Bulldog Drummond


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Bulldog Drummond is a British fictional character created by "Sapper," a pseudonym of Herman Cyril McNeile (1888-1937), in imitation of the hard boiled noir-style detectives appearing in contemporary American fiction. The stories followed Captain Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond, D.S.O., M.C., a wealthy former WWI officer of the Loamshire Regiment, who, after the war, spends his new-found leisure time as a private detective.

Drummond is a proto-James Bond figure and a version of the imperial adventurers depicted by the likes of John Buchan. In terms of the detective genre, the first Bulldog Drummond novel was published after the Sherlock Holmes stories, the Nayland Smith/Fu Manchu novels and Richard Hannay's first three adventures including The Thirty Nine Steps. The character first appeared in the novel Bulldog Drummond (1920), and this was followed by a lengthy series of books and adaptations for films, radio and television.

"Drummond... has the appearance of an English gentleman: a man who fights hard, plays hard and lives clean... His best friend would not call him good-looking but he possess that cheerful type of ugliness which inspires immediate confidence ... Only his eyes redeem his face. Deep-set and steady, with eyelashes that many women envy, they show him to be a sportsman and an adventurer. Drummond goes outside the law when he feels the ends justify the means." [1]

Contents

Literary significance and criticism

Although typical for the period (and similar in this respect to John Buchan), McNeile's works are, to a modern reader, strongly laced with jingoism and racism and have many unflattering references to foreigners (especially Germans) and to Jews in particular. For example, in "The Final Count", Robin Gaunt muses in his diary: "And if once the secret [a deadly new poison] was handed over to a nation which could not be trusted to use it the way in which I intended - God help the world. I imagined Russia possessing it - Russia ruled by its clique of homicidal alien Jews." And earlier in the book, one of Drummond's companions disguises himself as "a nasty-looking little Jew". And in "The Female of the Species" Drummond disguises himself as a black henchman of the villainous Irma and, revealing himself to Irma and his astonished companions, explains: "Every beard is not false, but every nigger smells. That beard ain't false, dearie, and dis nigger don't smell. So I'm thinking there's something wrong somewhere." Though this sort of language will jar modern critics, it is simply a feature of the culture of that time; Drummond fought a number of villains from all countries with equal zeal.

After McNeile's death in 1937, his friend Gerard Fairlie continued to write stories based on the character.

Influences

Bulldog Drummond undoubtedly had influences on the pulp heroes, notably Doc Savage. Like Savage, Drummond was a muscular man with a group of followers who helped him in his adventures. They rounded up crooks and took them to a place only they knew and reformed them. Doc Savage had a clinic upstate and used brain surgery to do the job. At one point, Drummond and his men, the "Black Gang", imprison a collection of saboteurs on a Scottish island under the command of a sergeant-major, who institutes a 'boarding-school' regime of physical work and exercise - a precursor of the 'short, sharp, shock' treatment supported later by right-wing politicians.

The first four books dealt with Drummond up against Carl Peterson who was killed in the fourth book. In the fifth book, the title refers to the female of the species being more deadly than the male which in this case is Peterson's (presumed — their relationship is never explicitly stated) wife Irma, who proves a very dangerous adversary in a number of following books and wants to murder Drummond for killing her husband.

On the cover of The Black Gang novel were mystery men wearing black cloaks and "slouch" hats, with guns, a guise that would be adopted by The Shadow nine years later.

