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Airplane constructor Caldwell (Richard Bird) is kidnapped by arms
manufacturer Kalinsky (Hugh Miller) and his gang, who want to get their
hands on Caldwell's latest warplane designs - but not before Caldwell can
get a message to Bulldog Drummond (John Lodge), requesting his help.
Interestingly, Kalinsky wants to sell his designs to a pacifist
organisation that obviously believes peace can only be kept (or forced
upon the enemies) by a big arsenal ... Doris Thompson (Dorothy Mackaill)
is a member of this organisation, and she is sent after Drummond, to find
out what he knows, but Drummond quickly sees through her charade, turns
the tables and uses her to get to those holding Caldwell. Doris soon falls
for Drummond, too, and saves his life on one occasion - even if that means
she has to have him booked on a rape charge. Of course, Drummond is quick
to convince the authorities of his innocence, and soon enough, he and his
sidekick Algie (Claud Allister) manage to track Kalinsky, Caldwell and
company down, but in the course of this they are almost gassed and killed
in many other ways. Eventually, Kalinsky has a fall-out with his
right-hand man Gregoroff (Victor Jory), for whom Kalinsky isn't ruthless
anough, and to signal the advent of a new regime, Gregoroff throws
Kalinsky off some cliffs to his death. By now though the police has closed
in on him, so Gregoroff takes Caldwell's top secret war plane to make a
clean getaway, not knowing that Caldwell has a remote control that can cut
out the plane's engines. And thus, Gregorof's short regime ends with a
bang. In the end, Doris is revealed to be a secret service agent - and
she also might be becoming Mrs Drummond very soon ... Not
entirely uncharming Bulldog Drummond adventure, held
together by a fine cast, a likeable performance by John Lodge in the lead,
and a reasonably fast pace ... yet none of this can obscure the fact that
the story isn't too well thought through - actually there are more
plotholes than one can count - and the character motivations are often
left in the dark, especially Doris changes from capable agent to passive
love interest way too quickly, and that she's revealed to be a secret
service agent in the end just doesn't ring true. All that said, the film
is an ok genre movie I guess, it just could have been way better if more
time was spent on the script.
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