Calling Bulldog Drummond (1951)
Directed by Victor Saville
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Synopsis by Hal Erickson
All the various Bulldog Drummond movie series had run their courses by 1951; nonetheless, MGM decided to revive the property (and simultaneously liquidate some "frozen funds") with the British-filmed Calling Bulldog Drummond. Walter Pidgeon stars as novelist Sapper's soldier-of-fortune, here retooled as a respectable retired military officer. Summoned to London by Scotland Yard, Drummond is assigned to break up a dangerous criminal gang. He is aided by female undercover officer Helen Smith (Margaret Leighton), who turns out to be not much help at all. Trapped in a bombed-out building and surrounded by hulking henchmen, Drummond seems to have run out of luck. Some of the film's brightest moments are provided by David Tomlinson as a traditional "silly ass" type who is lot smarter than he seems. Bernard Lee, the future "M" in the James Bond films of the 1960s, appears as a secondary villain.
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Keywords
amateur, basement, bomb, building, capture, childhood-friend, detective, disease, escape, extramarital-affair, fog, gangster, gigolo, investigation, love-triangle, military, officer, private-detective, radar, retirement, robbery, Scotland-Yard, suicide, violinist