Bulldog Drummond Escapes *** (1937, Ray Milland, Guy Standing, Heather Angel, Reginald Denny, Porter Hall, Fay Holden, E E Clive) – Classic Movie Review 8191

Paramount Pictures’s series of eight B-movies about Sapper’s Captain Hugh ‘Bulldog’ Drummond first stars Ray Milland in Bulldog Drummond Escapes (1937).

In the screenplay by Edward T Lowe Jr, based on the play Bulldog Drummond Again by by Herman C McNeile (aka Sapper) and Gerard Fairlie, Captain Drummond becomes a prisoner when he tries to protect beautiful heiress Phyllis Clavering (Heather Angel) from an espionage organisation.

Director James P Hogan’s Bulldog Drummond Escapes is lightly entertaining with a lot of quirky and amusing incident and detail. Milland is smooth and jaunty in the star role, Angel is a good co-star, and he has a strong character actor cast to back him up.

Luckily for him but unluckily for the series, Ray Milland was becoming a major star, so the studio had to replace him after doing this one film only as Bulldog Drummond. Paramount next offered the role to John Howard, who then took over, but with second billing to John Barrymore who played Drummond’s colleague in his first performance as Drummond, Bulldog Drummond Comes Back (1937).

It is the final film appearance of Sir Guy Standing, who died on 24 February 1937. He was succeeded in his part of Colonel Sir Reginald Nielson by John Barrymore (in three films) and H B Warner (in four films).

Also in the cast are Reginald Denny as Algy Longworth, Porter Hall as Norman Merridew, Fay Holden as Natalie Merridew Seldon, E E Clive as ‘Tenny’ Tennison, Walter Kingsford as ‘Professor’ Stanton, P.J. Kelly as Stiles the butler, Charles McNaughton as Chief Constable Higgins, Clyde Cook as Constable Alf, Frank Elliott as Bailey, David Clyde as Gower, Doris Lloyd as Nurse and Barry Macollum as Blodgson.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8191

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