utgard14 The final Bulldog Drummond movie in the Paramount series stars John Howard and finally has Drummond marrying longtime fiancée Phyllis (the delightful Heather Angel). But before they get hitched there's another last-minute interruption in the form of a bank robber, a radio, and a trip to France. The cast of regulars (Reginald Denny, E.E. Clive, H.B. Warner, and Elizabeth Patterson) are all fine. Eduardo Ciannelli plays the villain and hams it up nicely. There's even more comedy than usual in this one. Some of it is funny but most of it is just stupid, particularly where Algy is concerned.Bulldog Drummond would return to the movies after WW2. First at Columbia, then Fox and MGM, with yet more actors playing the role (including Tom Conway and Walter Pidgeon). But none of those would be quite as enjoyable as the Paramount series. Which isn't saying a lot since these movies were never better than time-passers anyway. But I can honestly say I never found any of the movies bad, just ranging from 'ok' to good. Even this final one, while weaker than the others, is still watchable. And it's not even an hour long so it's hard to argue against giving it a shot when you have time to kill.

arfdawg-1 A bank-robbery in London prevents - again - the marriage of Bulldog Drummond with his girlfriend. But this time when the delinquents are caught it will be celebrated at last.Or will it?I'm not a huge fan of these Drummond films. They are very formulaic.Plus, their under an hour running time feels like 4 hours.In fact, this one is a bit more boring than the others I've seen.It will likely be the last

Tweekums This short Bulldog Drummond film opens with a bang when a bank robber blows the vault in a London bank and makes off with ten thousand pounds. The police quickly set up a cordon but the robber has a plan… he stashes the cash inside a radio in a flat that is being renovated then pretends to be a decorator who has gone insane to be driven through the cordon in an ambulance. By quite a coincidence the flat has been bought by Drummond and his bride to be Phyllis. Inevitable the robber returns for the radio but by then it has been sent to France where Phyllis is preparing for her marriage. The robber and his sidekick head over to France and Drummond, his butler Tenny and his friend Algy follow and Drummond promptly gets arrested by the French police who believing him to be a spy following a tip off from Scotland Yard where the police aren't pleased with Drummond leaving London when they had asked to come in to help with an identification.This was a rather fun film the drama was decent enough with a few fights and explosions. There were also quite a few laughs; mostly provided by Algy and the French Police Chief/Mayor. The scene where Algy confronts the thief, who is pretending to be mad, was a particularly fun bit of slapstick. While one never has any doubt that Drummond will solve the crime there is one question that will be on the viewer's mind… will Drummond finally marry Phyllis?! John Howard puts in a solid performance as Drummond and Heather Angel makes as welcome return as Phyllis, although her character is slightly underused… but not as underused as H.B. Warner's police inspector Colonel Nielson. Overall a decent instalment in the series where the laughs seem more important than the drama.

robert-temple-1 This is the sixteenth of the Bulldog Drummond films, and it brings to an end the Drummond films as they were before the outbreak of World War II. (They would resume in 1947.) With this film, John Howard also ends his career as Drummond, which had lasted for seven films, all made within two breathless years between September of 1937 and September of 1939. Heather Angel once again plays Phyllis Clavering, E. E. Clive plays Tenny the Butler, Reginald Denny plays Algy Longworth, and H. B. Warner plays Commissioner Nielson, all for the last time. John Howard left the film business to join the U. S. Navy (he was an American), where he ended up winning the Navy Cross and the French Croix de Guerre for conspicuous acts of bravery, becoming in other words a real life hero of the sort he had played in the Drummond films. After the War, he returned to acting but was never again fortunate to shine as a major player. It seems a poor return for a fictional Drummond who became a real Drummond, that he could not resume the role. E. E. Clive died the next year, in 1940. Reginald Denny contributed to the War effort by manufacturing 15,000 target drones for the U. S. Army. He later returned to acting, but was never in another Drummond film. H. B. Warner and Heather Angel went on acting, but they never appeared in another Drummond film either. The team was totally broken up, and 'vintage 1930s Drummond' was over. This film is moderately entertaining, with lots of comedy, so that it is not actually serious. What with people having cans of paint thrown over them and slipping and sliding, Algy staging pratfalls continually, and other such antics, there is barely room for a mystery plot. However, Drummondians will be thrilled to know that ... oh no, I must not say ... that business which was continually being interrupted between Hugh and Phyllis, ... well, that must remain a mystery. The plot, what there is of it, concerns a ruthless villain who has robbed a bank for what then was considered a vast sum, of ten thousand pounds. It is hard to conceive of a time when that was a sum worth getting excited about, worth exploding bombs all over the place, killing people without compunction, and carrying on as if all the gold of the Indies were at stake. But that was then, and this is now. In this film as in so many others of the time, Scotland Yard 'seal off an area with a cordon, and no one can get through'. It seems incredible, doesn't it, that it was even remotely conceivable to seal off a sector of London like that just for a measly little bank robbery? Naturally, the villain gets away in an ambulance disguised as a madman. Maybe it really was time for the world to move on and get real. After this, there were tanks and planes and the Holocaust to worry about, and whether Hugh and Phyllis got married or not was no longer important, with so many women widowed that Phyllis having to wait for another crime to be solved no longer qualified as a tragedy.