GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #13

BULLDOG DRUMMOND

 Bulldog Drummond is a gentleman adventurer who finds peace dull after his demobilization following WWI, and Captain Hugh Drummond continues to defend England from her enemies. Drummond is a super-patriotic hero who constantly upbraids degenerate villains for their stereotypical foreign shiftiness and unsavory personal appearance.  Bulldog Drummond exhibited the inevitable xenophobia and antisemitism  of the period, displaying a bundle of chauvinisms.  His major adversaries are Germans and Russians, but his most notable encounters involve Carl Peterson, an archvillain who will accept anyone as an ally if doing so will help him realize his personal goals.  Intensely patriotic Drummond would do anything for his country: break the law, risk his life (and that of Phyllis his lovely wife), and commit acts of violence against those foreign devils who would do the same if given the opportunity.  He is often contemptuous of the police and others who allow the law to interfere with justice.

Drummond does not think in terms of politics, finding England's enemies on the right as well as on the left.  He does not play favorites and has little patience with either extreme.  "Years ago, " he said once, "we had an amusing little show rounding up Communists and other unwashed people of that type.  We called ourselves the Black Gang, and it was great sport while it lasted."  Physically, Drummond has the qualities necessary to handle the situations in which he finds himself.  6' tall, quite broad and muscular, he is an excellent boxer and "a lightning and deadly shot with a revolver."  Not even his greatest admirers call him handsome but he has a cheerful sort of ugliness that inspires the confidence of other men.  His best feature is his eyes which reveal the strength of character that makes him a true sportsman and adventurer - hard-playing and hard-fighting, but clean-living and unwaveringly fair and honest.

Regulars in the Drummond coterie include Tenny his valet, Algy his aristocratic friend, and Colonel Neilson of Scotland Yard.  In his first adventure he discovers that Carl Peterson is behind a Russian plot to overthrow the British government by means of a ruinous general strike, supported by several prominent Englishmen who plan to lead the new social system.  In another novel Peterson is the brains behind an incredible plot to rule the world when he kidnaps a scientist who has perfected the deadliest poison ever devised.  In "The Female of the Species" Peterson's mistress Irma attempts to turn the tables on Drummond by kidnapping his wife.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bulldog Drummond was created by Herman Cyril McNeile (1888-1937), the son of Captain Malcolm McNeile of the Royal Navy.  Young McNeile studied at the Royal Military Academy and joined the Army at age 19, serving 12 years until his retirement as a lieutenant colonel in 1919.  He wrote the first Drummond novel using the pseudonym "Sapper".  In that debut novel, the hulking and none-too-genteel Drummond tangles with a conspiracy of international trouble-makers (Bolsheviks) to rescue Phyllis Clavering, a damsel in distress whom he later marries.  The novel disposes of the main villain, the vile Dr. Lakington, but leaves at liberty the all-powerful mastermind Carl Peterson for future installments along with Peterson's seductive mistress Irma, whose attentions Drummond manfully resists throughout.  The novels are fast-paced action tales, satisfying their audience with skillfully used violence, romance, and cliff-hanging melodrama rather than characterization, stylistic subtleties, or realistic storylines.  The "good guys" are clearly heroic, and the "bad guys" are inevitably foreigners who have no redeeming qualities.  The forces of good, despite the scheming and brutal acts of their adversaries, invariably emerge triumphant.  It took Drummond and his pals three more novels to dispose of Peterson and a further three for Irma.  McNeile died of a war-related illness in 1937 and Gerard Fairlie, a friend and fellow author, continued the series.  At the time of his death McNeile had earned a reported $400,000 from the Drummond series.

Books by H. C. "Sapper" McNeile.

1920 "Bulldog Drummond"; 1922 "The Black Gang"; 1925 "Bulldog Drummond's Third Round"; 1926 "The Final Count"; 1928 "The Female of the Species"; 1929 "Temple Tower"; 1932 "Bulldog Drummond Returns"; 1933 "Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back"; 1935 "Bulldog Drummond at Bay"; 1937 "Challenge".

Books by Gerard Fairlie.

1938 "Bulldog Drummond on Dartmoor"; 1939 "Bulldog Drummond Attacks"; 1945 "Captain Bulldog Drummond"; 1947 "Bulldog Drummond Stands Fast"; 1949 "Hands Off Bulldog Drummond"; 1951 "Calling Bulldog Drummond"; 1954 "The Return of the Black Gang".

PLAYS

"Bulldog Drummond" was based on the first novel and adapted into a play by Sapper McNeile and the actor Gerald du Maurier.  The play opened at Wyndham's Theatre for the 1921-22 season with du Maurier playing Drummond.  The show was a success and ran for 428 performances, opening on Broadway in 1921 with A. E. Matthews as Bulldog Drummond.  The success of the play prompted McNeile to write a second melodrama "The Way Out" that opened in January 1930 at the Comedy Theatre in London with Ian Hunter as Drummond.  A third play "Bulldog Drummond Strikes Out" by McNeile and Gerard Fairlie opened at the Savoy Theatre on December 21, 1937 for a short run before going on tour across England.

