100 Things #2: Bulldog Drummond Comes Back (1937)
Today's selection is another Bulldog Drummond serial, this time from 1937 and again starring John Howard but with Louise Campbell in the role of Phyllis and John Barrymore(!) as Colonel Nielson. Also, I have a new icon for this project!
[Bulldog Drummond Comes Back]Oh, John Barrymore. There are few things sadder than a great actor reduced to slumming in dreck and Barrymore may be the definitive example. By 1937 when this film was released alcoholism had reduced the Great Profile (and there's even an off-hand reference to that in the film) and greatest Hamlet of his day to scattered character roles and slashed his salary from a height of $30,000 a week in 1930 (over $410,000 in today money) to $5,000 in 1941 when he made his last film ($78,000 today.) So there's a certain sadness in watching him act in something this forgettable, even if he does seem to be having fun with it. (The role offers him a chance to play with makeup and facial prostetics, one of his favorite things - Barrymore was the original matinee idol who'd go out of his way to ugly himself up for roles.)
So we're back to the intrepid Captain Drummond and his various crime fighting sidekicks. The plot this week is pretty straight forward: the widow of a criminal Drummond helped send to the gallows decides to get revenge by kidnapping the luckless Phyllis and staging an elaborate cat and mouse game with Drummond. You know. As you do. She has a partner in crime who's apparently Russian but is so heavily made up that at first I thought the actor was in yellowface but no, apparently this is what 30's B movies thought Russians looked like. Tonally I thought this was a lot more consistent than last week's even though the plot wasn't nearly as interesting, and poor Phyllis got even less to do. She could literally have been a recording yelling "Help!" for most of this without any changes to the plot - and yet the beginning with her and Drummond was pretty charming, mostly because John Howard really does a nice job of making Drummond convincingly besotted.
Also, I am convinced one of the writers for the Adam West Batman series sat through this film as a youngster because the villains' plan was completely from the Riddler's playbook. The riddles! The puns! The leading the hero into a death trap! So imagining a young Eddie Nygma imprinting hard on this little piece of fluff lent some extra amusement to the proceedings.
Up next: Bulldog Drummond's Peril (1938), starring John Howard, Louise Campbell and John Barrymore. (sigh)
[Bulldog Drummond Comes Back]Oh, John Barrymore. There are few things sadder than a great actor reduced to slumming in dreck and Barrymore may be the definitive example. By 1937 when this film was released alcoholism had reduced the Great Profile (and there's even an off-hand reference to that in the film) and greatest Hamlet of his day to scattered character roles and slashed his salary from a height of $30,000 a week in 1930 (over $410,000 in today money) to $5,000 in 1941 when he made his last film ($78,000 today.) So there's a certain sadness in watching him act in something this forgettable, even if he does seem to be having fun with it. (The role offers him a chance to play with makeup and facial prostetics, one of his favorite things - Barrymore was the original matinee idol who'd go out of his way to ugly himself up for roles.)
So we're back to the intrepid Captain Drummond and his various crime fighting sidekicks. The plot this week is pretty straight forward: the widow of a criminal Drummond helped send to the gallows decides to get revenge by kidnapping the luckless Phyllis and staging an elaborate cat and mouse game with Drummond. You know. As you do. She has a partner in crime who's apparently Russian but is so heavily made up that at first I thought the actor was in yellowface but no, apparently this is what 30's B movies thought Russians looked like. Tonally I thought this was a lot more consistent than last week's even though the plot wasn't nearly as interesting, and poor Phyllis got even less to do. She could literally have been a recording yelling "Help!" for most of this without any changes to the plot - and yet the beginning with her and Drummond was pretty charming, mostly because John Howard really does a nice job of making Drummond convincingly besotted.
Also, I am convinced one of the writers for the Adam West Batman series sat through this film as a youngster because the villains' plan was completely from the Riddler's playbook. The riddles! The puns! The leading the hero into a death trap! So imagining a young Eddie Nygma imprinting hard on this little piece of fluff lent some extra amusement to the proceedings.
Up next: Bulldog Drummond's Peril (1938), starring John Howard, Louise Campbell and John Barrymore. (sigh)