Bulldog Drummond’s Bride ** (1939, John Howard, Heather Angel, H B Warner, Reginald Denny, E E Clive, Elizabeth Patterson, Eduardo Ciannelli) – Classic Movie Review 12,922

Bulldog Drummond’s Bride (1939, John Howard, Heather Angel).

The 1939 American crime comedy thriller film Bulldog Drummond’s Bride is the last in Paramount’s series of eight Bulldog Drummond capers, again starring John Howard and Heather Angel.

Director James P Hogan’s 1939 American crime comedy thriller film Bulldog Drummond’s Bride is the last in the series of eight Bulldog Drummond capers made by Paramount Pictures in the late 1930s. It is a well cast, fast moving and fairly amusing but very involved and rather feeble film version of Sapper’s 1937 story Bulldog Drummond and the Oriental Mind. Series regulars John Howard, Heather Angel, H B Warner, Reginald Denny, E E Clive and Elizabeth Patterson all return, with Eduardo Ciannelli as the main villain.

In the screenplay by Stuart Palmer Garnett Weston, a bank robbery in London gets in the way of the marriage of Bulldog Drummond (John Howard) and his fiancée Phyllis Clavering (Heather Angel) but determined sleuth Drummond sets out to capture the French bank thieves, the loot and his bride to be.

Heather Angel returns for one last time as Drummond’s fiancée Phyllis Clavering, who is waiting for Drummond join her in a French village with her aunt Blanche Clavering (Elizabeth Patterson) to be married in the next couple of days. It’s nice to see John Howard and Heather Angel again one last time, and bid farewell to stalwart series regulars H B Warner as Colonel J A Nielson, Reginald Denny as Algy Longworth, E E Clive as ‘Tenny’ Tennison. Though there are several well-staged explosions, it’s hardly an explosive finale, but at least not a bad finish to the series. The opening bank robbery and closing rooftop chase are well done, and along with some other entertaining scenes of shots and fisticuffs, suggest the much better movie this could easily be.

Eduardo Ciannelli and Gerald Hamer play the villains, Henri Armides and his henchman Garvey, who blow up and rob a London bank in daylight and get away with £10,000 in a roll of cash. Running off from the scene of the crime, they hide the money in a wireless set in the very new flat that Drummond and his fiancée will be occupying when they are married. Armides comes into Drummond’s new flat pretending to be a painter decorator, and stages a crazy act to get away, supposedly gone mad by the paint fumes.

But Phyllis sets off for France without Drummond, who stays to investigate, promising to join her, and she innocently gets him to send the wireless by air to her in the French village, pursued by Drummond who has deduced where the money is. But so have Henri Armides and his henchman Garvey, who also turn up in the village, and Colonel Nielson, Algy and ‘Tenny’ arrive on the scene too. Nielson arranges that Drummond is arrested and jailed by the French as a notorious spy going under a false name.

It’s such a serious sounding plot that you wouldn’t think they’d find room for the dreaded ‘comedy’, but they do. It strays into Three Stooges slapstick moments every now and again, before it remembers it’s a thriller and stages a decent recovery. Reginald Denny’s silly ass turn as Algy Longworth has gone a bit thin, and the comic Frenchmen are a bit hard to take. Louis Mercier’s comedy turn as the Mayor is straight out of ‘Allo! Allo!, amusing but untruthful and of course racist. However, H B Warner, E E Clive and Elizabeth Patterson are fine, all settled comfortably into their roles, and so are Eduardo Ciannelli and Gerald Hamer as the sinister villains. John Howard has really got the measure of his role as Drummond now, and Heather Angel is really appealing, so it’s a shame the series had to come to an end.

Please note (1) how the movie prop pillar-box wobbles in response to the explosion in the opening sequence; (2) the London bus that nearly collides with Phyllis and Hugh is actually as American bus with the passenger entrance on the right-hand side; and (3) the London police car is using an American siren instead of British police car bells. Please also note the use of Americanisms like flashlight instead of torch. Plus there is a scene where the heroes are fumbling around in the dark and use a match and a torch to light a room when they could have just switched on the ceiling light, and then proceed to do soon after. They knew where the light switch was all along, so why didn’t they use it? It all adds to the fun of watching though.

The cast are John Howard as Captain Hugh Chesterton ‘Bulldog’ Drummond, Heather Angel as Phyllis Clavering, H B Warner as Colonel J A Nielson, Reginald Denny as Algy Longworth, E E Clive as ‘Tenny’ Tennison, Elizabeth Patterson as Aunt Blanche Clavering, Eduardo Ciannelli as Henri Armides, Gerald Hamer as Garvey, John Sutton as Inspector Tredennis, Neil Fitzgerald as Evan Barrows, Louis Mercier as Mayor Jean Philippe Napoleon Dupres, Adia Kuznetzoff as Gaston, Adrienne D’Ambricourt as Theresa, and Clyde Cook as Constable Sacker.

Bulldog Drummond’s Bride is directed by James P Hogan, runs 56 minutes, is made and released by Paramount, is written by Stuart Palmer and Garnett Weston, based on 1937 story The Oriental Mind in Strand Magazine by Herman C McNeile (H C ‘Sapper’ McNeile), is shot in black and white by Harry Fischbeck, is produced by William LeBaron and Stuart Walker, and scored by John Leipold.

Bulldog Drummond’s Bride (1939).

It is one of eight Bulldog Drummond capers made by Paramount Pictures in the late 1930s and sold in mid-1954 for re-release by Congress Films, who amateurishly redesigned the opening and closing credits to eliminate any signs of Paramount’s previous ownership.

Release date: July 12, 1939.

Running time: 56 minutes.

Paramount did not renew the copyright, and the films fell into public domain.

The Paramount Bulldog Drummond series

Ray Milland starred in the 1937 Paramount Pictures film Bulldog Drummond Escapes, but was replaced as Bulldog Drummond in Bulldog Drummond Comes Back (1937) by John Howard, who played Bulldog Drummond in seven films produced by Paramount. John Barrymore stars in Bulldog Drummond Comes Back (1937). Howard continued opposite Barrymore in Bulldog Drummond’s Revenge (1937) and Bulldog Drummond’s Peril (1938). H B Warner replaced Barrymore in Bulldog Drummond in Africa (1938), Arrest Bulldog Drummond (1939), Bulldog Drummond’s Secret Police (1939), and Bulldog Drummond’s Bride (1939), the last in the series.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 12,922

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