Dulldog HumDrummond

Deadlier than the Male. Bulldog Drummond has led a charmed life, alas. In the early '20s, when he first came to public attention in the novels of Sapper (H. C. McNeile), he was an overblown Blimp who hated "Bolshies" and took peculiar pleasure in flogging "Hebrews." In 1929, the cur was portrayed by Ronald Colman as a sort of homey Holmes -- a friendly legal beagle who spent more time rolling his big sad eyes at the lady customers than he did hounding down the villain. In Deadlier than the Male, the adaptable Drummond shows up as the type of sleuth who happens to be in style: the beagle is redecorated as a wavy-haired wolf (Richard Johnson).

His adversaries have undergone some renovations too. In the first Drummond adventure, Irma was described as a sultry brunette who spoke in silent-movie captions ("Mon Dieu, you ugly man! Tell me why you are such a fool!"). In this film, she is introduced as the svelte blonde secretary of an oil magnate who maintains his executive offices in a private jetliner. "Your cigar, sir," murmurs Irma (Elke Sommer), as she extracts a plump Corona from her ruffled cigarter. The boss lights up, draws deep, looks faintly startled as the cigar explodes a .38 slug that rips through the back of his throat and severs his spine.

Britain's Bulldog picks up the lady's scent when she arrives in London to collect her fee from the late magnate's chief competitors. She offers him a cigar; this time it is too slow on the draw, and Drummond tails her to a rendezvous with her boss, the inevitable master criminal. In his previous incarnations, Carl Petersen was presented as a fiend "whose inhuman calm acted on Drummond like a cold douche"; in this film, he is introduced as an Oilfinger (Nigel Green) who extorts a tribute of terror from the big petroleum cartels.

In the last reel, Drummond destroys the nasty fellow and his felonious female assistant with the aid of a booby-trapped hairpiece and a colossal computer-controlled chess set. The kids may welcome all this automated mayhem; the oldtimers will simply conclude that poor old Bulldog has lost his bite.

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