Colman’s Best

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 726, 27 July 1929, Page 29

Colman’s Best

BRILLIANT NEW TALKIE “Bulldog Drummond” Coming Soon RONALD COLMAN achieves one of the most successful characterisations of his career in “Bulldog Drummond,” the mueh-talked-of talkie coming soon to Auckland. “Sapper’s” absorbing yarn has been transformed into a brilliant picture. All the best box-office elements are contained in this United Artists release. It is sensationally thrilling, excellently cast and lavishly produced.

What is of still greater importance, “Bulldog Drummond” is one of the finest talkers that has yet ap-

We have long been accustomed to wliat are called “camera angles” in pictures. But in “Bulldog Drummond,” for the first time, the weird angles which lend mystery and fear to this story were built into the sets instead of being developed by shifting the camera. It is claimed that the film had more careful preparation than any previous Goldwyn production. Certainly the result indicates that this is true.

peared. Its cast embraces people who can really speak, Colman in particular producing a splendidly attractive voice. Supporting the star are Joan Bennett, who plays Phyllis, the heroine, Lily an Tashman, cast as the adven-

turess, Montagu Love (Peterson) and half a dozen other head-line players. There has been no need to secure extra “punch” by altering the scrip of “Bulldog Drummond.” It has excitement aplenty, and speed to spare in a careful adaptation of the book. Drummond, a British officer, sets out to rescue an American from the clutches of an unscrupulous doctor and a mysterious country house becomes the scene of thrills innumerable. Among the sound effects introduced cunningly are such novelties as the hiss of gas escaping from the opening of a bottle of mineral water, the sound of a gasoline motor missing fire on two cylinders and the muffled grunt of a pistol with a maxim silencer. Wonderful settings, embellished with particularly clever lighting effects, are used in the principal sequences.