Search - Bulldog Drummond Comes Back (B&W) on DVD

Matt B. from GETZVILLE, NY
Reviewed on 9/20/2011...

Tagline: A real action drama full of fun and thrills!

Fans of B-movies enjoy the Drummond movies for their humor. In the opening scene, Drummond is writing a love poem to his fiancée Phyllis. He asks his butler for literary advice:

BD: Tenny, what rhymes with married?
T: Married, married? Harried, Sir!
BD: No, no, no Tenny, harried doesn't go with married.
T: You speak with the voice of inexperience, sir!

Soon after, Tenny, played by E.E. Clive, plays it as dry as dust as he tactfully hides his revulsion upon being asked to read aloud his boss’ terrible love poem. Clive, a Welshman trained in medicine, made it big on Broadway before he entered the movies in the early 1930s.

Drummond’s buddy Algy is played by Reginald Denny, who was from an acting family and made his stage debut at the ripe old age of six. Algy is a pip-pip ninny of an English milord. In the climax, Drummond, Phyllis, and Algy are being gassed to death and dim bulb Algy asks, “Where would you have gone for your honeymoon?”

Fans of Drummond movies also like the action. The vengeful widow of a villain kidnaps Phyllis in order to get back at Drummond who helped to send her rotter husband to the scaffold. The Lady Macbeth (Helen Freeman) sends Drummond on a scavenger hunt-like run-around. She is aided by Mikhail Valdin, played by hambone J. Carroll Nash in the kind of smarmy bad-hat role that he was always cast in. Perhaps not his fault but this time he speaks in a Russian accent despite the fact that the makeup make him looks vaguely East Asian.

Besides Denny and Clive, such talent and experience in this movie. John Barrymore, as usual, wears many disguises. He was a super-star and one wonders if the fact he was doing the Drummond franchise at all was a symptom of his heavy drinking. John Howard’s Drummond is dashing, confident and decisive. War heroes and ESL teachers will like to know that during WWII John Howard won a Navy Cross, the highest decoration awarded by the USN. After the hostilities, he acted part-time and became an English teacher and headmaster of the prestigious Highland Hall, a private high school for almost 20 years. He also tutored sailors, pilots, and technicians in celestial navigation!

Many settings – taproom, cellars, docks, drawing rooms, lonely roads – add to the interest of car chases, explosions, and bare-knuckle fights. One gets the feeling that if they had spent a little more time getting the plot clearer, it would have been a better movie, but as it is it provides a light, diverting hour.

Missing Heather, But Still Fun

Bobby Underwood | Manly NSW, Australia | 04/03/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"While Bulldog Drummond dates all the way back to the silent era of film, the most fun to be had was surely the "B" series which came later. This terrific entry in the Bulldog Drummond "B" series, featuring John Howard in the role of Hugh Drummond, moves quickly and has more atmosphere than usual. Reginald Denny and E.E. Clive return as Bulldog's pals but Heather Angel is missed as his soon-to-be bride. Louise Campbell does a nice job as Phyllis, however, and John Barrymore's presence as the Colonel adds a serious touch to the proceedings.



Phyllis is kidnapped from Rockingham by two seriously twisted criminal minds Colonel Nielson has been aware of for some time. J. Carroll Naish and Helen Freeman are fun as the evil Valdein and Irena. Nielson allows Bulldog to search for Phyllis in his own way by following the deliberate clues left him, such as phonograph records, to find his lady love.



But while Bulldog and his pals go down to the docks in a merry yet somber chase, the Colonel isn't far behind. Barrymore gets to don disguises so he can follow the action without being seen. Howard, sometimes accused of being a bit bland as Drummond by some, seems a bit more dashing here opposite the Great Profile.



It is Tenny (E.E. Clive) who comes to the rescue in this one in Edward T. Lowe's screenplay based on "Bulldog Drummond and the Female of the Species" by H.C. "Sapper" McNeile. Louis King directs this entry in the series with some flair and the ending is a real bang! Bulldog may have a clear path to the alter finally but for a last second breeze!



A very good entry despite the absence of Heather Angel, and one fans of Bulldog Drummond don't want to miss."

A flawed budget thriller

C.A. Arthur | Tacoma, Washington | 10/26/2005

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This is a little second feature from 1937, a low-budget detective story that contains the odd pleasure of seeing John Barrymore in one of his last films. The story, taken from a novel, is fairly entertaining, and the acting is competent. However, the print is terrible, and the sound is not much better. There is no excuse for selling any film in such poor condition."