Bulldog Drummond’s Secret Police ** (1939, John Howard, Heather Angel, H B Warner, Reginald Denny, E E Clive, Leo G Carroll) – Classic Movie Review 12,941

Director James P Hogan’s 1939 English castle murder mystery film Bulldog Drummond’s Secret Police is based on H C ‘Sapper’ McNeile’s 1929 novel Temple Tower, previously filmed in 1930 under its original title. John Howard comes back as Captain Hugh C ‘Bulldog’ Drummond, with useful support from H B Warner as Scotland Yard commissioner Colonel Nielson, reteamed from Bulldog Drummond in Africa (1938) and Arrest Bulldog Drummond (1939).

Captain Drummond and his fiancée Phyllis Clavering (Heather Angel) are about to marry but an ancient hidden treasure in Drummond’s house where they want to celebrate their marriage is once again getting desperately in the way, to the exasperated fury of Phyllis’s crusty Aunt Blanche (Elizabeth Patterson). Absent-minded Professor Downie (Forrester Harvey) turns up unexpectedly as a new house guest and tells Drummond that a fortune is buried in one of the walled off storerooms beneath his estate, and that he has a book in code that can lead them to discover the treasure. But someone else wants the treasure and has killed and will kill again to get it.

Bulldog Drummond’s Secret Police in total nonsense, not much of a mystery at all, and very, very broad, with way too much slapstick comedy. But there are some good scenes and moments, especially the pretty well handled secret passage climax. Somewhere there is a good mystery story here. It is watchable, but it could be so much more entertaining taken seriously.

E E Clive gives the best performance as the valet Tenny, followed by H B Warner as Colonel Nielson. John Howard seems a bit distracted as Captain Hugh C ‘Bulldog’ Drummond, Heather Angel is fine as eager-beaver Phyllis, and Leo G Carroll is a welcome presence as a new butler.

It irritatingly pads its short running time out with replaying old episode scenes in Drummond’s Dream sequence.

The cast are John Howard as Captain Hugh C ‘Bulldog’ Drummond, Heather Angel as Phyllis Clavering, H B Warner as Colonel Nielson, Reginald Denny as Algy Longworth, E E Clive as Tenny, Elizabeth Patterson as Aunt Blanche, Leo G Carroll as Henry Seaton/ Andrew Boulton, Forrester Harvey as Professor Downie, Clyde Cook as Constable Hawkins, David Clyde as Constable Jenkins, Neil Fitzgerald as Station Master, Elspeth Dudgeon as Housekeeper, and Louise Campbell as Woman in Drummond’s Dream.

Release date: March 24, 1939 (London) and March 29, 1939 (New York City).

Running time: 56 minutes.

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 eradicate signs of Paramount’s previous ownership.

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

The Fox studio produced a previous film based on the same McNeile book, called Temple Tower (1930), directed by Donald Gallaher and starring Kenneth MacKenna and Marceline Day.

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 as Colonel Nielson opposite in Howard in Bulldog Drummond Comes Back (1937). Howard continued opposite Barrymore in Bulldog Drummond’s Revenge (1937) and Bulldog Drummond’s Peril (1938). But H B Warner replaced Barrymore as Colonel Nielson 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 12,941

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