Onlinewsma Absolutely Brilliant!

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Donald Seymour This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

MartinHafer I was very surprised by this film. While it is supposed to be a Bulldog Drummond movie, it's really a James Bond type picture...and a pretty good one. While the plot doesn't always make sense, I have to remind myself that plot holes and ridiculously overly complicated murders are also found in just about all the Bond films! So, when in the opening scene a woman plants an exploding cigar on someone and after he's dead she activates a bomb, your brain says 'why didn't they just plant the bomb?'. The same goes for a few other scenes such as having a judo class only a foot away from a balcony ledge? Just turn off your brain and go with it!!So what does the film have going for it? Well, Dick Johnson (nice manly name, huh?) is very good in the lead--reasonably handsome but also quite physical and a decent actor. Also, the plot isn't as insanely BIG as many Bond films as the killings are for profit and the baddie isn't quite a Blofeld in his sensibilities. Overall, well done and well worth seeing.By the way, the version I saw had the German working title 'Heisse Katzen'--literally 'Hot Cats'--most likely a reference to the beautiful women (including Elke Sommer) who are the assassins.

MARIO GAUCI For the most part, this constitutes the best of the myriad James Bond imitations (because it does not deliberately attempt to send up the genre while adhering so closely to the formula – down to the music score, including a title track sung by The Walker Brothers – that I am surprised that franchise's producers did not sue), even if the literary figure that was revived for the purpose actually preceded 007! For the record, I had watched a handful of the run of Drummond 'B' movies from the 1930s with John Howard or Ray Milland, but I also own the quartet of well-regarded initial entries (two starring Ronald Colman and a couple more emanating from Britain).Interestingly, the star of this one – Richard Johnson – had made an uncredited appearance towards the start of his career in the MGM one-off CALLING BULLDOG DRUMMOND (1951). By the way, throughout his two stabs at the role, the character is never once referred to by that nickname (which, I guess, suggests his resilience) but nor are we ever told just what field the hero operates in (is he a Military Intelligence officer or just another secret agent?)! Incidentally, while he was usually flanked by a flamboyant superior as contact man and a comic butler for sidekick, the former's role is downplayed here and the latter replaced with a youthful relative (but whose girlfriend – played by Virginia North, who would actually turn up in a different role in the sequel and also appear as Vulnavia to Vincent Price's THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES {1971} in the first installment of that particular two-movie series – still prefers the more experienced member of the family!).Anyway, the protagonist now has an elderly boss (Laurence Naismith) with a secretary (THE PRISONER's Justine Lord) with whom he flirts a' la M and Miss Moneypenny from the Bond series – though Drummond goes one better than his 'prototype' by taking the girl out to dinner and later to his flat! As expected, there are a plethora of attractive ladies and, given the moniker (which obviously bears no relation to a similarly-titled 1957 French melodrama starring Jean Gabin that I also own), some of them even do the dirty work for the villain (who, also typically, hides behind a veneer of respectability). The most notable are Elke Sommer, Sylva Koscina and Suzanna Leigh – the first two make up an interesting and sparring sexy/comic duo (with the former being the spokesperson for Carl Peterson's nefarious machinations and the latter the 'thug' but whose kleptomania ultimately proves the undoing of both!), while the latter is a new (thus uncommitted) recruit who, unsurprisingly, takes up with Drummond at the end. Curiously enough, though the 2 latter-day Drummond adventures were released simultaneously on R2 DVD, the edition I acquired of this one was unfortunately trimmed of some 2 minutes – running only 93 – with an evident cut in the scene where Johnson and Sommer share a room in Peterson's castle and all of a sudden she is in her underwear; this edit is all the more baffling because a split-second nudity by Leigh (or her stand-in) at the climax has been left intact!The plot is the standard 'bid-for-world-domination-through-economic-monopoly' which sees a great number of people involved: these can basically be divided into associates and victims (sometimes filling the requirements of both) and include Leonard Rossiter, George Pastell, Lee Montague (from the just-viewed THE LEGACY {1978}) and Zia Mohyeddin as the latest millionaire (coincidentally a school chum of the younger Drummond) to be targeted for elimination. Nigel Green, then, makes for a strong nemesis to Johnson (who would also face Harry Palmer and, with Sommer herself in tow, Matt Helm but never Bond!), and it is only in the latter stages that the film treads the camp factor, as Drummond constantly rubs his burly bodyguard-cum-manservant the wrong way so that they eventually engage in a karate fight – the obvious conclusion being that Peterson is much better served by the weaker sex! Hero and villain also conduct a game of chess where the pawns are creepily life-size but also ultimately prove deadly for Peterson himself.

ShadeGrenade Several oil executives die in mysterious 'accidents' and each time, an anonymous company is richer by a million pounds. Insurance underwriter Hugh Drummond is called in to investigate. Jimmy Sangster had earlier put Hammer Films on the map by reworking old horror favourites like 'Dracula' and 'Frankenstein'. In 1966, he gave Sapper's 'Bulldog Drummond' a Bond make-over. Richard Johnson was well cast; smooth, charming, and sophisticated. The girls are stunningly beautiful, and the film bristles with excitement, invention and good humour. Nigel Green is excellent as Carl Petersen. Some great set-pieces; the underground car park fight is surprisingly violent, while the chessboard finale is straight out of 'The Avengers'. All this plus a cameo by the late, great Leonard Rossiter, and a blinding title song by The Walker Brothers! Wisely, the film doesn't try to compete with the more lavish Bonds such as 'Goldfinger' and 'Thunderball'. Both Drummond films were novelised for Coronet Books by Henry Reymond.

bensonmum2 Richard Johnson (of The Haunting fame) is Bulldog Drummond, a insurance investigator trying to uncover what happened to one of the planes his company had written a policy on. It's not long before anyone with information for him turns up dead. And most of the deaths "appear" to be accidents. Before you can say "Shaken, Not Stirred", Drummond is up to his neck in hired killers and a mad genius.Deadlier Than the Male has a lot to enjoy. The 60s feel, Johnson's Drummond, Nigel Green, terrific locations, and the implausible yet wonderful gadgets and traps are all a delight. But my absolute favorite moments are those between the two hired henchmen (or should that be henchwomen or maybe even henchpersons) played by Elke Sommer and Sylva Koscina. There constant spats and barbed remarks are a riot.There are a lot of bad Bond wannabes out there, this is one of the good ones.