America's first attempt at a Bulldog Drummond movie gives silent star Rod La Roque the chance to once more be effortlessly debonair, but the material is a little threadbare until the final reel. It was apparently shot as a part-talkie, but surviving prints are silent.
7 Reviews
No Ronald Coleman
westerfieldalfred26 July 2019
As I watched Captain Swagger, I became suspicious that persons only seen in talkies were in this film. Checking IMDb, I see it used the Photophone system. As another reviewer notes, it was supposedly a part-talkie. I suspect it was more than that, because I see no scenes that stop dead for talking; all the scenes seem to flow. In any event, the version available has no sound, so it's impossible to tell. I suspect that Pathe simply added intertitles to the sound version, wit out any re-shoots.
The plot contains a lack of adventure after the war beginning. Contrast this to the 1929 Coleman version, which after a slow start, moves at a fast clip, with splendid villains and sets. Larocque is adequate, tall and handsome, but the lack of sound removes any conviction from his role. The coincidences and motives are not believable. Worth seeing once for the historical perspective.
The plot contains a lack of adventure after the war beginning. Contrast this to the 1929 Coleman version, which after a slow start, moves at a fast clip, with splendid villains and sets. Larocque is adequate, tall and handsome, but the lack of sound removes any conviction from his role. The coincidences and motives are not believable. Worth seeing once for the historical perspective.
Random Sort Of Programmer
boblipton27 April 2024
During the Great War, Rod La Rocque is an air ace nicknamed Captain Swagger. He shoots down German ace Ullrich Haupt, and the two exchange pistols in the camaraderie of guys when other men are being killed. Ten years later, La Rocque is a Broadway fixture, but he's broke, so he takes the souvenir and goes out to rob someone. He picks on Richard Tucker, who's getting handsy with Sue Carol. She tries to reform him, so they get into a dancing two-act at a night club the night Haupt and his gang decide to rob the place.
It's a random-seeming bunch of events that move along at a good clip, dependent more on the charisma of its stars than any sort of plot; humor is provided by the situations and a malaprop-laden Maurice Black as the club manager. Miss Carol is beautiful, and La Rocque boozily energetic.
It's a random-seeming bunch of events that move along at a good clip, dependent more on the charisma of its stars than any sort of plot; humor is provided by the situations and a malaprop-laden Maurice Black as the club manager. Miss Carol is beautiful, and La Rocque boozily energetic.
Rather silly...
planktonrules19 January 2016
"Captain Swagger" is a late silent film that has slipped into the public domain. Considering how inconsequential the movie is, I can understand why its copyright was allowed to expire.
Then the film begins, it's World War I and Hugh Drummond (Rod La Rocque) is a devil-may-care pilot. During one engagement with the infamous German ace, Van Stahl, one ends up saving the life of the other through some stupid sense of chivalry*. The war ends and Hugh has trouble establishing himself and makes a few bucks working for films doing stunt flying. He then meets a nice young lady who is also down on her luck. To win her, the audience things Drummond has resorted to a life of crime (the summary on IMDb is wrong about this by the way) and in the process meets his old nemesis Van Stahl--who really IS a crook. Drummond decides to help him straighten up his act and the film ends.
This is a very inconsequential film and the plot never makes much sense. It could have used more acting, a more complex script and a reason to watch it in the first place.
*I am so happy that Drummond and Van Stahl became buddies and looked on each other as comrades. This does seem ludicrous, however, in light of 17,000,000 dead.
Then the film begins, it's World War I and Hugh Drummond (Rod La Rocque) is a devil-may-care pilot. During one engagement with the infamous German ace, Van Stahl, one ends up saving the life of the other through some stupid sense of chivalry*. The war ends and Hugh has trouble establishing himself and makes a few bucks working for films doing stunt flying. He then meets a nice young lady who is also down on her luck. To win her, the audience things Drummond has resorted to a life of crime (the summary on IMDb is wrong about this by the way) and in the process meets his old nemesis Van Stahl--who really IS a crook. Drummond decides to help him straighten up his act and the film ends.
This is a very inconsequential film and the plot never makes much sense. It could have used more acting, a more complex script and a reason to watch it in the first place.
*I am so happy that Drummond and Van Stahl became buddies and looked on each other as comrades. This does seem ludicrous, however, in light of 17,000,000 dead.
Rod LaRocque -- Gentleman, Cabaret Dancer, War Hero, and Maybe a Thief
alonzoiii-120 February 2015
Rod LaRocque, known as CAPTAIN SWAGGER, to his friends in society, has finally gone broke 10 years after his heroism in the Great War? Will he be able to keep up his appearances as a gentleman in New York's smart set if he embarks on a career of armed robbery?
