Bulldog Drummond se marie

Lame entry in the Drummond series. Everyone, including the robbers, is after a portable radio that has the loot from a bank heist hidden away in it. Trouble is it's like the writers (3) have no idea what to do with the narrative. Instead the cast gets to run around shadowy stage sets and literally throw bombs when things slow down. Too bad, because the cast includes a number of capable performers, including Howard, Denny, Clive, et al. At the same time, the comely Angel has little more to do than stand around and look pretty. The best part is the bang-up opening that promises more than's delivered. Anyway, there's no suspense or real surprises one would expect from a detective show. Instead, it's like there's really no script, or worse, a deadline to meet. So everyone gets to run around and wing it. All in all, the flick's an unfortunate waste of money and talent. Good thing the series was usually better than this.

This is the sixteenth of the Bulldog Drummond films, and it brings to an end the Drummond films as they were before the outbreak of World War II. (They would resume in 1947.) With this film, John Howard also ends his career as Drummond, which had lasted for seven films, all made within two breathless years between September of 1937 and September of 1939. Heather Angel once again plays Phyllis Clavering, E. E. Clive plays Tenny the Butler, Reginald Denny plays Algy Longworth, and H. B. Warner plays Commissioner Nielson, all for the last time. John Howard left the film business to join the U. S. Navy (he was an American), where he ended up winning the Navy Cross and the French Croix de Guerre for conspicuous acts of bravery, becoming in other words a real life hero of the sort he had played in the Drummond films. After the War, he returned to acting but was never again fortunate to shine as a major player. It seems a poor return for a fictional Drummond who became a real Drummond, that he could not resume the role. E. E. Clive died the next year, in 1940. Reginald Denny contributed to the War effort by manufacturing 15,000 target drones for the U. S. Army. He later returned to acting, but was never in another Drummond film. H. B. Warner and Heather Angel went on acting, but they never appeared in another Drummond film either. The team was totally broken up, and 'vintage 1930s Drummond' was over. This film is moderately entertaining, with lots of comedy, so that it is not actually serious. What with people having cans of paint thrown over them and slipping and sliding, Algy staging pratfalls continually, and other such antics, there is barely room for a mystery plot. However, Drummondians will be thrilled to know that ... oh no, I must not say ... that business which was continually being interrupted between Hugh and Phyllis, ... well, that must remain a mystery. The plot, what there is of it, concerns a ruthless villain who has robbed a bank for what then was considered a vast sum, of ten thousand pounds. It is hard to conceive of a time when that was a sum worth getting excited about, worth exploding bombs all over the place, killing people without compunction, and carrying on as if all the gold of the Indies were at stake. But that was then, and this is now. In this film as in so many others of the time, Scotland Yard 'seal off an area with a cordon, and no one can get through'. It seems incredible, doesn't it, that it was even remotely conceivable to seal off a sector of London like that just for a measly little bank robbery? Naturally, the villain gets away in an ambulance disguised as a madman. Maybe it really was time for the world to move on and get real. After this, there were tanks and planes and the Holocaust to worry about, and whether Hugh and Phyllis got married or not was no longer important, with so many women widowed that Phyllis having to wait for another crime to be solved no longer qualified as a tragedy.

BULLDOG DRUMMOND'S BRIDE is another of the short-lived but prolific Paramount series of movies and it's my favourite yet. This one involves a group of bank robbers whose latest heist interferes with Bulldog's marriage (in what seems to be a common plot point in these movies). What follows is a neat little escapade in which there's plenty of comedy to get your teeth into, alongside brisk pacing and a predominance of action which really helps. Add in the usual suspects, villains, wisecracking heroes and a good eye for the era's detail, and you have a short and snappy programmer that doesn't let up.

So when any show gets a bit tired, they decide the guy's gotta get married. Rhoda. the Six Million Dollar Man. Friends. In this one, John Howard is Drummond, Reginald Denny and Heather Angel are the usual co-stars. Colonel Nielson is played by HB Warner in this chapter... and two others! Warner was a major player in so many big films, my favorite role was Chang, in Lost Horizon, two years prior to this. Drummond is supposed to marry Phyllis, but of course, there's a bank robbery that needs his attention. but when he starts investigating, Nielson and the others try to put a stop to things before he can even start. this plot is even more convoluted than usual. bombs. mistaken identity. robberies. fistfights. will Drummond ever get married? you'll have to watch to find out. this one is extra silly. DIrected by Jim Hogan, who had directed a bunch of these. Drummond was invented by Herman McNiele. most of the chapters had fallen out of copyright, but the quality of this one is actually quite good. shown on Film Detective channel.

Finally, Bulldog Drummond (John Howard this time) is heading for matrimony in this movie based on the story "Bulldog Drummond and the oriental mind" by H. C. (Sapper) McNeile. Will he be devoured by a bank robber with some odd twists?

The characters are already caricatures; so, they do not need a dufus such as Algy (Reginald Denny) for comic relief. Being the finale in the Paramount Drummond Series they speed through the story with an explosive ending.

The version I watched had subtitles and when Drummond gave a verbal message to a friend the subtitle says (speaking pig Latin) - talk about lazy.

One thing that irks me is a scene where they use matches and touches to highlight a room that they could have just turned on the overhead light and do so moments later (after fumbling around in the dark.)