Very disappointing...

Lack of good storyline.

Absolutely Brilliant!

A Masterpiece!

The final Bulldog Drummond movie in the Paramount series stars John Howard and finally has Drummond marrying longtime fiancée Phyllis (the delightful Heather Angel). But before they get hitched there's another last-minute interruption in the form of a bank robber, a radio, and a trip to France. The cast of regulars (Reginald Denny, E.E. Clive, H.B. Warner, and Elizabeth Patterson) are all fine. Eduardo Ciannelli plays the villain and hams it up nicely. There's even more comedy than usual in this one. Some of it is funny but most of it is just stupid, particularly where Algy is concerned.Bulldog Drummond would return to the movies after WW2. First at Columbia, then Fox and MGM, with yet more actors playing the role (including Tom Conway and Walter Pidgeon). But none of those would be quite as enjoyable as the Paramount series. Which isn't saying a lot since these movies were never better than time-passers anyway. But I can honestly say I never found any of the movies bad, just ranging from 'ok' to good. Even this final one, while weaker than the others, is still watchable. And it's not even an hour long so it's hard to argue against giving it a shot when you have time to kill.

The only reason I even give this dull film a 4 is that there is some excellent continuity from the previous film--something unusual for a B-movie. Hugh Drummond (John Howard) is back with the same fiancée (Heather Angel) and her perennially frustrated aunt (Elizabeth Patteson). All too often in Bs, each episode was unique and continuity was almost always a problem--and in most Drummond movies this is definitely true as about 2739 different actors played this character over the years. At the very end of the last film, Drummong and his fiancée were about to be married when the house exploded! Now, they are STILL trying to get married--but they've rescheduled it to take place the next day. The problem is that the plot, apart from that, is amazingly dull and concerns a spy--but it never engages the viewer in the least. Poor writing (aside from the continuity) and lots of listless action make this tough going. Only for die-hard Drummond fans.

This is the sixteenth of the Bulldog Drummond films, and it brings to an end the Drummond films as they were before the outbreak of World War II. (They would resume in 1947.) With this film, John Howard also ends his career as Drummond, which had lasted for seven films, all made within two breathless years between September of 1937 and September of 1939. Heather Angel once again plays Phyllis Clavering, E. E. Clive plays Tenny the Butler, Reginald Denny plays Algy Longworth, and H. B. Warner plays Commissioner Nielson, all for the last time. John Howard left the film business to join the U. S. Navy (he was an American), where he ended up winning the Navy Cross and the French Croix de Guerre for conspicuous acts of bravery, becoming in other words a real life hero of the sort he had played in the Drummond films. After the War, he returned to acting but was never again fortunate to shine as a major player. It seems a poor return for a fictional Drummond who became a real Drummond, that he could not resume the role. E. E. Clive died the next year, in 1940. Reginald Denny contributed to the War effort by manufacturing 15,000 target drones for the U. S. Army. He later returned to acting, but was never in another Drummond film. H. B. Warner and Heather Angel went on acting, but they never appeared in another Drummond film either. The team was totally broken up, and 'vintage 1930s Drummond' was over. This film is moderately entertaining, with lots of comedy, so that it is not actually serious. What with people having cans of paint thrown over them and slipping and sliding, Algy staging pratfalls continually, and other such antics, there is barely room for a mystery plot. However, Drummondians will be thrilled to know that ... oh no, I must not say ... that business which was continually being interrupted between Hugh and Phyllis, ... well, that must remain a mystery. The plot, what there is of it, concerns a ruthless villain who has robbed a bank for what then was considered a vast sum, of ten thousand pounds. It is hard to conceive of a time when that was a sum worth getting excited about, worth exploding bombs all over the place, killing people without compunction, and carrying on as if all the gold of the Indies were at stake. But that was then, and this is now. In this film as in so many others of the time, Scotland Yard 'seal off an area with a cordon, and no one can get through'. It seems incredible, doesn't it, that it was even remotely conceivable to seal off a sector of London like that just for a measly little bank robbery? Naturally, the villain gets away in an ambulance disguised as a madman. Maybe it really was time for the world to move on and get real. After this, there were tanks and planes and the Holocaust to worry about, and whether Hugh and Phyllis got married or not was no longer important, with so many women widowed that Phyllis having to wait for another crime to be solved no longer qualified as a tragedy.

Well, Hugh Drummond (John Howard) and Miss Phyllis Clavering (Heather Angel) finally tie the knot in this finale to the Bulldog Drummond series, but not without the usual share of mishaps that interrupted their union more than a half dozen times in the past. This time it's a slick bank thief that diverts Drummond and Scotland Yard's Colonel Nielson (H.B. Warner), with the misadventures making their way from London to France.Henri Armides (Eduardo Cianelli) is eventually fingered as the mastermind behind an explosion at the London and Southminster Bank, masking the theft of ten thousand pounds in British notes. His escape involves a clever ruse as a painter, winding up in a London flat recently rented by Miss Clavering. His bit borders on insanity, especially when he boldly takes a paintbrush to Algy Longworth's tie in an effort to better match his suit. Watch carefully when Armides dumps an entire bucket of paint on Algy's head; as both slip and slide on the wet floor, the thief drops the bucket and even more paint comes splashing out of it! With Drummond's repeated declarations that the wedding is still on, and Miss Clavering doubtful as ever, she takes off for Targemont, France, the proposed site of the nuptials. When Armides learns that Drummond has sent Phyllis' radio to Targemont, he makes his plans to follow as well; the stolen notes were hidden inside the radio.It's in this film that Colonel Nielson suffers the most indignity at the hands of the script writers. Usually Nielson, especially when portrayed by John Barrymore, kept his professionalism intact while Drummond and Company rode herd on the target villain. Here he comes across as somewhat inept, though his assistant Inspector Tredennis (John Sutton) manages to throw Drummond a zing when he wires the French authorities claiming that Drummond is really an international spy. It only works long enough for the proverbial all hell to break loose.The frenetic chase for Henri Armides coincides with the marriage ceremony, and in a rather innovative sequence, the wedding begins in a jail, proceeds to a French village rooftop, and concludes at the home of Phyllis' Aunt Blanche (Elizabeth Patterson). But at least Miss Clavering got her man! With the late 1930's Drummond series complete, the only actors to have made it through the entire stretch of nine films were Bulldog's sidekicks, Reginald Denny as Algy Longworth, and E.E. Clive as butler Tenny. Phyllis Clavering was depicted by Louise Campbell and Heather Angel; Colonel Neilson was variously portrayed by John Barrymore (3X), Guy Standing (once), and H.B. Warner (3X). Even Drummond himself was played by John Lodge and Ray Milland one time each before John Howard settled in to take on the role in seven films. Each mystery was done in a light hearted and comedic style, contrasted with the usually serious dramas presented in the Charlie Chan and Mr. Wong films of the era. However if you're a fan of the genre like me, you'll have fun with each movie, no matter which detective is doing the sleuthing.