Bulldog Jack (1935) a.k.a. Alias Bulldog Drummond

Fans of detective movies are no doubt familiar with the character of Bulldog Drummond, played by a variety of actors over the years (including Ray Milland and Ronald Colman) in more than a dozen films. Actor Sir Ralph Richardson, who played the title role in The Return of Bulldog Drummond (1934), returned to the series a second time in Bulldog Jack (1935), playing the master villain, whose henchmen put the real Bulldog Drummond out of the way, only to be thwarted in their efforts to steal British Museum jewels by an inept impersonator. 

 

Yes, you read that correctly. The great detective Bulldog Drummond is injured and confined to a hospital near the beginning of Bulldog Jack (1935) and asks another man to take his place at a meeting with a mysterious woman and report back to him, and authorizes him to impersonate him and pretend to be Drummond himself!

 

This bizarre idea was cooked up by actor Jack Hulbert, who wrote the story, as a vehicle for himself. Hulbert was a popular comedian and tap dancer in British films of the 1930s and as unlikely a man to be in a Bulldog Drummond film as can be imagined. Hulbert was a strange-looking man with a hatchet face and an enormous-pointed chin. Despite these unfortunate looks, he dressed, behaved and acted like an irresistible Romeo in many films, including this one. Hulbert cast his younger brother, Claude Hulbert, as Drummond's sidekick Algy Longworth, and that was very successful, as Claude Hulbert had no difficulty at all in acting like a twit. 

 

Along the way, Hollywood actress Fay Wray made the move to England and played the female lead in a number of movies that year, including this one. She plays the role of Ann Manders, who asks Drummond to help find her jeweler grandfather who has been kidnapped by a gang of crooks who want him to copy a valuable necklace they want to steal. Naturally she mistakes Hulbert as Drummond and goes on an adventure of zany proportions. Their plan backfires in the British Museum and the film climaxes in an exciting chase on a runaway train in the London Underground. And what a wild ending this movie is!

 

Many do not consider this movie part of the Bulldog Drummond cannon, but others confess that the film is so entertaining that it should be. Technically, since the character of Bulldog Drummond is featured in the film, it should be part of the series. Released in the United States as Alias Bulldog Drummond, this movie is available through a number of channels and such “escapist” antidote to today’s generally depressive “gloom and doom” productions makes this movie a must-see. 

 

Bulldog Jack (a.k.a. Alias Bulldog Drummond) would never appear on the top 100 must-see movies list, but for cinephiles who feel they have seen it all and looking for something fresh and fun, this is worth watching.