Le retour de Bulldog Drummond

Bulldog Drummond, as portrayed by Walter Pidgeon here, gets a call form the police. There's a new criminal gang terrorizing London, and no one knows anything about it. Pidgeon allows himself to be caught cheating at cards, and supposedly flees the country, while the club considers whether to expel him. David Tomlinson, playing Algy Longworth, is thoroughly confused. Meanwhile, Pidgeon has gone undercover with police sergeant Margaret Leighton to infiltrate the gang, which he does with great ease.

Pidgeon spent most of his quarter-century at MGM squiring around the ladies, and playing well-mannered individuals. Here's a late entry in his leading man resume. While he maintains his genial charm throughout, the movie was a total failure at the box office, and was Pidgeon's last leading man on the silver screen. Perhaps the poor way the parts of the story fit together had something to do with it. Even so, the MGM gloss, great camerawork by Freddie Young, anda generally genial attitude by all hands makes this one watchable.

Pidgeon was a welcome presence for another quarter of a century, never had an unkind word for anyone, a great store of dirty limericks, and a perfect contentment with his lot in life. He died in 1984 at the age of 87.

And one only, in my opinion.

That reason is Margaret Leighton. She is a wonderful actress, on-stage as well as on the screen. We have few chances to see her, though. I think that's especially true in the United States.

Here she plays a sympathetic role. Not only that but she is also very pretty and meant to be something of a bombshell.

Walter Pigeon does not hold up the tradition of Drummond performers. He is always reliable but he's not much fun. He's not a rascal or a knave. Consequently, this seemed to me a talky endeavor with little action or suspense. But check it out for Leighton.

This is a very good movie with Walter Pidgeon doing an excellent job as Bulldog Drummond. Algy too is back and played to perfection by David Tomlinson. The story is filled with suspense and action. But where are Colonel Neilson, Tenny, and Phyllis Clavering, The woman Major Drummond is always about to marry but, alas, usually does not? Margaret Leighton as Sergeant Helen Smith fills in nicely for Phyllis Clavering and this somewhat compensates for Ms Clavering's absence, plus giving a new twist to the comparable role. This is a faithful rendition of the Bulldog Drummond series and highly recommended for fans and non-fans.

Walter Pidgeon and Margaret Leighton make as good a pair here as William Powell and Myrna Loy as that other detective couple; but unfortunately this was the only instance of Leighton and Pidgeon appearing together, while they obviously enjoyed it the more for being just once, crowning all the Bulldog Drummond films wit a witty masterpiece. Although it is a criminal film getting very serious indeed with bank robberies, shoot-outs and fisticuffs enough, it is highly enjoyable and almost hilarious in certain turns. The dialog is everything, the action is just routine, the plot is easy to begin with but gets complicated, but on the whole it is an excellent film. Walter Pidgeon is still doing excellently well for being so old here, while Margaret Leighton steals the show with flying colours - I have never seen her better.

This is a good, easily enjoyed undercover police story, with a bit of the "Big Heist" caper film the British practically made a national genré of. But it is not any sort of a classic, it's not what one could say was action-packed, it concentrates more on suspense.

The problem with it is mainly in its being sold to us as a Bulldog Drummond story. First, Walter Pidgeon might be a versitile actor, and he does this film with his expected competency, and if his character were named John Smith it would be just fine, but he's not right to be Bulldog Drummond. He's a bit too formal, serious, and old to play him, especially after we have seen someone like John Howard fill the role so well. What about the other characters? Algy is now a serious, and colorless, far secondary figure, Tenny isn't in it at all, nor is Mrs. Drummond.

If nothing else, it would seem they just took a cops and robbers story and decided it would sell better on the back of a well known character that had gone dormant, so, without any more consideration than that, they made a Bulldog Drummond movie.