Bulldog Jack
- 15 July 1935 (1935-07-15) (UK[1])
Bulldog Jack (released as Alias Bulldog Drummond in the USA) is a 1935 British comedy film produced by Gaumont British, directed by Walter Forde, and starring Jack Hulbert, Fay Wray, Ralph Richardson and Atholl Fleming.[2]
The film was followed by many others involving the story of Captain Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond; however, because of the various production companies involved, the actor playing Bulldog was frequently changed.
It premiered at the Tivoli Theatre in London on 15 July 1935[1] and reached the US in September the same year, renamed Alias Bulldog Drummond.[2]
Bulldog Jack includes action set in a fictional London Underground station of Bloomsbury.
Plot
Bulldog Drummond is injured when his sabotaged car is involved in a crash. When Jack Pennington agrees to masquerade as the sleuth, he is enlisted to help Ann Manders find her jeweller grandfather who has been kidnapped by a gang of crooks who want him to copy a valuable necklace they want to steal. Their plan backfires in the British Museum and the film climaxes in a chase on a runaway train in the London Underground.
Production
The movie was mostly filmed on a stage sets, however they used real driver views of the Underground tunnels.[3]
The London Underground as a Key Element
A fictional closed Tube station (Bloomsbury) is featured as an important part of the staging of the film, being part of an intricate hideaway for the bad guys. The Underground becomes a key element in the film when the trail "Bulldog" and his assistant are on leads them to the boarded-up street entrance of a closed "Bloomsbury" station; the dapper detectives in tophats and tails ride the Tube circuit back around to the nearest station to the closed one, and then sneak onto the tracks headed to the closed platform. Part way there, a train appears down the tunnels and the men hastily climb onto the tube walls and lay flat, only to see the train disappear one car after another, switching to another Tube line.
In a short but memorable scene, "Bulldog" turns a table upside-down and rides the long spiral staircase all the way to the bottom, passing two crooks on the way, and sliding across the platform and tumbling onto the tracks. The film's smashing climax is on a runaway train in the Tube, and throughout the scene the point of view is from the front of the train.
In all, Bulldog Jack shows the basic appearance of the Underground in the 1930s and WWII, including the seemingly endless spiral staircases and other features that most Londoners would have been familiar with.[3]
Cast
- Jack Hulbert as Jack Pennington
- Fay Wray as Ann Manders
- Ralph Richardson as Morelle
- Claude Hulbert as Algy Longworth
- Gibb McLaughlin as Denny
- Atholl Fleming as Bulldog Drummond
- Paul Graetz as Salvini
- Cyril Smith as Duke (uncredited)
Reception
The reviewer for The Times wrote: "The progress of this picture is like many a left-hander's innings – slow and quite unconvincing at the start, but providing some highly entertaining fireworks before the finish."[1]
See also
- Bulldog Drummond
- Fictional underground stations
References
- ^ a b c The Times, 15 July 1935, page 12: New films in London Linked 2017-01-07
- ^ a b Sennwald, Andre (10 September 1935). "Bulldog Jack (1935) The Screen; 'Alias Bulldog Drummond,' a Comic Melodrama From England, Opens at the Globe Theatre". The New York Times.
- ^ a b "Bulldog Jack". railwaymoviedatabase.com. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
External links
- Bulldog Jack at IMDb
- Bulldog Jack at AllMovie
- Bulldog Jack at the TCM Movie Database
- Bulldog Jack at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
- v
- t
- e
- Bulldog Drummond
- The Black Gang
- The Third Round
- The Final Count
- The Female of the Species
- Temple Tower
- The Return of Bulldog Drummond
- Knock-Out
- Bulldog Drummond at Bay
- Challenge
- Bulldog Drummond (1922)
- The Third Round (1925)
- Bulldog Drummond (1929)
- Temple Tower (1930)
- The Return of Bulldog Drummond (1934)
- Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back (1934)
- Bulldog Jack (1935)
- Bulldog Drummond Escapes (1937)
- Bulldog Drummond at Bay (1937)
- Bulldog Drummond Comes Back (1937)
- Bulldog Drummond's Revenge (1937)
- Bulldog Drummond's Peril (1938)
- Bulldog Drummond in Africa (1938)
- Arrest Bulldog Drummond (1939)
- Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police (1939)
- Bulldog Drummond's Bride (1939)
- Bulldog Drummond at Bay (1947)
- Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back (1947)
- 13 Lead Soldiers (1948)
- The Challenge (1948)
- Calling Bulldog Drummond (1951)
- Deadlier Than the Male (1967)
- Some Girls Do (1969)
- Bulldog Drummond (1922 play)
- Bulldog Drummond (1941-1954 radio series)
- Bullshot Crummond
- Bullshot
- The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier