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Though there are mixed opinions about the World War One stories as well as the novels and the short stories of Captain Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond written by his creator, retired Major Herman Cyril McNeile, it cannot be denied that Drummond had a respectable and long television career starting from 1919, all the way to the 1960’s Winter spy British film craze.
In between, there were long running radio shows with intriguing openings, “out of the fog, out of the night, a hit play,” which were then made into two movie parodies, and were also published in American pulp fiction magazines, Strand Magazine, songs and even comics. Drummond’s character was even used in a Warner Brothers cartoon, where for some reason he was turned into a bulldog.
A closer examination of the impact on writers such as Leslie Charteris and The Saint, John Creasey and Department Z, Patrick Dawlish and Bruce Murdoch, Berkley Gray and Norman Conquest, Mickey Spillane and Mike Hammer, Ian Fleming and James Bond, and Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt save to mention the film Drummond was at least as much of an influence as the literary version on later writers. There is now a whole school of Drummond immitators in British Thriller Fiction.
Over the years, he has been portrayed by countless actors, including Ronald Coleman, who was nominated for an Oscar for Bulldog Drummond in 1929. He lost the award to Warner Baxter, who played the Cisco Kid in In Old Arizona. Robert La Roque starred in a silent American movie based on the book, which ignored almost everything else. Other actors include Ralph Richardson, Ray Milland, Tom Conway, Richard Johnson, Walter Pidgeon, and Walter Pidgeon.
In 1947, Ron Randell, an Australian actor who had a stint as the Lone Wolf, took over from the John Howard Paramount Drummond series from the 30s, along with John Lodge, in a remade version of Bulldog Drummond at Bay.
This sequel, which was scripted by Frank Gruber (who wrote the remarkably well-reviewed screenplay for A Mask for Dimitrios), is much closer to the original book than Lodge’s version, which featured astonishing villainy from American Victor Jory. At the time, it finds Drummond deep down in the Fen country, trying to hunt some ducks after retiring from military life. One night, his window is broken and a random stone is tossed inside, drawing him into an adventure.
As Drummond is going out to see what the commotion is all about, he is halted by a man from a car (Lester Matthews) who pulls a gun at him. They give him a speedy search and then set off but, while escaping, realize that they have found what they were looking for: the mysterious man who threw the stone through Drummond’s window.
The next day, Doris Meredith (Anita Louise) turns up claiming that she is suffering a ‘manifold car trouble’ and attempts to give Drummond drugs so that she can pillage his belongings for the message she tightly tied around the rock. The scenario gets more puzzling as Alice herself noted. Doris alleges that her sibling is in danger and she urgently needs the assistance of Drummond’s.
At this point, Drummond reaches out to his old acquaintance Inspector McIver and enlists local aspiring reporter Terry Kilburn and his older friend Algy Longworth. Algy, who is also referred to as Patrick, is played by Pat O’Moore.
Things start to pick up after Drummond’s hunting dog is shot dead and his housekeeper is sedated while Algy is being recruited. However, Drummond manages to catch one of the men who spied on his house but is unable to interrogate him as McIver arrives at his residence extremely furious because one of his undercover agents, Richard Hamilton, has reportedly gone missing. Unfortunately, the writers forget to include the most essential antagonist in the book: none other than Irma Peterson, the vile wife of Carl Peterson.
From what I know, this is only obtainable as an item in a very expensive pack of Drummond DVD`s that contain all the existing Drummond movies which are categorized into two volumes (most, including the Conway movies, are easily available on Youtube and elsewhere). The quality of the picture is below average but still decent enough for viewing, and there are a few areas that are not so strong with the sound. However, both that and the second Randell film Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back are decent B-programmers, especially since Randell is much more similar to Drummond from the books compared to most of the actors with broad shoulders and barrel chests usually cast in the role.
Those might be his limits as an actor, but he exuded effortless elegance on screen and also had a charming voice and good looks which worked in his favor. All these traits made it relatively easy for him to portray such characters (which I rate as a rather sophisticated level of skill, each actor does not have to perform Lear). Tom Conway would come next in the Drummond cycle, followed by One Step Beyond presenter John Newland as Algy a year later. Then in 1951, Walter Pidgeon would emerge in a blockbuster Drummond film, Calling Bulldog Drummond, which was written by the McNeile’s successor and the model for Drummond, Gerard Fairlie and starred sexy Margaret Leighton, Bernard Lee (M from the Bond films), and Robert Beatty Who became Drummond later on (in a television pilot). From that point, Drummond remained somewhat mute until 1967 and 1969’s Deadlier Than The Male (*) and Some Girls Do which featured Richard Johnson in the role.
In recent years, several authors have tried to modernize Drummond, one author imagining him as a retired SAS officer, but none succeeded at making a lasting impression. Drummond, who began his career looking for classified advertisements a little over a century ago, seems to be remembered fondly by many but who knows. Anything is possible in fiction.
H. R. F. Keating, a renowned mystery author, is claimed to have worked on the novelization of one by Henry Reymond. I find it hard to believe he wrote the second one though.
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