blantree, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Sharp dialog and decent plotting make this another of the better entries in the Bulldog Drummond series. This time, John Howard as Hugh Drummond is entangled in a murder and diamond theft in Switzerland and tracking the heavies back to England. Nice locations, some train and airplane travel, explosions, and a bullwhip vs sword fight make for a nice adventure. Barrymore as Nielson doesn't have much to do, nor do Phyllis or even Algy, but faithful Tenny is on hand, of course (even riding a motorcycle!). For those keeping score, in this one, Drummond starts out in Switzerland about to marry Phyllis, and for once Algy isn't worried about anything.

Also interesting is how this little potboiler was well ahead of its time with the invention of artificial diamonds and corporate conspiracies to suppress rival technology.

Capt. Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond is finally marrying his long standing fiancé Phyllis, while on a retreat in Geneva. During a reception party, Hugh and Phyllis receive a flawless man-made diamond from friend Gwen's scientist father. Sir Raymond Blantree, a guest at the party and jewel magnate, sees the diamond and plans to get both it and Prof. Goodman (Gwen's father) before the discovery decreases the value of all jewels around the world (smirk). Hugh, Algy, and Tenny chase Blantree, and his accomplice Greer, back to London, but being of position, Blantree is able to avoid police persecution by Col. Neilson, who is still fed up with Drummond's wild adventures. Blantree tries to buy the formula from Goodman, but he refuses to sell, saying he will give it away. Blantree learns that Goodman plans to borrow equipment from a rival gemologist Dr. Botulian and plans to have Greer impersonate Botulian to get the formula, but the doctor has plans of his own for obtaining the formula. Will one of their plans succeed despite the efforts of Drummond and company? Good entry in the series, but it didn't live up to its potential with plenty of setup and weak execution. Biggest problem was at first the audience was intended to left in mystery as to who the real Botualian was, but after two minutes of it, this reviewer was just confused. The first half of the film focused on the villainy of Blantree and then he was discarded in the second half for Botulian, and frankly both of them were limp adversaries. I had to laugh at Blantree's idea of the man made gems weakening the financial value of pure gems, apparently the executives at QVC would have given Bulldog more of a run for his money. Rating, 6.

One of the weaker entries in the Drummond series, but it's still entertaining. Perhaps I've seen too many of the Drummond films too close together. The humor is not as sharp as earlier entries. The pacing is fine, but the plot and villains don't seem to be up to snuff. The villains don't appear evil or sharp enough to harm a fly, let alone our hero.

There is a nice sequence of that wonderful 30s "lab equipment" working its magic. So much more exciting and dramatic than computer chips and LEDs! Now that's evil!