Wed 27 Mar 2013
Dan Stumpf on WALTER PIDGEON, Bulldog Drummond & Nick Carter.
Posted by Steve under Movie stars & directors , Mystery movies , Reviews[11] Comments
CALLING BULLDOG DRUMMOND. MGM, UK, 1951. Walter Pidgeon (Major Hugh ‘Bulldog’ Drummond), Margaret Leighton, Robert Beatty, David Tomlinson, Peggy Evans, Charles Victor. Based on a story by Gerard Fairlie. Director: Victor Saville.
Back in the late 60s, when I decided I wanted to live a life of adventure, I was quite taken with a gaudy Universal James-Bond-Rip-Off called Deadlier Than the Male, with Richard Johnson as Bulldog Drummond and Nigel Greene as bis arch-foe Peterson. Elke Sommer and Sylva Koscina were in it too, as scenery.
I liked the gaudy color, kinky violence, and general comic-book look of the thing. Don’t try to catch it on television, though, because it was castrated for Network Release and to my knowledge has never been restored. (Yeah, like someone would take the time to put all the sex and violence back in to this.)
Anyway, I tried the Drummond books and didn’t care much for the character in them at all, as he seemed something of a blow-hard bigot. Always liked the Drummond movies, though, including a B series from Paramount with John Howard, John Barrymore and lots of colorful baddies. And of course there was the great Colman film of ’29 which I viewed a wile back.
So I was sort of looking forward to Calling B. D. and was disappointed. The plot features a gang of crooks who operate in Military Style, prompting Scotland Yard to call Colonel Drummond out of retirement because of his military experience.
I don’t know about you, but I have a little trouble swallowing the notion that England in the 50s suffered from a shortage of men with Military experience, and the Surprise Bad Guy is unfortunately portrayed by an actor who later became mildly famous, so his off-screen voice tips us off immediately.
Add to this that Pidgeon seems to have taken his Dull Pills just prior to filming, and you have a very quiet movie indeed.
NICK CARTER, MASTER DETECTIVE. MGM, 1939. Walter Pidgeon (Nick Carter), Rita Johnson, Henry Hull, Stanley Ridges, Doctor Frankton, Donald Meek (Bartholomew), Milburn Stone. Director: Jacques Tourneur.
PHANTOM RAIDERS. MGM, 1940. Walter Pidgeon (Nick Carter), Donald Meek (Bartholomew), Joseph Schildkraut, Florence Rice, Nat Pendleton, John Carroll. Director: Jacques Tourneur.
SKY MURDER. MGM, 1940. Walter Pidgeon (Nick Carter), Donald Meek (Bartholomew), Kaaren Verne, Edward Ashley, Joyce Compton, Tom Conway. Director: George B. Seitz.
Pidgeon came off much better in a series of “B’s” from MGM in the late ’30s centered around a character called Nick Carter, though for all the care they took to recreate the old Dime Novels, they might as well have called him The Saint or Bulldog Drumond or V.I. Warshawski. Nick Carter Master Detective, Phantom Raiders and Sky Murder are all quite fun and you should see them if you ever get a chance.
With that sonorous voice of his, Pidgeon always sounded like Gregory Peck’s older brother, but these films play against his tendency to stodginess and come out very light and fluffy. The first two were stylishly directed by Jacques Tourneur, but the best thing in them is the Comedy Relief played by Donald Meek.
The comical sidekick was as much a fixture of the B-Mystery series as he was in the B western, but Meek and the writers here lift the concept to dizzying heights. His Bartholomew is not the standard dim-witted clod of most B-Mysteries: he’s a dangerous madman, given to melodramatic fantasies and theatrical outbursts of classic,dimensions.
He looks like the kind of guy who might bite you on the leg for no good reason at all, and given the chance to play something besides a timid fuddy-duddy, Meek indulges himself with a flair for wild-eyed comedy I’d never suspected in him. He is that rarity, a Comic Relief you actually look forward to seeing, and be adds immeasurably to the films. Catch these if you can.
Editorial Comment: Mike Grost has some interesting things to say about the two Nick Carter films directed by Jacques Tourneur. Check out his website here.
March 27th, 2013 at 2:10 pm
YUP, Dan, political correctness STINKS .
Just think of old childrens’ books, where they delete everything that does not fit their pinko ideology .
It is a cultural outrage .
