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Bulldog Drummond Double Feature #1
I have a strange attraction to episodic movies and television shows. This foible can probably be traced back to my youth, when I tried (in vain I might add) to watch an entire Rocky and Bulwinkle story. Every week the show would end with our heroes in danger, only to open the next week with them in an entirely different situation. The local TV station didn't pay close attention to the order that they played this syndicated children's show, but instead of discouraging me, I grew more resolved. It was like a game. I won if I was able to view all the parts in a given series. From old movie serials to Dr. Who to James Bond, I've been playing the game ever since. That's probably why I was so excited when I heard that Critic's Choice was going to release a pair of Bulldog Drummond movies. Another set of movies from the late 30's to watch! Unfortunately, my joyous state did not live through the viewing of these movies on this DVD, due to the poor audio and video quality.
The Movies:
The movies presented on this disc are the first two of eight movies. Released by Paramount between 1937 and 1939, they were based on a series of adventure books by H. C. "Sapper" McNeile. In the first is Bulldog Drummond Escapes, staring Ray Milland as Bulldog and Gary Standing as Col. Nielson. Drummond (who is never referred to as "Bulldog" in either of these films,) is driving to a friend's house when a woman dashes out in front of his car. He swerves and misses her, but she faints. After putting the girl in his car, Drummond searches the area and finds a dead man sinking into the swamp. Before he can do more than note this, he hears the now conscious woman driving off. So Drummond, with the aide of his butler Tenny and his pal Algy, sets off to find out who the woman was, why she was running, and who died in the swamp.
The movie, though predictable and a little dated, still holds a lot of charm. There is some genuinely witty dialog between Drummond and his butler, and the plot moves at a fairly fast rate. Ray Millard does a very good job as Bulldog, and the supporting cast is fine. The only complaint is that the movie never stops to introduce the characters. You just have to pick it up as you go. The books gave a fairly interesting background for Bulldog, which is never mentioned. Who he is, or what he does is just glossed over. In the movie's defense, running just over an hour in length, there really isn't much time for back histories.
The second film in this DVD, and the next one in the series, is Bulldog Drummond Comes Back. There were a lot of casting changes from the first movie. For this outing, Ray Milland was replaced in the lead role by John Howard, who would stay in Bulldog's shoes for the rest of the series. Col. Nielson was replaced by John Barrymore, who received top billing, and would play the role in the two films following this one also.
As with the other films in this series, the action starts soon after the credits fade. A pair of international crooks who hold a grudge against Bulldog kidnap his girlfriend. They then send him clues as to where she is, leading Drummond and his two companions, the not too bright Algy and ever loyal butler Tenny, on a wild chase through the English country side.
Barrymore seemed to have a good time playing this role. He changed into several disguises and used various outrageous accents, adding a playful element that fit in very well. John Howard was dashing and capable, but didn't give the role the same elegance that Milland did in the first film. Even so, this was a fun, if formulistic movie.
The DVD:
Video:
The case to this DVD proclaims "Digitally Restored." I had assumed that they were referring to the movies on the disc, but I think I was mistaken. After watching this pair, I can only surmise that they were referring to the cover art.
I have certainly seen movies presented in worse shape, but not by a whole lot. While the movie was watchable, there were significant defects. The image was very bright. The highlights were dulled, giving everyone a two dimensional look. But there still wasn't a lot of details in the dark areas. It looks like they had a dark print, and cranked up the brightness to compensate, making everything looked washed out. The edges were fuzzy, not clean and sharp, and there was a good bit of dirt and flecks on the print, though it was only distracting in a few places. The video was very grainy too, it looks as if they used a 16mm print instead of 35mm.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the worst of it. Both films have several bad splices and missing frames resulting in missing words and jerky movements. In Bulldog Drummond Escapes there is an instance where the a section of film was duplicated, making a character say the same line twice. But it is Bulldog Drummond Comes Back that has the most heinous flaw: There are seven minutes missing from this film. It hasn't been edited down, that I could possibly understand. No, the footage is just missing. At one moment the main characters are sitting in a pub discussing their next move, and then it jumps to a car chase. No fade or cut, someone just spliced two unrelated scenes together. There is a lot of information missing too; it's not clear who is chasing whom, and for what reason. It makes the rest of the movie very confusing.
There is just no reason for a company to put out a film with so much missing footage without noting it.
Audio:
The only audio is a Dolby Digital 2.0 track. This is rather strange because the movie was originally filmed in mono. It seems that they just feed the mono track to the left and right channels since the two sides are identical.
The quality of the audio isn't too high. There is an annoying hum throughout both movies, which is louder on the first one. The audio track also has a significant amount of hiss present. The dialogue is not muddled for the most part, an is easy to discern even with the background noise.
The Extras:
None. Granted, this is a budget disc, but they could have at least included trailers and actor biographies though. A page or two about the series would have been a great bonus and it wouldn't have been expensive to include. Other budget companies have put old time radio shows on their discs, and an old "Bulldog Drummond" radio adventure would have been a natural fit.
Final Thoughts:
The video quality of this disc is not very good, but it is watchable. The audio isn't great either but the odds are small that any company would put money into restoring these films. A die hard fan might have been able to live with this disc had the second feature been intact. The fact that the second film is incomplete and missing so much is unforgivable though. Skip this one.
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