FILMS

"Bulldog Drummond" Hodkinson Pictures, 1922.  Carlyle Blackwell (Drummond).  Blackwell, an English matinee idol, was a blocky bruiser who approximated Sapper's description of Drummond.

"Bulldog Drummond's Third Round" 1925.  A miscast Jack Buchanan changed the image of Drummond on the screen, bringing to the part a dapper charm the novel's character would have thought suspiciously effeminate.  All subsequent Bulldog Drummond portrayals would follow this pattern, suggesting a thoroughly decent chap.

Sam Goldwyn was in search of a property suitable for his first all-talking picture which could be used as a vehicle for Ronald Colman.  Goldwyn's story editor Arthur Hornblow went to New York to find a stage play and found Bulldog Drummond being performed.  The rights were available for a sound film, and the rights were quickly secured.

"Bulldog Drummond" United Artists, 1929.  Ronald Colman (Drummond), Joan Bennett (Phyllis), Lilyan Tashman, Montague Love, Claude Allister (Algy).  Director: F. Richard Jones.  Drummond rescues Phyllis' uncle who is imprisoned in a private sanatorium run by archcriminal Carl Peterson.  The film was a huge success but Sapper had split up the film rights to his books so the rival Fox was able to film the then-latest book.

"Temple Tower" Fox, 1930.  Kenneth MacKenna (Drummond), Marceline Day, Henry B. Walthall, Cyril Chadwick (Algy).  Director: Donald Gallagher.  Drummond fears that a girl's life is in danger behind the locked gates of Temple Tower, a mysterious building complete with secret passageways, located on an estate set deep in the woods.

"Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back" United Artists, 1934.  Colman, Loretta Young, Warner Oland, C. Aubrey Smith (Nielson), Charles Butterworth (Algy).  Director: Roy Del Ruth.  Lost in a fog, Drummond stumbles into a "murder mansion" with sliding panels, a disappearing corpse, and a kidnapped heroine.  Oland plays the evil foreign prince.

"The Return of Bulldog Drummond" 1934 UK.  Based on "The Black Gang".  Ralph Richardson (Drummond), Ann Todd (Phyllis).

"Bulldog Drummond at Bay" 1937 UK.  John Lodge as the two-fisted hero.

"Bulldog Drummond Escapes" Paramount, 1937.  Ray Milland (Drummond), Heather Angel (Phyllis), Porter Hall, Sir Guy Standing (Nielson), Reginald Denny (Algy), E. E. Clive (Tenny).  Director: James Hogan.  Based on the play "Bulldog Drummond Strikes Out".  This is the third version of the Drummond - Phyllis meeting and it has uncommon charm.  

Actor John Howard, a fairly bland Bulldog Drummond, would take over the role for the next seven films.  Howard was born April 14, 1913 in Cleveland, Ohio and was signed to a long term contract by Paramount while he was still a student at Western Reserve University.  Once he started work at Paramount he moved his parents to Brentwood and lived with them and his collection of 500 model ducks.

"Bulldog Drummond Comes Back" Paramount, 1937.  John Howard (Drummond), Louise Campbell (Phyllis), John Barrymore (Nielson), J. Carroll Naish.  Director: Louis King.  Based on "The Female of the Species".  Carl Peterson's maddened widow (Irena Soldanis) plots vengeance against Hugh Drummond for killing her husband.  She makes off with Phyllis into fog-shrouded Limehouse with Hugh and Neilson in pursuit, led on by crazed limerick clues.

"Bulldog Drummond's Revenge" Paramount, 1937.  Howard, Campbell, Barrymore, Denny, Clive, Frank Puglia.  Director: King.  Based on "Bulldog Drummond Returns".  Hugh boards the train from Dover to Calais to follow a man who has stolen a powerful explosive.  As in most of the films in the series, he promises Phyllis that he will abandon his adventurous way after he marries her.  Their ever-impending wedding is a subtheme in every film.

"Bulldog Drummond's Peril" Paramount, 1938.  Howard, Campbell, Barrymore, Denny, Clive, Porter Hall, Halliwell Hobbes.  Director: Hogan.  Based on "Bulldog Drummond's Third Round".  A synthetic diamond given to Hugh and Phyllis as a wedding gift is purloined by the head of the Metropolitan Diamond Syndicate.  Hugh is off on a chase from Switzerland to London.  This was John Barrymore's last film in the series.  He could no longer remember his lines and had to rely upon dialogue placed on a desk for him to glance at or cue cards (though on the set they referred to them as "idiot" cards).  Barrymore was usually drunk.

