Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police: 1939, United States. Starring John Howard, Heather Angel, H.B. Warner, Reginald Denny, E.E. Clive, Elizabeth Patterson, Leo G. Carroll, Forrester Harvey. Directed by James P. Hogan.

A while back, I watched three Bulldog Drummond films courtesy of one of those 50-films for $20 cheapo collections. Well, I finally got around to watching the next two, thanks to a rainy day and the need on my behalf to take some time off in between Florida's Final Four victory against UCLA and their impending championship game against Ohio State. We beat 'em in football, and it'd be pretty sweet to beat 'em in basketball, too.

Anyway, Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police finds ace busybody and freelance adventurer Captain Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond and his beloved Phyllis sequestered away in Drummond's home on the eve of their wedding. This would be about the ten thousandth attempt they've made at a getting married, only to have each wedding spoiled by some crazy mystery or adventure that sends them off solving a murder, combating spies, or some other activity far more fun than getting married. But Phyllis is determined to see that nothing gets in the way of this wedding.

Unfortunately, if Drummond doesn't go looking for a mystery, one is sure to come looking for him. And sure enough, it arrives in the form of a bumbling professor who happens to have knowledge of a secret treasure hidden in the catacombs of Drummond's very own home. When a murderous assistant shows up to off the prof and claim the booty as his own, Drummond and the usual crew of Phyllis, stolid Scotland Yard inspector Nielson, goofball best friend Algy, and well-armed war veteran butler Tenny find themselves hunting for the killer and the treasure when they were supposed to be memorizing vows and preparing the soup for the wedding.

Bulldog Drummond films are perfect Saturday afternoon/late night fare. They movie quickly (most of them, including this one, clock in at barely an hour), boast scripts that are jammed with witty dialog and exchanges, and sustain themselves with a steady diet of shenanigans and intrigue. Even the comedy is usually pretty funny, which is a rare thing for comedy to be. Like many long-running film series, they can tend to get repetitive, relying on cookie cutter plots that are tweaked just slightly enough to pass for a new movie, but this really doesn't bug me since the end results are always so much fun. Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police is another winner, and the do-or-die treasure hunt beneath Drummond's estate is a swell setting for lots of adventure, booby traps, and guys falling into underground rivers. The cast is familiar with their roles by this point, and they perform admirably. As Drummond, John Howard positively bursts with enthusiasm. Drummond is a man who absolutely thrills like a child at the scent of an adventure, and Howard conveys that perfectly. Here's hoping he and Phyllis never get married.

Bulldog Drummond Comes Back: 1937, United States. Starring John Barrymore, John Howard, Louise Campbell, Reginald Denny, E.E. Clive, J. Carrol Naish, Helen Freeman, Zeffie Tilbury, John Sutton, Rita Page. Directed by Louis King.

The action continues with Bulldog Drummond Comes Back, though this is a film that falls much earlier in the chronology of the series (as Drummond has proposed to the first time to Phyllis, I assume it immediately follows Bulldog Drummond Escapes). When a nemesis from the past shows up and kidnaps Phyllis, Drummond, Algy, and Tenny find themselves on a wild goose chase around town, following one seemingly pointless clue after another, with Inspector Nielson close behind in a variety of silly disguises. The simple plot allows for the film to sort of meander around as Drummond and his friends go back and forth listening to photograph records and deciphering riddles, but once again, it's a lot of fun and, as the film is only an hour long, the cat and mouse game hardly wears out its welcome before Drummond finds himself in a house of traps, struggling to save his beloved from certain doom.

Once again, the cast is superb, but this film really belongs to the venerable John Barrymore (yes, of THAT Barrymore family) as Colonel Nielson. Forbidden by Drummond's nemesis to get involved, Nielson decides to fall back on his old theater days in order to meddle without being detected, assuming the secret identity of a drunken hobo and a corncob pipe puffing salty old fisherman. And as always, Algy falls down and Tenny gets hit on the head.

So far so good. I can't imagine going wrong with Bulldog Drummond. Even the relatively middling films in the series are a great deal of fun.