Bulldog Drummond was made at the very beginning of the sound era and was Ronald Colman's first talkie. He was one of the lucky silent stars who had the right kind of voice for talkies, or for just about anything. In this movie he shows a talent for acting and a natural charm that made him a star in both silent and talking films.This isn't true of everyone in the movie. Some of the acting seems stuck in another era (I found Lawrence Grant as Dr. Lakington especially annoying) as do some of the film-making techniques. Still, I enjoyed watching this.
Drummond is a demoblized officer who finds himself bored with life outside the military. He says he's too rich to work and wants excitement, so he places a newspaper ad offering his services in exchange for excitement. He gets a lot of responses, but the one he chooses comes from Phyllis Benton (Joan Bennett), who wants him to rescue her uncle from a hospital where he's supposedly being treated for a nervous breakdown. She believes something fishy is going on, and of course it is. The villains, dressed throughout in evening clothes, want the uncle's signature on a paper turning his worldly goods over to them. Drummond sets about the rescue, both helped and hindered by his friend Algy, the alleged comic relief, and by his valet.
There are escapes and pursuits and disguises, and it's all good fun up until the end when there's a gratuitous (to me) killing, in which the tone is all off. And then there's "the circus gag," which is pretty hard to swallow.
Many more Drummond adventures on film followed this one, but I believe that Colman was in only one more. This movie's nearly 90 years old now, and it holds up surprisingly well for the most part, especially Colman's acting, although I doubt I could convince any whippersnappers of this. I'm glad I watched it and recommend it for historical reasons if nothing else.
2 comments:
I'm surprised that Guy Ritchie hasn't resurrected Drummond and restored a scene from the book that the moviemakers left out, Drummond's wrestle with a gorilla.
"He shifted his left thumb an inch or two on the brute's throat, and the gorilla, thinking he was weakening, redoubled his efforts. But still those powerful hands clutched its throat; try as it would, it failed to make them budge. And then, little by little, the fingers moved, and the grip which had been tight before grew tighter still.
"Back went its head; something was snapping in its neck. With a scream of fear and rage it wrapped its legs round Drummond, squeezing and writhing. And then suddenly there was a tearing snap, and the great limbs relaxed and grew limp."
Ye gods--Bulldog Drummond out-Tarzans Tarzan. I read a couple of "Sapper's" (H. C. MacNeil) Bulldog Drummond books years ago; they're kind of nasty, and riddled with extreme violence; so were at least some of the best-sellers by Edgar (THE FOUR JUST MEN) Wallace. (They had a slight--but only slight, fortunately--influence on some of the early Saint stories by Leslie Charteris.) I too am somewhat surprised that these stories haven't been resurrected for the 21st century; but then, how long has it been since we saw a Raffles movie or TV show?
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