Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police (1939)

To me, this movie is perfection.

good back-story, and good acting

Better Late Then Never

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

"Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police" is a particularly cheap entry in the series (after the opening scene, the action never leaves Drummond's home, and there is even a clip show with footage from previous entries) but it does have some good points: Heather Angel is (once again) admirably feisty, Leo Carroll is perhaps the best-cast villain in the series (he doesn't have many lines, but he doesn't need them - his face is enough!), Algy gets what is possibly his first funny gag in the series (the one with the Ming vase), and the new guest character of the absent-minded professor is both amusing and kind of endearing - which makes it uncomfortably mean-spirited when he gets killed. On the whole, this one is mainly for the series fanatics. ** out of 4.

Bulldog Drummond was definitely a lesser detective-adventure series of the 30s and 40s. Unlike some of the better Bs (such as Charlie Chan or Sherlock Holmes), this one never quite caught on with the public--though they did make a ton of them. In many ways, the closest films to these were the Falcon and Saint series--as Drummond isn't exactly a detective--he just seems to fall into adventures and dangerous plots. But so may of them just didn't do much to entertain--probably because the leading man turnover rate was higher than in perhaps any other B series--with at least 14 different leading men!! John Howard (who was in this film) played the character in the most films--seven--and I think he might have been one of the best of the series.So, as you can see from my first paragraph, I am NOT a huge fan of the Drummond films--though I do love the genre. However, I must give this film its due--it is excellent all around and compares to the best of any series. Too bad more of the films weren't like this one. It's also too bad that the next film ("Bulldog Drummond's Bride) really sucked.This film, like many other Drummond and Falcon/Saint films, finds the leading man about to get married. These marriages almost always seem to fall through at the last minute and you assume this will once again happen. But it's really NOT Drummond's fault, as this time the killer comes to Drummond's own ancestral home!! It seems there is a hidden treasure--left there from the English Civil War of the early-mid 17th century. An old professor has learned about this and has a secret code that might unlock the mystery. But, naturally, a baddie is on hand to do mischief.The film gets very high points for setting a great mood, good acting (Algie was better than usual here) and I liked the presence of his fiancée's grouchy aunt (Elizabeth Patterson). Fun and well worth seeing.

This is the fifteenth Bulldog Drummond film, and the second to be based on Herman C. McNeile (Sapper)'s novel 'Temple Tower', though the earlier film is not included in the IMDb list for McNeile, which is thus incomplete. The first filmed version of the novel was 'Temple Tower', released 13 April 1930, and starring Kenneth MacKenna as Drummond. There appears to be no surviving print of this earlier film, and no one alive has apparently ever seen it. We must presume that it is permanently lost, as the first Bulldog Drummond film, a silent of 1922, presumably is as well. Here the old gang are all back: John Howard as the perfect Drummond, Heather Angel as charming and plucky as ever as Phyllis Clavering, trying unsuccessfully for the sixth time to marry Drummond, Reginald Denny as Algy Longworth being as endearing and clumsy and twittish as ever (he breaks a Ming vase this time), H.B. Warner as the Commissioner who this time does not say 'Please don't call me Inspector!' because he is a house guest of Drummond's, as the entire action takes place at Drummond's large mansion, E. E. Clive as the inimitable gentleman's gentleman Tenny ('I try to give satisfaction, sir'), Leo G. Carroll as the dastardly and rather obvious villain Henry Seaton, and Phyllis's aunt over-played by Elizabeth Patterson (same name as my cousin who married Napoleon's brother Jerome!). (But no, Temple Tower is no relation.) The plot concerns the royal jewels having been hidden by a royalist colonel during the Civil War of 1642-5 in the cellars of Temple Tower of Drummond's own family mansion. An absent-minded professor has figured this out, and travelled all the way from the British Museum Library with the royalist's original diary in his bag, including maps of tunnels and a mysterious cipher, to discover the treasure which he has calculated is 'worth a million pounds' (in 1939 money). This is a typical comedy thriller, of the type soon coming to an end. One more would be made with John Howard before the War put an end to all this fun ('Bulldog Drummond's Bride', released four months later). We are nearing the end of an era, and this kind of jollity (piping oboes when people make funny faces, Algy falling down the stairs entangled in a suit of armour in the dark, the occasional witty line delivered with old-fashioned applomb) would soon vanish like smoke, as the dogs of war were unleashed and howls of laughter were replaced by howls of anguish of the murdered and the bombed.

Terrific adventure that caps the 1937-39 series nicely, with John Howard comfortable in his role as Drummond and Heather Angel a treat (if not an especially good actress) as poor Phyllis. The whole gang is at the old tower estate, preparing for the Drummond wedding, when an absent-minded scholar shows up with a tale about secret passages and treasure right under their feet! Drummond tries to keep out of it, but a sinister figure enters in the night and causes havoc. Soon, the whole troupe is creeping thru dark passages and avoiding deadly traps.The dialog isn't quite as witty or sardonic as in previous entries, but the tension is keen. Ciphers, skeletons, spikes, raging torrents, crumbling platforms, and more make this one of the best of the Bulldog Drummond series. For those keeping score, in this one, Drummond is (again) about to marry Phyllis, and Algy seems to have forgotten that he is already married.