Bulldog Drummond (1929)

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

This very early talkie marks the debut of the famous actor Ronald Colman in sound pictures, and it was a powerful introduction for him; a great treat for the audiences! His beautifully-delivered English was ideal for the character he portrayed in "Bulldog Drummond" ~ as opposed to the over-the-top asinine caricature of his silly though well-meaning sidekick Algy complete with monocle! This is an amusing motion picture of important historical interest. It does not hold up very well with the passing of almost 90 years, but still has the ability to hold one's attention and even fascination, and all the actors are clearly striving to deliver. Other reviewers have delat with the actual storyline, so I won't comment further. Be sure to see this "talkie" if you can. I'm happy to recommend it highly. >>>>>> 8/10 <<<<<<

If Ronald Coleman was nervous about his transition from silent to talkies, he needn't have worried. He had a cultured, rich and elegant speaking voice which made the transition effortless.For his first talkie, he was cast in the lead role in "Bulldog Drummond". The fun loving adventurer was tailor made for Coleman. His cavalier, bon vivant, devil may care Drummond was a treat to behold. The problem I had with the film was it's "B" movie script.Capt. Hugh Drummond (Coleman) is a rich retired WW1 army officer bored to death with civilian life. He decides to place a personal ad in the London Times advertising his services. Among the replies is one from a young lady named Phyllis (Joan Bennett). It seems her uncle is being held captive in a "Nursing Home" by a gang of extortionists.The nursing home is run by a Dr. Lakington (Lawrence Grant), the mad doctor of the piece and his two cohorts, Pterson (Montagu Love and his friend Irma, played seductively by Lilyan Tashman. The gang is out to force Phyllis' uncle to sign over his considerable wealth to them.Drummond along with his friend Algy (Claude Allister) and valet Danny (Wilson Benge) attempt to foil the gang's plans. Danny takes an interest in Irma, while Drummond per sues the young Phyllis. But Drummond is captured by the gang and................................Coleman as previously stated, breezes along seemingly enjoying his role. Although he is best remembered for his more serious roles (A Tale of Two Cities, Lost Horizon etc.), he was also quite adept at light comedy as was the case in this mystery/comedy. He also got to romance the still teen-aged Joan Bennett as well.Of the rest of the cast, Tashman stands out as "My Friend Irma" and veteran silent baddie Love as her "partner". Allister as the silly ass Algy is way over the top. Grant as the mad doctor invokes memories of the mad doctors of the "B" horror flicks of the 40s with J. Carroll Naish coming to mind.There is an unusual ending to the story that to me, didn't make much sense however, I'll let you decide on that.Followed by "Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back" (1934) also with Coleman and a "B" series in the late 30s with John Howard as Drummond. MGM tried to revive the character in "Calling Bulldog Drummond" (1951) with Walter Pidgeon as Drummond , to no avail.

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 started off yet another series devoted to the exploits of a literary detective figure (though he is actually an ex-British military officer); even if the films themselves never reached particular heights and, following the first two entries starring Ronald Colman (both, incidentally, included in the "Wonders In The Dark" poll), fell definitely into the B-movie league, this initial outing did yield two Oscar nominations for Best Actor and Best Art Direction (William Cameron Menzies)!Despite being 85 years old and thus understandably stagey in treatment, the film survives quite nicely as pure entertainment (save for the frequent singing by a young man at an inn, summarily booted out when the villains turn up!), and can even be seen to have left its mark on culture (the presence of both a mad doctor and a femme fatale among its cast of characters). It is only the attitudes that have dated: Drummond's constant cheerfulness and over-confidence (we never really feel he is in danger throughout, also because there is a chivalric sense of mutual respect between hero and antagonist – though he does dispose violently and gratuitously of the slow-talking scientist, albeit offscreen); the latter, then, is an archaic gangster type; Drummond is assisted by silly ass Claud Allister's Algy (who, annoyingly, repeatedly asks for the afore-mentioned vamp's telephone number as if it were the most natural thing to do under the circumstances, or that she would ever even deign to give him the time of day!) and a butler; Drummond's romantic attachment to the heroine is likewise merely an obligatory convention (though 38 at the time, Colman always seemed to look middle- aged – which makes him that more unsuited to blonde Joan Bennett, not yet out of her teens and still a decade away from her 1940s heyday!). Curiously enough, though this tale is depicted as being Drummond's baptism of fire in the sleuthing business, the villainess already calls him by his "Bulldog" nickname! Being a Samuel Goldwyn production, the film is slickly-handled (Gregg Toland was one of the cinematographers) and, as I said, includes a number of welcome elements that would eventually find their utmost expression in other popular genres (horror, noir and espionage thrillers – the latter in the deployment of a criminal organization, even if their objective here involves nothing more earth-shattering than the simple extortion of money!).