US
1929
1hr 30mins
Dir: Frank Richard Jones
Starring: Ronald Colman and Joan Bennett
A bored WWI veteran helps out a young woman whose uncle is being held hostage by embezzlers
This American pre-code crime film was the third to be produced that was based on H. C. McNeile’s fictional adventure character Hugh ‘Bulldog’ Drummond. Two previous Bulldog Drummond films had been produced: Bulldog Drummond (1922) and The Third Round (1925), but this is the earliest surviving. It was the first with sound, and it was also Ronald Colman’s first talkie. Thanks to his good voice, he became one of the few actors to successfully transition from the silent era to the ‘sound stage’, so much so, that the English-born actor became an inaugural recipient of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. A whole series of Drummond movies then followed, produced both here and in the US. This movie opens with a shot of Westminster Bridge with two trams crossing. Unfortunately, the first is quite far off and difficult to make out, whilst the screen fades just as a much clearer view of the second comes in to view!!