"Bulldog Drummond in Africa" Paramount, 1938.  Howard, Heather Angel (returning as Phyllis), H. B. Warner (Neilson for the rest of the series), Naish.  Director: King.  Based on "Challenge".  Hugh and Algy start out on another chase when they learn that an international spy has kidnapped Col. Neilson and transported him by plane to a lion-guarded courtyard in Morocco.

"Arrest Bulldog Drummond!" Paramount, 1938.  Howard, Angel, Warner, Denny, Clive, George Zucco.  Director: Hogan.  Based on "The Final Count".  Hugh and friends travel to a British-held tropical island to corner a villain who has transported a powerful death ray there from London after killing its inventor.

"Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police" Paramount, 1939.  Howard, Angel, Warner, Denny, Clive, Leo G. Carroll. Director: Hogan.  Based on "Temple Tower".  On the eve of his wedding Hugh is told that the Drummond family residence, the Tower, contains secret passageways and a treasure.  Mild-mannered psycho Carroll prowls about the supposedly haunted cavern.

"Bulldog Drummond's Bride" Paramount, 1939.  Howard, Angel, Warner, Denny, Clive, Eduardo Ciannelli.  Director: Hogan.  A master bank robber engineers a traffic snarl on High Regent Street and hides in Hugh's soon-to-be occupied honeymoon flat.  Later his explosives nearly (but not quite) sabotage Hugh's wedding to Phyllis in a small French town.

"Bulldog Drummond at Bay" Columbia, 1947.  Ron Randell (Drummond), Anita Louise, Terry Kilburn.  Director: Sidney Salkow.  Hugh, played by Australian Randell, is less romantic and unmarried, with a boy assistant (Kilburn) rescues a Scotland Yard man who has been abducted with a fortune in gems.

"Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back" Columbia, 1947.  Randell, Kilburn, Gloria Henry, Anabel Shaw.  Director: Frank McDonald.  Hugh has difficulty deciding which of two girls is the actual heiress to a fortune.

"The Challenge" 20th Century Fox, 1948.  Tom Conway (Drummond), June Vincent, Richard Stapley, Eily Malyan.  Director: Jean Yarbrough.  A murdered ship captain leaves clues to the location of his buried treasure hidden in the model of a ship.

"Thirteen Lead Soldiers" 20th Century Fox, 1948.  Conway, Helen Westcott, Maria Palmer, John Newland.  Director: McDonald.  A set of 11th Century toy soldiers, its owners murdered, leads Hugh to more secret treasure, this time belonging to ancient kings and discovered behind a fireplace.

"Calling Bulldog Drummond" MGM, 1951.  Walter Pidgeon (Drummond), Margaret Leighton, Robert Beatty, David Tomlinson (Algy).  Director: Victor Saville.  An aging Hugh is called from retirement to combat up-to-the-minute crooks who use radar to steal gold bullion - and finds some romantic moments with a lady undercover agent (Leighton).

"Deadlier Than the Male" Universal, 1967.  Richard Johnson (Drummond), Elke Sommer, Sylva Koscina, Nigel Green (Carl Peterson), Suzanna Leigh, Steve Carlson.  Director: Ralph Thomas.  The popularity of James Bond inspired a virile, "mod" version of the adventurer.  Lloyds of London insurance investigator Drummond pursues the evil Peterson who, with an international band of female assassins (Elke & Sylva) is attempting to control the world's oil.  The confrontation takes place in a Mediterranean villa where Drummond and Peterson do battle on a gigantic chessboard.  Algy and Tenny are gone, replaced by Hugh's American nephew (Carlson).

Some Girls Do" Universal, 1969.  Johnson, Daliah Lavi, Beba Loncar, James Villiers (Peterson), Robert Morley.  Director: Thomas.  Peterson is aided in his sabotage of England's new supersonic air strength by another deadly female team (actually robots).  One of their victims is the eccentric chef named Miss Mary (Morley).

RADIO

"Bulldog Drummond", a popular half hour radio series debuted on WOR in New York City on April 13, 1941 before going national on the Mutual Broadcasting System.  The show was introduced with blasting foghorns, slow footsteps, a gunshot and police whistles, then the announcer saying "Out of the fog, out of the night, and into his American adventures comes Bulldog Drummond."  George Coulouris played Drummond, later portrayed by Ned Weaver.  Everett Sloane was Denny, Drummond's assistant.  Other cast members included Agnes Moorehead, Paul Stewart, and Ray Collins, and ran until January 12, 1949.  A revival of the series was attempted with Cedric Hardwicke as Drummond on a show that aired January 3 - March 28, 1954.

TELEVISION

Canadian actor Robert Beatty played Drummond in a half-hour episode of "Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Presents" on British television December 16, 1956 in a show titled "The Ludlow Affair".