Bulldog Drummond

Bulldog Drummond is the archetypal all British action hero from the early 20th Century (probably 1920/30's) and written by Sapper. Much like another British adventurer 'The Saint/Simon Templar', he is fearless, handsome and always has the British stiff upper lip no matter what peril he is in.

A series of Bulldog Drummond black and white films were made though the best is probably the original 1929 'Bulldog Drummond' starring Ronald Coleman.with Montagu Love playing Karl Petersen - Drummond's arch foe. Petersen is ably assisted by a slinky sidekick Irma, a theme taken up in other Drummond films and is played by beautiful but ill fated Lilyan Tashman who exudes a flapper style danger to her role. Proably a bit creaky and stagey by today's standards it is still a great and early example of bad girl cinema.

 

 

 

 

In the 1960's there were 2 films featuring Bulldog' Drummond. The first of these was 'Deadlier than the Male' and starred Richard Johnson as Bulldog and he was pitted against the delectable Elke Sommer and Sylvia Koscina and a couple of the villain's sidekicks towards the end. In fact the film is a little light for the GWG genre but any film which has Elke Sommer pouting and scheming is a sure fire hit with me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Presumably inspired by the success of 'Deadlier than the Male' a sequel quickly followed - "Some Girls Do'. Again Bulldog (Johnson) has pitted against 2 female assassins this time played by Daliah Lavi and Beba Loncar. Lavi always played a great femme fatale and this role was no different. She has the looks and expression of a ruthless villainess which is more than can be said of Beba Loncar who's character is a disappointment. However the villain's army (Petersen again) of robotic, machine gun toting gun girls is a nice touch as is the denouement where Bulldog's assistant is herself a Russian spy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

None of these films should be confused with 'Bullshot', aka 'Bullshot Crummond', which is a spoof of the whole Bulldog Drummond character. It would also appear that the film play has been adapted for  theatre productions too. If you have any interest in Bulldog Drummond then the spoof is actually very funny but despite the villain having a glamourous female assistant the actual GWG content is extremely minimal. Regardless here are some images I've come across,one from the film (Francis Tomelty is the slinky bad girls) and the rest from various theatre productions.