BULLDOG DRUMMOND’S SECRET POLICE

US
1939
56mins
Dir: James Hogan
Starring: John Howard and Heather Angel

Bulldog Drummond investigates clues which he hopes will lead to treasure hidden buried within his house

This was another of the many films based on H.C. McNeile’s adventurer Bulldog Drummond, and it is centred on the 1929 novel Temple Tower, which was itself made into a Drummond film in 1930. Oddly, despite the phrase ‘Secret Police’ in the title their is nothing relating to any form of secret police in the film, merely a quip made between the cast during one scene towards the end. In fact, by 1939 some of these tales featuring the original cast were beginning to get tiresome and this movie overall was a poor spectacle. The opening sequence involves Drummond chasing a train in the studio which features back-projection of an American train. However, the station scene that follows shows the arrival of a British train, with what appears to be an LB&SCR Class I3 4-4-2T tank loco pulling into a station on a Pullman train. This is quite a rare shot, but the station remains unidentified.

Paul Warner, a regular correspondent to this site, suggests that this is a shot of the ‘Southern Belle’ in the hands of an LB&SCR I3 Class 4-4-2T. The station, however, still remains unidentified.
As the train draws to a stand we get to see vintage wooden clerestory stock. The ‘Southern Belle’ was an all-Pullman service introduced by the London, Brighton & South Coast in 1908 as a precursor to the ‘Brighton Belle’.
Outside the station. A studio set added here for completeness.