I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Director: LOUIS KING. Screenplay: Edward T. Lowe. Based on the 1928 novel The Female of the Species by H.C. "Sapper" McNeile. Photography: William C. Mellor. Film editor: Jimmy Smith. Art directors: Hans Dreier, Franz Bachelin. Set decorator: A.E. Freudemann. Music director: Boris Morros. Sound recording: Harry Mills, Charles Hisserich. Western Electric Sound System. Executive producer: Adolph Zukor. Copyright 24 September 1937 by Paramount Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Criterion: 3 September 1937. U.S. release: 24 September 1937. Australian release: 17 February 1938. 64 minutes. SYNOPSIS: A maddened widow, Irena Soldanis, plots vengeance against Captain Hugh Drummond for killing her husband. She abducts Bulldog's fiancee, taking her into fog-shrouded Limehouse. Led on by the widow's crazed limerick clues, Drummond and Colonel Neilson of Scotland Yard (the latter assuming various disguises) attempt a rescue. NOTES: Number 10 of the 24-picture "Bulldog Drummond" series, and the first of seven with John Howard in the title role. For this and the next two entries, John Barrymore takes over the role of Colonel Neilson from the late Sir Guy Standing. Paramount regarded Barrymore as such a casting coup that for this entry they billed him above John Howard.COMMENT: One of the most entertaining of the "B" entries, this one enjoyably captures the cliffhanging spirits and Boys Own Paper flavor of the "Sapper" novels. The pace is fast, the lively succession of bizarre clues, near-miss chases and invigorating escapes never lets up. Former super-star John Barrymore has a great time with his seedy impersonations, while the rest of the players fill their roles more than adequately. Louis King's fairly imaginative direction is considerably strengthened by first-class art direction and superlatively atmospheric cinematography.

With Bulldog Drummond Comes Back, we have a movie with two lead actors. One was a modest man with modest talent; the other, a man who had trouble distinguishing between acting and hamminess. One was a brave man who, when his acting career died out, became an English teacher; the other was an overbearing drunk some found amusing who died of alcoholism, and whose favorite anecdote among his friends was the night in a drunken stupor he peed against his hostesses curtains at a party. We're talking about John Howard and John Barrymore. Who would you want at your party? Unless your dry cleaners would give you a break on the price of cleaning your curtains, John Howard. But in a movie, it's John Barrymore. Even when he's just going through the motions, as here, he's watchable. And when he's at the top of his game...in both acting and hamminess, as in Twentieth Century...he's just about unbeatable.Barrymore gets top billing although Howard is the hero. In some ways, the point of the movie and the reason for Barrymore's billing is that it gives moviegoers a chance to see Barrymore put on disguises. Even though he's playing Colonel Neilson, the head of Scotland Yard, Barrymore pastes on false noses and dons scruffy wigs. He transforms himself into a cockney hunchback and an aged fisherman. As the fisherman, he looks a like a seagoing Fagin. "I really think I should have been an actor," Neilson tells a young Scotland Yard detective. "I was very good at amateur theatricals," We all get the in-joke. Why is the head of Scotland Yard walking around carrying a basket of dead fish? He's helping his friend, Captain Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond (John Howard) rescue Drummond's perennial fiancé, Phyllis Claverling (Louise Campbell), from the clutches of Irena Soldanis. Drummond sent her husband to the gallows the year before. Irena still bears a grudge. Irena has kidnapped Phyllis and, through a series of riddles, she's sending Drummond, accompanied by his manservant Tenny (E. E. Clive) and his friend Algy Longworth (Reginald Denny), on one wild goose chase after another. When Irena finally decides to let Drummond rescue his fiancée, he will be trapped along with her...and Irena's revenge will be completed with a fiery explosion. But thanks to Colonel Neilson's disguises, Tenny's ingenuity and Algy's...well, Algy is the perfect English ninny, so we'll have to say, thanks to Algy's comedy relief, all will turn out fine. Bulldog Drummond, a brave survivor of WWI, a wealthy man who, naturally enough, decided to become a gentleman detective, will continue to foil criminal masterminds. My favorite in these movies has always been E. E. Clive. Tenny is aged, attenuated and acerbic. He's no lover of second-rate love poetry, even when written by his employer. Tenny usually gets the best lines and Clive knows how to deliver them. John Howard was a lead actor who was conscientious and pleasant, but who never made much of a splash. He was shy and, some have said, seemed most comfortable during the heyday of the big studios when roles were assigned and actors did what they were told. Yet if he was diffident, he was also a brave man. In WWII when his ship struck a mine off the French coast, the captain was killed. Howard took command, fought to save the ship and personally rescued several wounded sailors. He was awarded the Navy Cross and seldom mentioned it. Finishing off your life as an English teacher strikes me as far more noble and useful than simply becoming a talent-wasting drunk. So here's to John Howard...an average actor but a superior human being.

In this one the bride becomes a kidnap victim and Drummond and the boys must hunt her down. This time the motive is revenge and the killers are more artistic than they usually are. The problem with these B adventures is that the villains don't seem to know when to stop. They are so caught up in the artistic merit of their goals, they are set up for failure. There is so much face to face contact among the principals, that is seems odd that a quick move might not solve the problem. I'm also interested in how Drummond always asks advice of the people least likely to be of help to him. Of course, it all works out in the end and another wedding is foiled.

Weaker entry in the Bulldog Drummond series, with John Howard in the role. Usual funny banter and antics, but not much plot. Barrymore gets something to do as the inspector, swapping disguises to follow Drummond, Algy, and Tenny on a wild goose chase (mostly in circles; perhaps the budget was tighter than usual) to rescue poor Phyllis, who is being held captive by people who want to lure Drummond to his doom. For those keeping score, in this one, Drummond is planning to ask Phyllis to marry him and Algy is worried about missing the baby's christening. It's fun to see Algy and Tenny dressed up as fisherman to blend in at The Angler's Rest, but little of it rises above silly.