STRAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 841, 9 December 1929, Page 15

STRAND

“BULLDOG DRUMMOND” In the fine talkie now at the Strand Theatre, Ronald Colman takes the. role of Hugh Drummond , demobilised British Army officer known as "Bulldog Drummond” on account of his vigour and tenacity, who is bored with peacetime quiet. Stimulated by his friend, Algy Longworth, he advertises in the papers for excitement —danger no objection. He chooses one answer at random out of several thousand and follows up the plea for help contained in it, signed "Phyllis B." She asks him to meet her at the Green Bay Inn, four hours’ drive out of London. At the inn, a dubious roadside hotel, Drummond meets a charmingly pretty girl who claims to be Phyllis Benton. She tells him she had been travelling with her uncle, Hiram J. Travers, an American millionaire, when they were attacked by a certain Dr. Lakington and his confederate, "Peterson. The outlaws have held her uncle a prisoner in Lakington’s private sanitarium ever since, and through various tortures have attemtped to extort money and jewels- from him. Phyllis herself has been living in a private cottage next door to the sanitarium. Drummond and his friend Algy, who has followed him, are sceptical and Phyllis goes away in despair. Unknown to her, the two criminals and Irma, who pases as Peterson’s daughter, have followed Phyllis to the inn. Their sudden appearance, combined with the strangeness of Lakington’s manner, convinces Drummond that there is something in Phyllis’s story. The three criminals seize Phyllis as she leaves the inn and take her to the sanitarium. Drummond trails the party and, as if it were accidental, breaks in upon them. The conspirators attempt to alibi their conduct by telling of Travers’s hallucinations. Though pretending to be taken in by their story Drummond ferrets out an avenue of escape and effects Phyllis’s rescue. The girl goes on ahead with Algy, while Drummond, unawed by the large band of thugs employed by Lakington, returns to the sanitarium to release Travers single-handed and there meets with many exciting adventures. The Strand programme also includes many interesting short talkie items.