Novels

  • Bulldog Drummond (1920, by McNeile)
  • The Black Gang (1922, by McNeile)
  • The Third Round (1924, by McNeile)
  • Bulldog Drummond (1925, by Gerald du Maurier and McNeile)
  • The Final Count (1926, by McNeile) "A scientist has invented a poison which will end war. He is seized, along with large quantities of the poison (which causes instantaneous death wherever it is sprayed). The kidnapper, an old enemy of Bulldog Drummond, intends to use the deadly invention for his own foul ends."[2]
  • The Female of the Species (1928, by McNeile) "Carl Peterson, a long-time villain, has been killed by Bulldog Drummond but Peterson's mistress escapes and turns the tables on the detective. She kidnaps Drummond's bride and plays a nerve-jangling game of hide-and-seek."[2]
  • Temple Tower (1929, by McNeile)
  • The Return of Bulldog Drummond (1932, by McNeile)
  • Knock-Out (1933, by McNeile)
  • Bulldog Drummond at Bay (1935, by McNeile)
  • The Challenge (1937, by McNeile)
  • Bulldog Drummond on Dartmoor (1938, by Gerard Fairlie)
  • Bulldog Drummond Attacks (1939, by Fairlie)
  • Captain Bulldog Drummond (1945, by Fairlie)
  • Bulldog Drummond Stands Fast (1947, by Fairlie)
  • Hands Off Bulldog Drummond (1949, by Fairlie)
  • Calling Bulldog Drummond (1951, by Fairlie)
  • The Return of the Black Gang (1954, by Fairlie)
  • Deadlier Than the Male (1966, by Henry Reymond) - from an original story by Jimmy Sangster
  • Some Girls Do (1969, by Henry Reymond) - based on the film script by David Osborn & Liz Charles-Williams

Short stories by McNeile

  • "Lonely Inn"
  • "The Mystery Tour"
  • "The Oriental Mind"
  • "Thirteen Lead Soldiers"
  • "Wheels Within Wheels"

Films

Radio and television

A Bulldog Drummond radio serial ran on the Mutual Broadcasting System from 1941 to 1954. Bulldog was portrayed by Ned Weaver.

A 30-minute episode of Douglas Fairbanks Jr Presents featured Bulldog Drummond in "The Ludlow Affair" (1957). Though Drummond (Robert Beatty) was little more than a detective in London, aided by Kelly (Michael Ripper), it was well done and deserved a series. This episode is available on DVD.

Later incarnations

  • The 1973 BBC documentary Omnibus: The British Hero featured Christopher Cazenove playing Drummond, as well as a number of other such heroic characters, including Richard Hannay, Beau Geste and James Bond.
  • Bulldog Drummond was one of many characters featured in the anthology Combined Forces (1983) by Jack Smithers.
  • Another parody, Bullshot Crummond, was originally staged as a play and subsequently made into a 1983 motion picture.
  • A comic autobiography called Butter Bean written by Glen Rhodes in 1984 draws parallels between the life of the author and Bulldog Drummond - often serving to highlight the shortcommings of the author.
  • Kim Newman's short story "Pitbull Brittan" (1991), a savage parody of Bulldog Drummond and the state of Britain under Margaret Thatcher, features the eponymous adventurer's battle against an international conspiracy responsible for the 1984 Miners' Strike. Newman also used the character for a brief cameo appearance in his novel The Bloody Red Baron.
  • In 2004, Moonstone Books released a Bulldog Drummond comic book written by William Messner-Loebs and illustrated by Brett Barkley.
  • In Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier, Drummond, thinly veiled as "Hugo Drummond", is is a government agent pursuing the fugitives Allan Quartermain and Mina Murray. He is portrayed as a violent racist who is fiercely loyal to his home country, but shows a softer side around his god-daughter, Miss Night (a young Emma Peel), with whom he pursues the heroes, along with Jimmy. At the end of Black Dossier, Drummond discovers the truth about John Knight's death thanks to Mina and Allan, and attacks Jimmy, attempting to avenge his deceased friend. He is killed by Jimmy, who covers up the truth about his death to his god-daughter.

Pop culture

Despite the outdated images presented in the original books, Bulldog Drummond still appears as a popular culture reference. He is one of the heroes mentioned in The Coasters' 1957 hit "Searchin'":

No matter where she's a-hidin', she's gonna hear me a-comin'
Gonna walk right down that street like Bulldog Drummond!

Bulldog (Drummond) is also one of the nicknames proposed by Jumbo for former British spy turned teacher Jim Prideaux in John le Carré's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. This reflects his jingoistic spirit and determined attitude towards life, although Jim is not wealthy.

References

  1. ^ Penzler, Otto, et al. Detectionary. Woodstock, New York: Overlook Press, 1977. ISBN 0-87951-041-2
  2. ^ a b Roseman, Mill et al. Detectionary. New York: Overlook Press, 1971. ISBN 0-87951-041-2

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