Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back

Although there is another Bulldog Drummond film with the exact same title that was made with Ronald Colman in the mid-1930s, the 1947 movie is NOT a remake. Both, of course, are Bulldog Drummond films...but are quite different.

When the story begins, you learn that some unscrupulous types have been making false claims as being heirs to various fortunes. Just then, a woman arrives who identifies herself as the heiress Ellen Curtiss (Gloria Henry). But considering some OTHER person calling herself Ellen Curtiss has already filed a claim, it's obvious one is lying. So how do they tell which one is bogus? Well, essentially Bulldog Drummond talks with one and seems pretty sure she's the real McCoy...a most scientific and reliable method!! Soon after, there's a murder, some fistfights and more. But which one is the filthy, lying scum and who is the real heiress? And, could Drummond's first impression be right or is he sadly mistaken?

This is a pretty decent outing starring Ron Randell. The ending is a bit talky and it's far from perfect, but as far as B-movies go it is pretty watchable.

This Drummond mystery depicts such a contemporary problem for a 1947 film. World War Two had just finished and there must have been missing persons who needed to come to light at that time. Blitzed England would have caused peoples' identities to be questioned if their local registration records had been destroyed by the bombing. So here we have a solicitor who is telling Inspector Sanderson of Scotland Yard about the difficulty of false heirs claiming fortunes they were not entitled to. And immediately we are confronted with an intrigue of two women claiming to be Ellen Curtiss. Both of them seem genuine. Both of them claim that the other one is a fake so one of them is a brazen liar.

Bulldog Drummond is a friend to Inspector Sanderson who is trying to sort out which woman is the true heir to their aunt's estate. Sanderson is found dead with one of the Ellens hiding in his closet. After Drummond takes on the case it's really intriguing how he seems to be playing off the two women one against the other. It's difficult to fathom how his mind is working. And although we can be persuaded that one Ellen is telling the truth there are continual stumbling blocks set in our way of our certainty about that truth.

This is the second and last of the two mysteries with Ron Randell as Drummond for Columbia Pictures. Then unless I've missed someone out the Drummond character left Columbia and went onto Reliance Pictures/Fox with two Tom Conway portrayals of him in 1948.

This little-known 1947 Columbia feature, one of two featuring Australian actor Ron Randell as Bulldog Drummond, is a very good mystery that should be seen by any fan of 40s detective films. Randell is perfect for the role of Captain Hugh Drummond, as he is both charming and tough. Columbia always made a solid series detective film (their Whistler and Boston Blackie series come to mind), and this one has a good plot that will have the viewer guessing until the end, fast pacing, solid supporting performances, and no slow or boring passages. The plot, involving two different women who both claim to be a missing heir, allows for a good deal of dramatic tension, and overall this is a wonderful discovery. It's a better film than either of the Drummond films made the year after with Tom Conway in the role of Drummond (Conway was fine, but the films were a bit creaky and slow-moving).

This is the eighteenth Bulldog Drummond film, and bears the same title as the 1934 film with Ronald Colman as Drummond, but the two films have no story in common at all despite the same title. This was the second of two postwar Drummond films made by Columbia with the Australian Ron Randell playing Drummond. Having shot down five Jap fighter planes in the War, Randell may have seemed a macho choice for the role. But he has a strangely effete manner and you half expect to see him entering a gay club in between bouts of detecting. His chum Algy Longworth is played insipidly by Patrick O'Moore, but as there is nothing for him either in the script or the role, one cannot really blame O'Moore for being uninteresting. There is no Commissioner Neilson, but there is an Inspector McIver, who is annoyingly played by Holmes Herbert. There is a very good Inspector Sanderson played by Carl Harbord, but he gets killed off early on. Wilton Graff is effective as the lawyer Mason, a mixture of being unctuous and commanding. The film is really a very good detective film, if you just forget about it being supposed to be a Bulldog Drummond film. There is no valet, and without a valet, where is the true Drummond anyway? Randell plays the role as someone just hauling himself laboriously out of the lower middle class, so there is no trace of the aristocratic Drummond with a manor house and a gentleman's club left in the 1947 'workers unite' atmosphere of the aftermath of the second War. It is all supposed to be set in England, but that fools no one. The story is a good one of fake heirs and heiresses of fortunes popping up because so many documents were destroyed in the Blitz that anybody and everybody is having a go at claiming unclaimed fortunes, and there is a criminal ring organising fake applications. There are two girls in the film both claiming to be Ellen Curtiss, heiress to a fortune. Each has a birth certificate and a confident smile. They can't both be the girl, so which one is real? The two Ellens are both played very well indeed by Gloria Henry and Annabel Shaw. One is as winsome as the other. You just don't know which dimple is genuine. One minute you think it's this one, the next minute you think it's that one. This goes far down the double-identity route, to great effect. There is a nanny who claims to recognise one, but is she lying? There is an uncle who claims to recognise the other one, but is he lying because he was 'cut off without a shilling'? This is a real goodie, just try not to notice Ron and Pat trying to pretend to be Bulldog and Algy, as their hearts are not in it anyway. This simply a good yarn, well done, and we should enjoy it without worrying too much about its pedigree. Think mongrel!

There is nothing particularly Bulldoggish about this film. It could have been any amateur detective dealing with the plot elements which are actually pretty clever. Dennis the Menace's Mom (Gloria Henry) is one of the pretty femmes being sorted out.

Ron Randall is acceptable as Hugh but nothing special one way or another,

The time has shifted to Post WWII and perennial fiancee / wife Phyllis from the John Howard era seems to have been lost from collective memory as has butler Tenny.

Algy has not gotten any smarter or less annoying and a sidekick budding news reporter has been added so that the back seat of the roadster is always occupied.