Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police

By Jove! Some rotter's made a dash for the secret treasure of Rockingham Towers! It's upper-class twittery all the way in this 1939 entry in Paramount's gentleman-adventurer series, BULLDOG DRUMMOND'S SECRET POLICE... 

Here's a jolly jape that sneaks onto many Old Dark House movie lists but, to be perfectly honest, is more of a British country house comedy with elements of intrigue. Still, it's an entertaining watch and, as someone who hasn't seen any other Bulldog Drummond films, I'd even say it serves as a good introduction to the series. 

John Howard stars for the sixth time as the dashing toff, Drummond, who's in the midst of wedding preparations at his sprawling estate, Rockingham Towers, where he's due to marry sweetheart Phyllis (Heather Angel) the next day. Cluttering up the supporting cast are an assortment of colonels, constables, maiden aunts and butlers, including Hitchcock fave Leo G. Carroll as a newly-appointed manservant, and Forrester Harvey as a visiting professor. The latter is keen to share his discovery that Rockingham stands atop a network of catacombs containing buried treasure, as recorded in a coded journal he just happens to have brought along. My goodness... what a wheeze it would be if the documents were to fall into the wrong hands, setting off a desperate hunt for both a devious criminal and the legendary fortune itself!    

Operating on the level of a Hardy Boys adventure, B.D.'s S.P. actually does what it does quite well... You just need to be clear what you're signing up for. The plot is simple but pleasingly paced, taking place over the course of an eventful night and morning, with a climactic descent into the subterranean passages providing dungeons, deathtraps and derring-do that plays like The Goonies in smoking jackets. 

The plentiful humour is largely of the Jeeves and Wooster variety, highlighted by E.E. Clive as Drummond's butler, Tennyson, a droll character very much in the Alfred Pennyworth mould ("Pardon me, Sir, but we're in for a spot of trouble," he remarks as a ceiling covered in spikes begins to descend). But, oddly enough, most of it finds the funny bone - even a rickety bit of slapstick involving a Ming vase destined to end up in pieces. I guess even this kind of upper-class twaddle is preferable to the noxious treatment of Black servants you'd likely end up with as the equivalent 'comic relief' in an American-set film. 

Not one for chill-seekers, then, and it'll probably play better to Anglophiles, but a spiffy spot of spoofery to mix up your Old Dark House viewing on a slow day. 

RATING: 🕸🕸