Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Powerful

best movie i've ever seen.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Ray Milland's only outing as Bulldog Drummond is a pretty good start to Paramount's series. The story is about Drummond trying to help a woman who's being kept prisoner by her nefarious guardian at the ominously-named Greystone Manor. There's also a subplot about Drummond's right-hand man Algy being a nervous wreck waiting on his wife to give birth. Milland makes for a charming and lively Bulldog Drummond. He was one of three actors to play the character in 1937 alone and, for my money, he was better than the other two. Reginald Denny and E.E. Clive offer fun support. Lovely Heather Angel plays the heiress and has a nice playful chemistry with Milland. She's also something of a tough cookie, helping fight the bad guys instead of just standing around doing nothing. The rest of the cast features fine actors like Porter Hall, Walter Kingsford, Fay Holden, and Guy Standing. This was Standing's final movie, dying from a rattlesnake bite (!) a month after this was released. The Bulldog Drummond series wasn't one of my favorites of the many detective film series that littered the '30s & '40s but I have liked many of them. This one is particularly enjoyable with lots of humor and some nice foggy atmosphere. Short runtime and good pace also help.

I have seen a few of these films and for me there is usually too much "comedy" from Reginald Denny that detracts from the action. Saying that, in my opinion "Bulldog Drummond Escapes" is one of the best entries - everything works well, and comedy is kept to a minimum.Ray Milland is great as the debonair Drummond. He makes a mad dash to London to see Algy (Reginald Denny's comedy is kept under reins). From the moment Heather Angel comes into it your attention is rivetted to her.Heather Angel was an English actress, who appeared in a couple of Alfred Hitchcock films ("Suspicion" (1941) and "Lifeboat" (1944)). She was obviously popular in the Bulldog Drummond series as she appeared in several of them.Drummond is driving to Headquarters when he is accosted by Phyliss Clavering (Heather Angel) running onto the road and fainting (or pretending to). When he goes to the aid of a man calling for help Phyliss takes his car and drives home. It turns out she is being imprisoned at Greystone manor. She leaves her purse in Drummond's car to force him to visit Greystone manor to return her things. Ingeniously she leaves him a message (in the inside of his hat) so he realises something fishy is going on.Phyliss is not a simpering heroine, she is a real go-getter. A lot of the smart ways she goes about trying to outwit her scheming relatives - you just have to watch the movie.E.E. Clive plays the butler "Tenny" who more than keeps up with Drummond.

This is a solid low-budget feature that delivers the main things you hope for in a 'Bulldog Drummond' movie. It has good action, a plot involving a heroine in distress and some crafty villains, and a confident, good-natured hero played here by Ray Milland. All of the actors who portrayed Drummond gave the movies their own feel, but Milland, like most of them, gives the character the right balance of energy and British poise, while putting his own style into the role as well.The story is set up by an odd encounter between Drummond and Phyllis (Heather Angel) that leads to an involved sequence of events, with Drummond determined to find out exactly what dangers Phyllis is facing, at times even having to oppose his friend Colonel Neilson. The story moves at a good pace, moving quickly from one predicament to the next. There are times when it doesn't quite fit together smoothly, and with even better writing and editing it could have been even more effective, but the basic idea works pretty well.Heather Angel makes a good Phyllis, winning and energetic. It's interesting to see her in this early Drummond episode, since she later came back to play Phyllis after the character was played by other actresses for the next few features. Neilson is not given a particularly large role here, but the rest of the usual crowd is present, with E.E. Clive as the resourceful Tenny and Reginald Denny as the befuddled but helpful Algy.Porter Hall also helps out, with one of his many good character performances as Drummond's slippery opponent. The low budget look is helped by having most of the action take place at night and/or in darkened settings, giving it a decent atmosphere despite the lack of detail. It makes for a solid feature that works well enough as light entertainment.

The 1937-1938 series of Bulldog Drummond films released by Paramount, starring first Ray Milland, then John Howard as Captain Hugh C. Drummond, and based on the classic mystery/adventure novels by H. C. "Sapper" McNeile, are first-rate mysteries, and BULLDOG DRUMMOND ESCAPES is a worthy series opener. The whole series (composed of eight films) captures the spirit of the books much more than the rather boring Ronald Colman film made in 1929, which is, for some reason, ridiculously overrated by critics, who, at the same time, dismiss the Milland-Howard films as mediocre programmers. The Colman film put the emphasis on the love story, which is only subsidary in the books, had little or no action, and neglected to give any sense of real menace to the villains. The Paramount series, on the other hand, kept the love interest subsidiary, were full of edge-of-your-seat action, and included first-class villain actors as menaces in the various films, such as J. Carrol Naish, Eduardo Cianelli, Porter Hall, and Leo G. Carrol I really can't talk about the plot of this or any other series entry, as that would constitute a "spoiler" by IMDB standards, but suffice it to say that it is rather loosely based on BULLDOG DRUMMOND, the first of Sapper's books. Ray Milland is Drummond, and an excellent one, but he was too big a star to remain tied to one character for more than one movie, so John Howard took over for the subsequent seven films. Sir Guy Standing, who plays Colonel Neilson, the ever-flustered Scotland Yard man who would like to solve his cases without Drummond bothering him, also did only this one film, the role being taken for the next three by John Barrymore, and for the final four by H. B. Warner. Heather Angel plays the heroine, Phyllis Clavering, in this one and in the final four, while Louise Campbell is Phyllis in the middle three. Reginald Denny is Drummond's loyal but not-too-bright pal Algy Longworth, and repeats his role in all the other films in the series. E.E. Clive is Drummond's indispensible and imperturable valet Tenny (inexplicably changed from Denny in the books). Clive also kept his role throughout the entire series. So, anyone who is a fan of the Drummond books, should, if they want to see the best screen treatment of their hero, check out these films and ignore the abstracted praises of the Colman film.