This British Bulldog Drummond movie was made at the same time Paramount was producing their series back in the States. I've heard that it's also the movie that's most faithful to the Drummond books. Having read none of the books, I can't say one way or the other if that's true. But if this movie is indicative of what the books are like, I think I'll pass on trying them out. This is future politician John Lodge's only Bulldog Drummond film. He was one of three actors to play the character in 1937 alone. The other two, Ray Milland and John Howard, would play the character over at Paramount. Of the three, Lodge is the most colorless and dull. The story in this one has Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond fighting foreign agents who kidnap an inventor. As with most of the British films I've seen from the '30s, this movie is pretty stiff. There's some playful banter between Lodge and Dorothy Mackaill, for example, but it's hurt by the dry matter-of-fact delivery. No charm or sexiness to it at all. The same can be said of the humor and action -- it's all just very blah. Claud Allister's Algy is highly annoying. Look out for Victory Jory's unintentionally funny death scene. Fans of Bulldog Drummond or the American movies might want to try it out for comparison's sake but I can't think of a reason to recommend it to anyone else.

I noticed that the IMDb running times for this film vary tremendously. In the original UK version, the film was about 20 minutes longer. Perhaps this missing film might have made this movie a lot more engaging. Because I only saw the severely truncated American version, I can only review what I saw--and it did not thrill me. However, even if I did see the original version, it would have had some problems--such as the weak acting of the man playing Algy (Claud Allister--who was just too wimpy and annoying in this part). The biggest problem, however, was that the series really never had any stability in the lead--with almost a dozen different actors playing Drummond. In 1937, there were even two playing him simultaneously--John Lodge in this British film and John Hunter in the American-made series! I can't think of another B-movie series with so many lead changes--a definite problem for building up a loyal fan base.

This film finds Drummond at home and a mystery falls in his lap--something common to most Drummond films. However, his odd reaction to the mystery astounded me. A man has escaped his kidnappers and he tries, in vain, to get help from Drummond. However, the kidnappers come to Drummond's home looking for the escaped man and rifle through Drummond's home. Then, the boss pays Drummond to keep his mouth shut and forget what he saw (which wasn't much)...and so Drummond takes the money and then goes to sleep!!!! Not exactly heroic behavior and he doesn't even attempt to do anything until the next day!!! Aside from Drummond being a weasel in the film, the movie also suffers from occasionally bad writing--even for a B. The worst was the horrid cliché that came out when Drummond captured a member of the group. The man told Drummond that he will tell him who the leader is--and when this conversation is interrupted, you KNOW that when Drummond returns after his brief absence that the man will be dead or gone--and of course, he is!! Overall, not a terrible film but certain one of the weaker ones in the series. For my time, the John Howard films are better as well as the early sound version with Ronald Colman.

Interesting... John Lodge only played starring role Bulldog Drummond this once, and director Norman Lee only directed this one chapter, before others would take over the well known roles. Lodge has an interesting story on wikipedia.org... was big in politics, and had a running competition with the Kennedy gang. Lodge had turned down a huge role with Mae West, and the wisdom of that can be debated. After this, the role of Bulldog Drummond would be played by John Howard many times. although the character had been created in the 1920s, for silent films, during the 1930s, the stories were now adapted into war-time plots, since europe was about to be pulled into WW II. Dorothy MacKaill is "Doris", and this was her final film. Foreign spies try to kidnap an inventor to steal his invention. Large actor William Dewhurst is "Mr. Portside", who brings them to a secret meeting of the underground. Died at 49, but he was so large, i guess it's not a surprise. sound and picture are all pretty iffy. story goes all around. It's pretty good. Victor Jory and Hugh Miller co-star. and a funny scene where a pickpocket gets caught picking a pocket.