Cercasi avventura

Captain Bulldog Hugh Drummond (Ronald Coleman) is bored. He is bored of peace in a contracting British empire made so by the decimation of everybody who was of fighting age in WWI. Hugh is one of the few survivors of that war and he longs for adventure. So he puts an ad in the paper saying he is looking for adventure, and would rather crime not be involved but won't rule it out.

He gets tons of responses, but the letter of Phyllis (Joan Bennett) asking for help strikes his fancy and especially the mystery she puts around their meeting. She has reserved a room for them in a local inn. On the appointed day Drummond arrives at the inn, goes to the room, and soon in walks a woman dressed from head to toe in black. She uncovers her face, and Drummond is instantly smitten. She tells a rather fantastic tale of how her fabulously wealthy uncle is being held captive in an asylum in a plot to rob him of his assets and how she is being watched by the people who run the asylum. That was why she chose the remote inn in the middle of the night. Now Drummond's friend Algie and Drummond's butler have followed Drummond to the inn, and prior to Phyllis' entry Drummond has locked them in the bedroom. While all of this conversation is going they are listening in.

Now Phyllis could have been a complete crackpot, but in the middle of their meeting in come the people running the asylum and fetch Phyllis back, validating her story. Drummond follows them, gets Phyllis out, manages to grab the uncle too, and then after some clever maneuvers in a high speed chase, makes a bone headed mistake - he takes them BOTH BACK to the inn where the villains found them in the first place. Of course they show up AGAIN. How will all of this work out? Watch and find out.

This is not to say that the villains do not make mistakes or strange decisions. They seem to be running an asylum in a huge castle like structure in which Phyllis' uncle is the only inmate. Nice work if you can get it.

This was a very well done early talkie. The entire film takes place at night, the architecture looks like something straight out of a German expressionist film, and the dialogue and performances are not static or stilted at all. There is clever use of the camera to give the illusion of motion where there really cannot be any, and the same is true for Colman's performance - he was actually wounded badly in WWI and could not use one leg hardly at all. Yet when you think back after watching, you'll swear he was climbing and swinging about like Errol Flynn.

Lilyan Tashman steals the show as the villainess, who for some reason is dressed up in an evening gown for all of this skulking about. Drummond may be her technical enemy, but you can tell by every word she says she is sexually attracted to him, if only she could get him under her spell.

This film was Joan Bennett's first talking film, Ronald Colman's second talking film and first surviving one, and Lilyan Tashman's second talking role. For these three actors, the coming of sound was a boost to their careers rather than the end of them. Of course, Colman had been a star for some years, but his marvelous voice would have made it a pleasure to listen to him recite the dictionary. Watch it for the fun, romance, and adventure of it all.

One more thing, unlike James Bond, apparently Bulldog Drummond was extremely monogamous. In the later low budget Drummond pictures of the late 30's with John Howard in the starring role Drummond is engaged to a girl named Phyllis. The joke of the series is how the planned wedding just never manages to come off because of some mystery into which Drummond becomes entangled. It's good B fun but this is the first and the best of the talking Bulldog Drummond films, largely because of the charming Ronald Colman.