The Doc
March 27th, 2013 at 5:35 pm
For Dan’s extended comments on DEADLIER THAN THE MALE:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=13522
The character of Bulldog Drummond remains ever controversial:
Curt Evans’ review of BULLDOG DRUMMOND STRIKES BACK
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=2255
garnered 15 comments, and David Vineyard extended review of THE BLACK GANG received another 15:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1182
My own take on BULLDOG DRUMMOND, the first in the series, can be found here:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1166
If anyone would like to talk about Nick Carter, what I’m wondering is how much resemblance there might be between the movie version and any others (dime novels, pulps, radio, paperbacks, etc., etc.) If any?
March 27th, 2013 at 10:05 pm
Steve,
Thank you for the link!
I’ve read some of the old 1900 era Nick Carter stories. They are inoffensive, wholesome entertainment. But they are also bland, with Nick Carter not having much personality beyond being good at disguise, in the Sherlock Holmes manner.
It is not surprising that Hollywood wanted to jazz him up.
The Nick Cater films made by Tourneur are inventive, stylish and involving.
March 28th, 2013 at 3:00 am
Doc,
DEADLIER THAN THE MALE was edited for its Network TV run (and that print farmed out to local stations) because back in the late-60s/early-70s when there were only three big networks and PBS, the networks controlled the bulk of our TV watching and were therefore held to be responsible for our morals.
Much to my delight, DTTM is now available on DVD in all its original tawdriness. I had feared that tasteless late-60s movies like this, or GUNN or PJ or NIGHT OF THE FOLLOWING DAY (three of these four were from Universal) were lost forever, but the God of Sleaze has smiled upon us.
March 28th, 2013 at 4:26 am
“Deadlier Than the Male” and also “More Deadly Than the Male” seem to be rather popular titles for crime stories. There are several entries in Hubin’s bibliography. The most well-known might be the crime novel by James Gunn.
March 28th, 2013 at 11:03 am
LOL- What’s REALLY deadly, is ‘Deadlier than the FEmale’ !
The Doc
March 28th, 2013 at 11:38 am
“Nick Carter, Detective” (1963), with an introduction by Robert Clurman, is a story collection that reprints 6 Carter tales from the 1900-1902 era. This is is the main Nick Cater material available to me – and the source of my statement above that the tales were bland and lacked color.
Nick Carter is almost unique in detective fiction in being 1) a famous sleuth 2) but not having an actual book anybody has read about him.
He seems to be a famous name – but ONLY a name.
I know almost nothing about the whole Dime Novel era of mystery fiction. Unfortunately, what I’ve read over the years is deadly dull. Basically, it seems like hackwork. By contrast, many non-dime-novel writers of the era were brilliant: Arthur Morrison, Baroness Orczy, Jacques Futrelle, G. K. Chesterton and all the rest, not to mention Conan Doyle.
Maybe all this means is that I’m simply ignorant.
If people know of lists of GOOD dime novel stories, tales that still seem like classic mysteries, please let us know,
I’ll be glad to read them and promote them.
March 28th, 2013 at 11:42 am
Years ago, I mildly enjoyed a TV movie “The Adventures of Nick Carter” (1972). It kept Carter as a detective in the 1900 era, and clearly was a pilot for a TV series never made.
As best as I can recall, it didn’t draw on the actual Nick Carter tales much either. Instead, it seemed to be based on the 19th Century milieu of star Robert Conrad’s former TV series “The Wild, Wild West”.
March 28th, 2013 at 2:02 pm
Well of course there were the “Nick Carter” spy books in the 1960s… one of which I believe was ghosted by Bill Crider!
March 28th, 2013 at 5:36 pm
Any film with Shelley Winters, Broderick Crawford, Neville Brand, Pernell Roberts,Dean Stockwell, and the great Ned Glass has got to be worth seeing — even Jaye P. Morgan makes an appearance!
March 28th, 2013 at 6:32 pm
7. Mike Grost, I keep meaning to read more dime detectives. We must not forget Nick Carter’s Girl Detective either.
All I have read of the genre is Harlan Halsey’s Old Sleuth book called “Cad Metti,the Female Detective Strategist: or Dudie Dunne Again in the Field.” Cad is barely in it but Dudie is your typical master of disguise PI. I found the book entertaining and full of humor, now if the humor was intentional I leave to your judgment.
Internet Archives has some “Nick Carter, Master Detective” radio shows available for anyone interested to listen to.
https://archive.org/details/nick-carter