a5c7b9f00b The intended wedding of Captain Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond to Phyllis Clavering at her villa in Switzerland is stopped short (once again) when someone murders the Swiss policeman who is guarding their wedding presents. The killer makes off with their prize possession, a synthetic diamond, made by a secret process by Professor Bernard Goodman , the father of their good friend Gwen Longworth. A guest, Sir Raymond Blantyre, head of the Metropolitan Diamond Syndicate, disappears at the same time, and Drummond suspects that Sir Raymond, who has the most to lose if Professor Goodman proceeds with his plans to publish his secret process, has something to do with the theft. He leaves Phyllis and chases back to England. Colonel Nielsen, of Scotland Yard, as usual scoffs at Drummond's suspicions and insists that a man as respected as Sir Raymond could not possibly be involved in such a crime. But, as usual, he has Drummond followed just in the event he turns up something unexpected. An explosion that wrecks Goodman's house, and apparently kills him, makes Drummond more positive that the diamond king has again resorted to murder to protect his business. He follows Professor Botulian, a life-long rival of Goodman's, whom he believes to be involved in the affair. His hunt leads him to a lonely house on the outskirts of London where he finds Goodman a prisoner. Before they can escape, Drummond and Goodman are joined by Tenny (E. E. Clive), his valet, and Phyllis, who are also (as usual) being held by the crooks. Faced by Blantyne and his armed confederates, Drummond begins to fight his way out, but is met by superior forces. In this episode captain Drummond tries to find the killer of various people. All assassinations were provoked by a diamond of great value, but Drummond will face the danger. Preview: Summary: This one has a trained penguin<br/><br/>This is the twelfth Bulldog Drummond film, the third starring John Howard as Drummond, and the second based on Sapper's novel 'The Third Round' (the first version of which was the silent film of 1925 'Bulldog Drummond's Third Round' starring Jack Buchanan, of which one print is said to survive in an archive). This one is tauter and more dramatic than most because it was edited by Ed Dymtryk. John Hogan also did a fine job of directing, with many dramatic angles and more closeups than were seen in the previous Drummond film by another director. There is interesting second unit material of London. The budget for this film was fairly ambitious, more so than in later efforts. Louise Campbell and Nydia Westman, the two irritating women, are kept under control and their roles minimized, to my great relief, and to the improvement of the drama. The lead billing once again is given to John Barrymore, who plays the Commissioner, but in this film, he acts up a storm and has many strong scenes, unlike the previous offering, 'Bulldog Drummond's Revenge', in which he sleep-walked through the story. So in this one, he really earned his fee for a change. The wonderful character actress Zeffie Tilbury here plays an amusing housekeeper who puts policemen in their place with the best East End cockney applomb, and takes no nonsense. Hogan, having just directed her in 'Scandal Street' (1938), evidently was responsible for introducing Elizabeth Patterson to the series, as a hysterical Aunt Blanche. Porter Hall puts in another of his villainous appearances, to excellent effect. (Villains are always so much more menacing when they speak quietly, as he does.) There are some amazing laboratory scenes in this film, reminiscent of Tesla, with surging electric currents and so forth, and one half expects a Frankenstein monster to appear. The story is about the manufacture of artificial diamonds, of the need to protect the diamond industry and, as Barrymore admits, to protect the Empire, from the threat of being able to make diamonds 'become as cheap as pebbles' and 'to be larger than the crown jewels'. Naturally, there is scope for villains galore with such a scenario. There is lots of action, plenty of train, car and motorbike chases, climbing up walls, and in this one, E. E. Clive as Tenny the gentleman's gentleman has the most energetic and active of all his Drummond roles, and hijacks a truck at gunpoint, hanging upside down from the roof. But most ingenious of all is the cute trained penguin who has more scenes than Louise Campbell and is a finer bird. Watch him hop and squawk, dear little thing. He also discovers a corpse under the table, which was a fine feathered deed worthy of this fast-moving film, which does not disappoint any stout Drummondonian. All assassinations that happened in this "episode" happened over a diamond. Bulldog must find who is killing them.<br/><br/>A real yawn. A very weak plot, poorly filmed. Nothing special, very average and basic. The plot is an over used plot that has nothing new to bring us to the table of 1930s crime films. How this one plays out is not all that grand either.<br/><br/>Seems to me they could have put Bulldog in films that will bring a new story or at least find a good way to change up an over used plot to make it more interesting.<br/><br/>I'm sorry but this one is the worst of all the 6 Bulldog films I have in the Mill Creek Mysteries 50-pack.<br/><br/>1/10
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