Watch Bulldog Drummond For Free

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Memorable, crazy movie

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Copyright 18 July 1929 by Samuel Goldwyn. Released through United Artists. New York opening at the Apollo: 2 May 1929 (sic). U.S. release: 3 August 1929. 10 reels. 8,376 feet. 93 minutes. SYNOPSIS: Bored British ex-army officer decides to hire himself out as a private detective. His first assignment is to rescue an American millionaire from the clutches of an evil doctor in an insane asylum.NOTES: Samuel Goldwyn's first 100% talkie. Talkie debuts of Ronald Colman, Joan Bennett, and Donald Novis. The stage play opened at Wyndham's Theatre in London on 29 March 1921; and on Broadway at the Knickerbocker on 26 December 1921 where it ran a most satisfactory 162 performances. H.B. Warner took over the lead from A.E. Matthews when the American production went on tour. Third of the twenty-four picture Bulldog Drummond series. Only sound film made by famed silent director (Molly O', The Extra Girl, The Gaucho), F. Richard Jones. Nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Actor, Ronald Colman, and Art Direction, William Cameron Menzies. Shooting from 28 January 1929 to 18 March 1929. Negative cost: $550,000. With prints, advertising and interest on Goldwyn's bank loan, the total cost came close to $700,000. Twelfth top ticket-seller at the U.S./Canadian box-office for 1929. The movie was equally popular in England and Australia, with Colman easily making the lists of top money-making stars.COMMENT: Ronald Colman and John Barrymore were the only matinee idols of the silent era to make the transition to sound with their reputations enhanced. (What about William Powell, I hear someone objecting. Well, Powell in the 1920s was rarely the man audiences cheered on, as he was most often cast as the heavy. Ditto Wallace Beery). Although cultists of the 1960s would find it hard to believe, Colman was far more successful than Barrymore who by the mid-1930s was reduced to playing character parts. With one famous exception (for which he won an Academy Award), Colman continued to play the debonair, dashing hero right throughout his career. Here we find him so perfectly cast as Bulldog Drummond, future interpreters modeled their portraits on Colman rather than "Sapper" McNeile. Deservedly, Colman was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor. William Cameron Menzies was nominated too. The sets are marvelous, no mistake about that. So is the cinematography which brilliantly overcomes the limitations of soundproof-booth filming to provide images of suitably noirish quality rather than the diffused, over-lit blur that usually resulted from shooting through thick glass. Whilst the camera of necessity is usually stationary, we get an illusion of movement through quick cutting and/or rapid pacing joined to a striking variety of camera angles. The director and the photographers have also managed to pull off two marvelous effects: a brilliant tracking shot (and its reverse) in the opening scene at the club and an atmospheric dolly shot back from the evil doctor's face in his cluttered laboratory. Sound effects and even a couple of songs are effectively utilized to augment the bizarre mood. Most of the support players lend their own charisma to the thrill-a-minute plot. Lilyan Tashman and Montagu Love are particularly appealing as a couple of true-blue heavies who yet have something in the way of dastardly charm to offset their villainy. On the other hand, Claud Allister way overdoes the silly ass, Joan Bennett has a rather grating voice and is obviously out of her depth at this stage of her just-started career; whilst Lawrence Grant is so ridiculously emphatic as the villain one could be excused for thinking that he meant his performance as a parody. But there are so many exciting things in this well-produced and highly cinematic adaptation, Allister and company are mere bagatelles. Full marks. Well, almost.

I wonder how many film fans, for no one else would choose to watch a very early talkie, for they are a very bumpy watch with such stilted over the top acting, and rounded exaggerated word delivery, while the crude sound equipment of the era made moving and talking impossible, so the actors stand still and well talk, its all very much like filming a dull play, and so often, so very very dull. Off coarse, modern audience completely fail to get the thrill of seeing the silver screen talk. The poster makes the point Ronald Coleman "All Talking" Bulldog Drummond. Well i do believe this is the best early talkie i have ever seen by long way, the script from a stage play i assume, is witty and lively, and by switching from "Talkie" to "Silent" where we are treated to silent movie tricks such as shadows, the film makers deliver a very lively picture full of twists turns and some very gay old fashioned thrill's and spills. Ronald Coleman was Oscar nominated for this role and i can see why, for while all around him give perfectly fine period performances typical of the era, Coleman on the other hand is Bulldog Drummond and simply cruises through the movie by being totally natural, he is so good in fact, he could walk out of a 1929 film by instant time warp and be perfectly plausibly playing a role in a 2017 film, no bother at all. But, who and what is Bulldog Drummond, well i'm trying to work on this my self, he tells us he is to rich to work and he is bored. So ex army captain Drummond a very fine posh very rich beautifully spoken top rank English gentlemen, saves damsel's in distress, to relieve the boredom of it all. Well what else could he do? Most i think would, simply play cricket. To sum up, i loved it. A time warp 9 from 10. well no one's perfect, not even the British Bulldog!

