Bulldog Drummond Escapes (1937)

Perfect cast and a good story

Good idea lost in the noise

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Did you people see the same film I saw?

Ray Milland (Bulldog Drummond), Heather Angel (the lady in distress), Sir Guy Standing (commissioner), Reginald Denny (Algy), Porter Hall (Merridew), E.E. Clive (Tenny), Fay Holden (Mrs Seldon), Patrick J. Kelly (Stiles), Guy Kingsford (Stanton), Charles McNaugthton (slow-witted constable), Clyde Cook (second constable), Doris Lloyd (nurse).Director: JIMMY HOGAN. Screenplay: Edward T. Lowe. Based on the stage play Bulldog Drummond Again by Gerard Fairlea and H.C. "Sapper" McNeile. Photography: Victor Milner. Film editor: William Shea. Art directors: Hans Dreier and Earl Hedrick. Set decorator: A.E. Freudeman. Music director: Boris Morros. Producer: Edward T. Lowe.COMMENT: The first and best of the 1937-39 Paramount series, smartly paced by Jimmy Hogan, with Ray Milland playing the adventurous hero delightfully tongue-in-cheek to Angel's wanly beautiful heroine, is available on an excellent Critics' Choice DVD on the original green- tinted stock. Menacing sets and noirish photography really impress. But of course, my chief reason for adding this excellent DVD to my collection was to revel in its colored tint. I really enjoyed tinted movies, but they were not popular with the majority of suburban picture-goers. They found the tint "distracting" would you believe! Full color was okay. Black-and-white was okay. Sepia was even okay. But a green tint? No way! Too way out! Too unusual! Too uncomfortable!

Bulldog Drummond is supposedly the inspiration for James Bond. I don't see it, but Ben Mankiewicz gets a lot wrong. Amazing that TCM doesn't have a fact-checker. In truth, Ian Fleming said 007 was "Drummond above the waist and Mickey Spillane below."This 1937 film stars Ray Milland, who only played Bulldog once. Someone on this board wrote that this film was only a B film, and wasn't Ray Milland a big star at one time? As if his career was on the decline. Actually it was just starting, and while I never thought of him as a superstar, he did come up the ranks after this.In this film, Captain Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond returns to England in his plane. Driving home, a young woman (Heather Angel) lands in front of his car. He doesn't hit her, but she falls.He is attempting to revive her when he hears a shout and gunshots in the woods. He leaves her for a minute, and the woman jumps in his car and leaves. She's left her purse and handkerchief in the car, so he goes to her home, Greystone. She asks him to help her as she is being kept prisoner there.Meanwhile, Bulldog's pal Algy is about to become a father for the first time and is going crazy with worry in the hospital. Guy Standing is the inspector, and when he hears from Bulldog, he tells him to leave town. The Inspector is on vacation and doesn't want to get involved in one of Bulldog's murders.Lots of fun, with Ray Milland a charming Drummond, very attractive, and very smooth. I would have loved to see him in more than just this Drummond film.Many actors have played Bulldog, including Carlyle Blackwood in the silents, Richard Johnson, Walter Pidgeon, Robert Beatty, Tom Conway, Ron Randell, John Howard (who played the role 7 times), Ronald Colman, Athol Fleming, Ralph Richardson, Kevin McKenna, and Jack Buchanan. Whew.Actually, the film The Man Who Knew Too Much was a Drummond story adapted by Hitchcock.It's interesting that so many characters were inspired by Sherlock Holmes. Like Sherlock, Bulldog has a sidekick and a nemesis (in the books), Carl Peterson.Looking forward to seeing more of the films on TCM.

In this modest, unambitious crime mystery, Ray Milland is Bulldog Drummond, an adventurous, thumotic young fellow who looks for crime everywhere he goes and, as Inspector Nielson observes, always seems to find it. I don't see anything special about that. Lots of fictional detectives find crime wherever they go, even when they're trying to get away from it. Can Hercule Poirot escape murder, even when he takes a paddle boat up in the Nile on vacation? No. No, he can't. And look at Inspector Morse. A quiet little college town like Oxford is turned into a charnal house. There should be a big "Second Coming" headline: JESSICA FLETCHER DESTROYS CABOT'S COVE. Let's face facts. These guys are detriments to society. You want to rid the world of crime? It's simple. You just lock up all the detectives. The only fictional detective who ever found himself between cases was Sherlock Holmes, and he had his cocaine to liven up his life.In this one, which I believe is the only film in which Drummond was played by Milland, the detective has his car stolen by a pretty woman, traces her to a mental institution for the up-trodden, finds she is being held prisoner because of something to do with fake war bonds, enlists the aid of his pal Algie and his butler Tenny, rescues her after many tribulations, and rushes off to get married.Either Milland or the director, James P. Hogan, made a mistake, I think, in allowing the character of Bulldog Drummond to be played as an eager Eagle Scout. Milland never put such energy into another role. (He was a fine, suave villain in Hitchcock's "Dial M For Murder," by the way.) Here, his eyes bulge, his vocal contours take on the outline of a roller coaster, and overall he's very animated. (Some might call it "overacting.") The rest of the cast go through their B-movie motions, hit their marks, and say what they're supposed to say. The young woman in jeopardy is Heather Angel. She has a great name but little to do. Porter Hall isn't really convincing as the chief heavy. He's not the criminal director of an insane asylum. He's an ordinary guy from Medford -- Medford, Oregon.The plot has a lot of twists and turns but none are particularly memorable. They've all been used at one time or another in some Charlie Chan movie. Let's see, there is a lot of sneaking around in the shrubbery in the fog, a pistol slowly extrudes from behind a curtain, there's a secret door in the wall that's activated by pressing a button, a body sinks into a dangerous marsh, the hero sneaks into the nest of vipers through a window, a running gag is that poor Algie is about to become a father and continually tries to get to a phone and find out what's happening, Porter Hall fires his pistol holding it chest high and close to his sternum (which I think I prefer to his holding it at arms' length sideways), a couple of constables guarding Milland are served drugged drinks, Milland never loses his fedora or finds his necktie askew.All in all, a fast-paced, good-natured slog through very familiar territory. It does what it was presumably designed to do -- entertain and distract an audience on a Saturday afternoon in 1937. They had plenty to be distracted from.

The title of Bulldog Drummond escapes is certainly misnomer. Not only does Ray Milland as Bulldog Drummond not escape, but he needs a bit of rescuing before the film is over.Adventure just seems to find Bulldog Drummond in a lot of films including this one. He's just driving along when he stops to avoid hitting Heather Angel out on the road. Then Milland hears some shots and goes to investigate, when he comes back she and his car are gone. When the car is recovered from a ditch, she's conveniently left a handkerchief and calling card. Of course Milland is convinced she needs rescuing, though police inspector Guy Standing is not convinced at all, in fact he acts rather obtuse about it.Of course this Angel has fallen into the hands of a gang counterfeiters and cutthroats led by Porter Hall. Milland does his best, but does require help before the film is over.Reginald Denny and E.E. Clive are also on hand as Drummond's silly pal Algy who isn't quite sure how he became a father and E.E. Clive his all knowing butler. Denny's character is more silly than amusing.Milland is fine, but this film is sure not up to either of the Ronald Colman films.