Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police (1939)

John Howard came to an end in the Bulldog Drummond series with Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police. A misnomer of a title if there ever was one because the police are Scotland Yard and they're quite out in the open in this film.Will Drummond finally get married to his long suffering sweetheart Heather Angel? Only Tess Trueheart from Dick Tracy and Adelaide from Guys And Dolls have been waiting longer to get their intended before a preacher. In this film he's returned to Rockingham Hall, the Drummond family estate to just prepare for the wedding with Angel with her aunt Elizabeth Patterson doubting as usual it will ever come off.It might not yet because a funny looking professor played by Forrester Harvey comes by with a tale that says there's a royal treasure left by the Cavaliers in the English civil war buried some place in the stately home. Like all English homes belonging to the gentry it has its secret passages, secret even from the current occupants. But when Harvey is murdered everybody is scrambling to find the culprit and the treasure.With the lack of cast and the short running time the suspect is rather obvious. The film is also padded with scenes from previous Bulldog Drummond films in a dream sequence. A rather inferior note for the series to come to a close.

After a bit of a slow start, this Bulldog Drummond feature is a solid B-movie with some moments of good suspense and effective atmosphere. It has all the familiar characters, with John Howard as Drummond, and E.E. Clive, Reginald Denny, Heather Angel, and H.B. Warner in the recurring roles, plus a young Leo Carroll (billed without the G.) heading the supporting cast.The first part is a little slow-moving, dwelling rather lengthily on the series's running joke about Drummond's often-postponed wedding to Phyllis. Although it tries to get a bit too much material out of it, this part does include a sequence of flashbacks to earlier 'Bulldog' features that offers some pleasant moments to those who enjoy the series.The main plot has a familiar premise, with a search for a hidden treasure whose location needs to be deduced from an old cipher. It becomes a race, as Drummond and his friends are determined to find it before a criminal adversary can. While not an especially imaginative story idea, it does lead into a pretty good sequence in the last part of the movie, with some good and rather macabre atmospheric settings as the hunt for the treasure plays out.

This British film from 1939 may surprise you by how much fun it is to watch. It's time for a wedding and the bride and the groom have gone back to open up the groom's family castle for the wedding. The castle has been closed for twenty years. The groom seems to have a history of delaying the wedding. A famous professor shows up with an old diary of a king who is purported to have hidden valuable jewels in underground passageways under the castle. Murder, mayhem and laughs abound. John Howard is good as Bulldog Drummond. Heather Angel is great as his fiancee. Elizabeth Patterson is hilarious as Aunt Blanche. The comedy is explosive in this screwball adventure! Well worth watching and the running time of under an hour goes quickly. I found this movie on a compilation DVD of several tv detectives including 'Dragnet' and a couple of 1930's movie detectives. It was a pleasant surprise. I'd rate this movie as an 8/10.

While preparing to marry his fiancee (for the umpteenth time!), Drummond discovers that there is a treasure buried somewhere in the secret passageways beneath his ancient British estate.When England's most-noted history professor reveals this to Drummond, he is invited to stay at the manor house. He is murdered before he can figure out the meaning of the ancient cypher, and Drummond & Co. have to discover it AND the murderer.A VERY interesting story, with secret passageways, ancient torture devices, and all sorts of "death-dealing devices".Great fun!