GB
1935
1hr 12mins
Dir: Walter Forde
Starring: Jack Hulbert and Fay Wray
A playboy poses as Bulldog Drummond to capture the notorious Morelle gang
This crime adventure is considered to be the eighth in the long running series of films based on H. C. McNeile’s fictional adventurer Bulldog Drummond. However, because of the various production companies involved, the actor playing Bulldog was frequently changed. After the real Bulldog Drummond (played surprisingly briefly in this instance by Atholl Fleming) is injured in a car crash, Jack Hulbert agrees to masquerade as the sleuth and infiltrates a gang of jewel thieves led by the evil Dr Morelle. Their hideout is in an abandoned Underground station called ‘Bloomsbury’. The climax of the film involves a runaway Underground train that contains Jack Hulbert and his colleagues, but driven by Morelle. As the train careers through station after station, Hulbert climbs onto the roof (!) to gain access to the driver’s cab and bring the train to a stand just before a collision. This gripping sequence was filmed in the studio involving sets and detailed models, as were all the station and tunnel scenes. It is a good climax to the film, but the only ‘real’ footage used are a handful of drivers-eye views from the cabs of Underground trains passing through stations and tunnels.
