ScoobyWell
Great visuals, story delivers no surprises
Memorergi
good film but with many flaws
Ketrivie
It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.
wes-connors
British adventurer John Howard (as Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond) is all set to marry girlfriend Louise Campbell (as Phyllis Clavering), but a strange plot to steal the explosive "Haxtonite" from a plane sidetracks their nuptials. For this film series, that's par for the course. Scotland Yard investigator John Barrymore (as Colonel Nielson) is first informed about the explosive plot. He hopes his friend Drummond will get on with his marriage, after several cancellations. Driving with his pal Reginald Denny (as Algy Longworth) and manservant E.E. Clive (as Tenny), Drummond witnesses the plane crash and finds a dismembered hand and suitcase in the wreckage. When the plot thickens, Drummond must solve the mystery. Directed by Louis King, "Bulldog Drummond's Revenge" is fast, confusing and lacks the "Revenge" suggested by its title.**** Bulldog Drummond's Revenge (1937-12-16) Louis King ~ John Howard, John Barrymore, E.E. Clive, Louise Campbell
Terrell-4
Captain Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond was one of those British gentlemen of leisure who one assumes was mentioned in dispatches for gallantry during The Great War. These amateur sleuths had superb manners and upper-class attitudes. They solved some of England's most ingenious crimes during the Twenties and Thirties. According to Drummond's chronicler, H. C. McNeile, Drummond "has the appearance of an English gentleman: a man who fights hard, plays hard and lives clean...Only his eyes redeem his face. Deep-set and steady, with eyelashes that many women envy, they show him to be a sportsman and an adventurer." In Bulldog Drummond's Revenge, John Howard plays Drummond. The Bulldog is turned into a conventionally handsome man with a carefully groomed moustache and not much sign of life. It's a bland, pleasant performance. The plot, told in 57 brisk minutes, has something to do with haxonite, a super explosive, often unstable, that can obliterate cities. A large sample is stolen from the inventor while he's flying his single-engine plane at night in the fog. When Hugh Drummond and his best friend, Algy Longworth (Reginald Denny, playing the epitome of the English twit), discover the suitcase (it had been tossed out of the plane attached to a parachute) on their way to meet Phyllis Claverling, Hugh's long time fiancée, all sorts of complications arise. There's the increasingly impatient Phyllis who wants a husband and not a detective, a hand reaching around a doorway to turn out the lights, a long train ride to Dover with a suspicious woman who looks so mannish she must either be a male in disguise or on heavy-duty hormones, and international spies. All this takes place, or course, at night. Phyllis despairs of ever getting Hugh to the altar. Algy's wife shows up briefly and then disappears, thankfully. She brings a shrill laugh that is to comedy what a drill is to dentistry. There's also a severed arm, a few days old, which makes an occasional appearance. And there is John Barrymore playing, in a few brief scenes, Colonel J. A. Nielson, head of Britain's most shadowy secret service. He's top billed, has little to do but be authoritative and lend his name to this enterprise. It's a poignant situation. Barrymore still can dominate any scene he's in. E. E. Clive is one of the best things in the movie, and in the series. He plays Drummond's manservant, Tennyson. "Tenny" is an elderly snob, but marvelously competent, remarkably resourceful and, one surmises, probably smarter that Drummond. His performance brings some acerbic life to the movie. "Ah, Tenny, getting married is great fun, isn't it?" says Drummond. "In Switzerland, sir?" says Tenny, raising an eyebrow. "Anywhere, Tenny, anywhere!" Says Tenny, with finely tuned distaste, "It's a popular belief, sir." Bulldog Drummond's Revenge is one of those many time-filling programmers from the past that do no harm. They're fun to watch every now and then.
bkoganbing
The title in this film, Bulldog Drummond's Revenge is a bit of a misnomer because John Howard as the intrepid Bulldog is not out for any personal vengeance in this case. What he's looking to do is stop an international crook played by Frank Puglia from stealing a new, but as yet unstable explosive compound. In some of these B films the studios were never really careful.Howard is once again planning his wedding with his ever faithful Louise Campbell who seems to be more faithful to him than Olive Oyl was to Popeye. A chance visit to his bete noire, John Barrymore as Colonel J.A. Neilson of Scotland Yard has him learn of the experiment of scientist Matthew Boulton. The source is of all people, a Japanese diplomat played by Miki Morita. This was probably the last time, other than in Mr. Moto films that a Japanese was given friendly treatment in an American film.Matthew Boulton plays Sir John Hackston and of course he's named the stuff Hackstonite. It seems to come in grains and small pebbles and you never can tell when it will blow up, like liquid nitroglycerin that way. Anyway Puglia stages an elaborate plane crash killing Boulton and gets away with the stuff. The rest of the film is Drummond with his team of silly friend Algy, Reginald Denny, and his intrepid butler Tennison played by E.E. Clive. Clive actually proves in the films I've seen to have a head on his shoulders. Not too bad, but did Louise ever get the slippery Bulldog to finally say 'I do'?
clark-9
This is one of the better entries in the Drummond series. Three of the best entries are from 1937. The real reason they are better may be because of the writer, Edward T. Lowe Jr. He wrote this one as well as 1937's Bulldog Drummond Escapes and Bulldog Drummond Comes Back.The pace is quick, the dialog good, and there is some very nice physical humor throughout that features reasonable exaggeration without being too farcical. John Barrymore's more restrained performance as Col. Nielsen helps to highlight his bits of physical humor. The supporting cast is in especially fine form.The plot centers on the theft of a powerful explosive and our hero's efforts to retrieve it and solve the murders associated with the theft. There is nice touch involving a hand and arm.Lastly, if don't like to see women faint, stay away!