This was the second film of this title, the third Bulldog Drummond film to be made, and the first with sound (this being the first year of sound films). The original 'Bulldog Drummond' was a 1922 silent, which appears to be lost, starring Carlyle Blackwell. In 1925, 'Bulldog Drummond's Third Round' appeared, starring Jack Buchanan. A print survives, and has been shown at at least one film festival, but few have had the good fortune to see it. This is the classic Drummond film in a series which was to extend to 25 films, if one counts the 1983 satire 'Bullshot'. Ronald Colman is spectacular in the lead, perfect in every way for the part, wryly humorous, dashing, ardent, impetuous but thoughtful: in short, he was the very essence of Captain Hugh Drummond. The film opens with a famous scene, an amusing long tracking shot of the interior of the 'Senior Conservative Club' (fictitious, but modelled on the Carlton Club in St. James) in London, with old gents reading or nodding off in their leather armchairs. The first two times I saw this film, I thought it was meant to be Drummond's own club. But now I am inclined to believe that it is the club of his friend Algy, whose guest he is on this occasion. Drummond says to Algy that he is bored to tears: 'I'm too rich to work, but too intelligent to play'. Algy suggests that he place an ad in The Times seeking adventure, so he drafts one on the spot stating that he finds 'peace too tedious' and invites offers of danger and adventure. The Drummond books by 'Sapper' are based on a former Army captain from the late War, who gets together a band of former soldiers who had served under him in the trenches, in order to pursue adventure in peacetime. It played to the air of total disillusion which followed the First War, similar to that which engendered film noir after the Second War. The post-War motivation is essentially absent from this film, as it was ten years on and no longer fashionable to be moaning about it. This was the first and last sound film directed by the silent director F. Richard Jones, who died of TB the next year aged only 33. The villainess of this film is played chillingly by Lilyan Tashman (astonishingly aged only 20, though playing 40), but she died aged 34 in 1934. Claud Allister is an effete Algy with a monocle, his voice shrill enough to break a wine glass. He has a wonderful moment where he is awakened by a bird popping out of a cuckoo clock, and says: 'Is it really 2 o'clock? How I do detest bird life!' Lawrence Grant is wonderfully sinister as a mad scientist with a fake asylum. The film is stagey, old-fashioned, creaks at the joints, implausible, and Joan Bennett as the girl is so pathetically helpless and whimpering that one wants to scream with frustration. She only becomes the Joan Bennet we were later to know in the love scenes at the inn towards the end, where her voice suddenly deepens and she gets that Joan Bennett glint in her eyes, and the shrinking violet begins to turn into a prowling feline. Despite any flaws, this film is a true classic, conveying as it does so much period atmosphere and the overwhelming charm of Ronald Colman, who made most films he was in into absolute 'must-sees'. If you like Colman or you like Drummond, you have to see this.

I recently watched a few early talking pictures back to back, one of them "Coquette" starring Mary Pickford and the other "Bulldog Drummond." I watched "Coquette" first and thought it was pretty representative of how terrible early talkies were. Atrocious acting, static direction, incomprehensible sound recording. But I was willing to go a little easy on it because of the limitations that existed for movies from that time period. But then I watched "Bulldog Drummond" and thought, no, it was possible to make good sound films in 1929.

"Bulldog Drummond" isn't a classic by any means, but as films from that time period goes, it's pretty easy for a modern day audience to watch. The direction and camera work are fluid; they don't have that feeling so many movies from this time period do that the camera was planted in one spot and never moved. The sound is well recorded and the dialogue easy to hear. But mostly, I was struck by how much better the acting was. This film shows why an actor like Ronald Colman went on to have a robust career in sound films while actresses like Mary Pickford did not.

Colman snagged an Oscar nomination for his performance in this film, which might seem like an oddity by today's standards, but given the competition at the time he seems to be acting in a completely different medium from so many of his contemporaries. William Cameron Menzies also received a nomination for the film's fun art direction, which runs the gamut from cozy country cottages to mad scientist laboratories.

I know this film launched a whole series, and while the original didn't leave me really inspired to watch the others, I had a good time with it.

Grade: A-

So far, all the Ronald Coleman movies I've seen have been

silents. Therefore, I was glad to get a hold on his talkie debut,

Bulldog Drummond. As a film, it is very good. It's pretty exciting,

full of good acting from Coleman, Lilyan Tashman, Claud Allister,

Montague Love and a few others. I found Joan Bennet's work to be

pretty poor and forced. Not quite the same as that role in Woman

in the Window. Still, not bad for a first sound picture.

Since it's an early talkie, the slow-moving moments are excusable.

And there are really very few if you think about it. Plus the dialogue

was hillarious. Props to whoever came up with the role of Algy.

Deffinatly my favorite character. It's not a film everybody will enjoy,

but if you so desire it, this is a better example of a 1929 talkie.

7/10.

VERY early talkie from 1929. It stars Ronald Colman as a wealthy WW1 veteran--Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond. He sets out to help people in trouble. He gets a letter from the mysterious Phyllis (Joan Bennett) who believes her father is being held against his will and tortured in a nursing home. She wants Bulldog to rescue him. He agrees and is helped by his faithful valet and annoying best friend Algy (Claud Allister).

Most early talkies are boring stiff affairs but not this one. It moves quickly, is lots of fun, has exciting action sequences and has a great Oscar-nominated performance by Colman. The sound recording is good and the video is as good as can be expected from a 1929 film. The only negative about this is Allister as Algy. He plays his role WAY over the top and comes across as annoying and unfunny. Halfway through I wanted that guy gone! Him aside though this is an enjoyable and fun early talkie.