If Ronald Coleman was nervous about his transition from silent to talkies, he needn't have worried. He had a cultured, rich and elegant speaking voice which made the transition effortless.For his first talkie, he was cast in the lead role in "Bulldog Drummond". The fun loving adventurer was tailor made for Coleman. His cavalier, bon vivant, devil may care Drummond was a treat to behold. The problem I had with the film was it's "B" movie script.Capt. Hugh Drummond (Coleman) is a rich retired WW1 army officer bored to death with civilian life. He decides to place a personal ad in the London Times advertising his services. Among the replies is one from a young lady named Phyllis (Joan Bennett). It seems her uncle is being held captive in a "Nursing Home" by a gang of extortionists.The nursing home is run by a Dr. Lakington (Lawrence Grant), the mad doctor of the piece and his two cohorts, Pterson (Montagu Love and his friend Irma, played seductively by Lilyan Tashman. The gang is out to force Phyllis' uncle to sign over his considerable wealth to them.Drummond along with his friend Algy (Claude Allister) and valet Danny (Wilson Benge) attempt to foil the gang's plans. Danny takes an interest in Irma, while Drummond per sues the young Phyllis. But Drummond is captured by the gang and................................Coleman as previously stated, breezes along seemingly enjoying his role. Although he is best remembered for his more serious roles (A Tale of Two Cities, Lost Horizon etc.), he was also quite adept at light comedy as was the case in this mystery/comedy. He also got to romance the still teen-aged Joan Bennett as well.Of the rest of the cast, Tashman stands out as "My Friend Irma" and veteran silent baddie Love as her "partner". Allister as the silly ass Algy is way over the top. Grant as the mad doctor invokes memories of the mad doctors of the "B" horror flicks of the 40s with J. Carroll Naish coming to mind.There is an unusual ending to the story that to me, didn't make much sense however, I'll let you decide on that.Followed by "Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back" (1934) also with Coleman and a "B" series in the late 30s with John Howard as Drummond. MGM tried to revive the character in "Calling Bulldog Drummond" (1951) with Walter Pidgeon as Drummond , to no avail.

When the first "Bulldog Drummond" stories came out in the 1920s, Great Britain was trying to come to grips with an anomaly: it had been one of the main allied victors in the Great War but the country did not feel like it won anything. It felt it had sacrificed too much.Britain in 1914 had ruled the waves. It had a small (but apparently competent) standing army. It had a history of democracy that was stable and unmatched by any of the major continental powers of Europe. It had a very highly industrial economy and was commercially quite important on the globe. Finally, it's empire stretched around the world that the boast that "the sun never set on the British Empire" was true - it was also the world's largest empire.In truth Britain's empire was actually wearing away. Though the British technically won the Boer War Boer Leaders ended up running South Africa. Ireland was getting hotter. The Germans helped stimulate the Easter Rebellion with arms. The British Navy did control the seas but the u-boats almost beat Britain during the war. The naval battles were marred by a total German triumph under Von Spee in the Pacific (Coronel)and the lopsided British ship and men losses at their "victory" at Jutland. Finally, Germany and the U.S. had outstripped British commerce and industrial output by 1914. With the huge losses of a generation of men, and no tangible gains, Britain was in for a serious period of reactionary feelings and even race baiting. Anti-Semitism (always under the surface) reemerged in the 1920s, mostly due to the rise of Bolshevism in Russia after the 1917 revolutions. The political landscape did not reduce this hysteria. Lloyd George was booted out of the Prime Minister's seat forever in 1922. His successor, Andrew Bonar Law, died after nine months in office. Stanley Baldwin was not fully ready to be Prime Minister in 1923, and would blow his administration by a public hissy fit. His rival, James Ramsay MacDonald, would be the first Labor Prime Minister. But he'd been an outspoken pacifist in the war, and he was suspect of Bolshevistic sympathies (he actually had none). In the 1924 General Election a forged letter (supposedly from Gregory Zinovieff, the head of the Russian Comintern) urged MacDonald's election as an agent of the Russians. Baldwin regained office with a large majority.It is this background that explains the popularity of "Bulldog Drummond". With governmental drift and doldrums, a declining economy, a feeling of loss of face on the international scene, and a feeling of loss due to immense death toll, the search for easy answers, easy suspects, easy enemies was ready for Sapper's poison. So the public cheered Col. Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond as he created a fascistic group of ex soldiers (like the German Freikorps) to "control" the internal enemy (i.e., Bolsheviks, Jews, Irish). I might add this was not totally made up. Lloyd George gave the go ahead while Prime Minister to create a paramilitary group in Ireland, the "Black and Tans", to combat the Irish revolutionaries. This group was finally decimated by Michael Collins' men on "Bloody Sunday" in 1921.That Samuel Goldwyn, a Jewish American film producer, produced BULLDOG DRUMMOND, is highly ironic. But it illustrates the care Goldwyn brought to his projects. He had been producing the silent film hits that Ronald Colman appeared in in the late 1920s. Goldwyn wanted Colman to make the transition to sound carefully, and not fall on his face like Colman's rival John Gilbert. Instead of "Darling, I love you!" in HIS GLORIOUS NIGHT, Goldwyn found an exciting adventure part for Colman, which allowed him to display his wonderful, gentleman's speaking voice. As an introduction for a talking Colman, BULLDOG DRUMMOND could not be beaten. The role had everything to show Colman's versatility. There was his humor, shown at the beginning when he is dismayed at the ridiculously boring men's club he belongs to (full of old fogies). There was his romantic side, with the youthful Joan Bennett. There is his confrontations with the sinister Lawrence Grant (Dr. Lakington) and Grant's two assistants Montague Love and Lilyan Tashman (Carl Peterson and Irma), and his handling of his impossibly stupid friend Algy (Claude Allister). As a "coming out" role for talkies, BULLDOG DRUMMOND did the trick, winning Colman the audience he feared talking films would cost him.In terms of plot it creaks, with incredible coincidences and twists that allow plot points to fall apart for the creation of new plot points. Still the cast is game, and the script surprises us. Lakington, briefly having Drummond tied up, is speaking to him pretty closely. Colman turns his face from Grant, who accuses him of being more cowardly than he'd admit. Colman rejects this excuse. Then why turn your face away, demands Grant. "Haven't your best friends told you?", says Colman, leaving Grant turning crimson at the thought of halitosis. A later bit of business, allowing Love and Tashman to escape is also unexpected. Yes, it is an antique, but it is a charming one. And as it has none of Sapper's racist crap in it, it is highly recommended.