This lightweight bit of fluff just misses being an excellent comedy, and is a worthy forbear to those thirties movies where rich people with immaculate tuxedos, and no visible means of support, wander around drinking, trading wisecracks, and finding the perfect girl. The problem is, as with a lot of the 30s movies like this one, is that there just is no visible chemistry between the leads, or any semblance of reality about the goings on. Too bad, because LaRocque is as good as I have seen him in the films, showing a charm and grace of movement that comes close to suggesting a silent Fred Astaire. (He dances rather well in a sequence that probably had a soundtrack once upon a time, but does not now). If you just want a sample, the beginning of the film, happening in a WWI fantasy-land that is just so Hollywood, shows LaRocque playing straight comedy, and Ronald Coleman like daring-do that seems very far removed from the grim trench warfare usually seen in WWI movies.
After we get away from the War, we get a blah love plot, and decent comedy around our hero's less than brilliant scheme to commit robbery. As is typical, the better moments occur when the somewhat lame plot does not intrude.
All in all, worth a watch if you would like to see what a silent Astaire/Rogers movie might have looked like. For those who notice that the character's name is "Hugo Drummond", you will be disappointed. This is not a typical Bulldog Drummond adventure, though I believe this may have come from a plot by "Sapper".
This lightweight bit of fluff just misses being an excellent comedy, and is a worthy forbear to those thirties movies where rich people with immaculate tuxedos, and no visible means of support, wander around drinking, trading wisecracks, and finding the perfect girl. The problem is, as with a lot of the 30s movies like this one, is that there just is no visible chemistry between the leads, or any semblance of reality about the goings on. Too bad, because LaRocque is as good as I have seen him in the films, showing a charm and grace of movement that comes close to suggesting a silent Fred Astaire. (He dances rather well in a sequence that probably had a soundtrack once upon a time, but does not now). If you just want a sample, the beginning of the film, happening in a WWI fantasy-land that is just so Hollywood, shows LaRocque playing straight comedy, and Ronald Coleman like daring-do that seems very far removed from the grim trench warfare usually seen in WWI movies.
After we get away from the War, we get a blah love plot, and decent comedy around our hero's less than brilliant scheme to commit robbery. As is typical, the better moments occur when the somewhat lame plot does not intrude.
All in all, worth a watch if you would like to see what a silent Astaire/Rogers movie might have looked like. For those who notice that the character's name is "Hugo Drummond", you will be disappointed. This is not a typical Bulldog Drummond adventure, though I believe this may have come from a plot by "Sapper".
Find it to complete the set
Byrdz18 November 2021
Silent and totally unlike the talkie BDs. After WWI, Hugh is a playboy who spends over his means, meets a flapper who is also poor for now, tries to be a top hatted highwayman and then performs as a Russian cabaret dancer.
He has no mystery to solve and, thankfully, no annoying sidekick Algy.
The copy I saw was incredibly blurry but worth finding and watching.
He has no mystery to solve and, thankfully, no annoying sidekick Algy.
The copy I saw was incredibly blurry but worth finding and watching.
a US Bulldog
kekseksa14 October 2016
Sapper (H. C. McNeile) published Bulldog-Drummond, first in the series of novels about the clubland hero, in 1920. It was adapted for the stage in London in 1921 and, by this time, there had already been two British films made - Bulldog Drummond (1922) by the company Hollandia, one of several British-Dutch co-productions at this time (see for instance the 1920 Fate's Plaything and the 1921 Circus Jim)but probably lost and Bulldog Drummond's Third Round (based on Sapper's second novel in the series), again probably a lost film.
This is the first US attempt at a "Bulldog Drummond" film, Americanised so that Drummond is now a New York dandy rather than a London clubman and is not I think strictly based on any of the Sapper novels.
As well as clubland hero, Drummond is also the quintessential "postwar" hero in the sense that he is the typical upper-class chap who finds himself at a loose end once the First World War was over. This notion of postwar "ennui" features continually in British popular literature between the wars and is peculiarly British. The French and the Germans had both suffered too greatly to feel nostalgic about the war; the British had suffered significantly but also significantly less.
Drummond is a typical postwar hero too in that he is relatively impoverished, reflecting the fact that the depression that followed the war war brought a marked decline in the wealth of the British upper and upper-middle classes.
None of this makes quite so much sense in a US context, where the involvement in the war had been considerably less profound, its social effects negligible and and where the postwar economic effects had largely been beneficial until the European economic depression began to react back on the US economy at the very end of the twenties.
This film was supposedly a part-talkie but the version I have seen (and possibly the only version that survives) is silent. The definitive film Drummond would be played by British actor Ronald Colman in the full talkie Bulldog Drummond of 1929.
This is the first US attempt at a "Bulldog Drummond" film, Americanised so that Drummond is now a New York dandy rather than a London clubman and is not I think strictly based on any of the Sapper novels.
As well as clubland hero, Drummond is also the quintessential "postwar" hero in the sense that he is the typical upper-class chap who finds himself at a loose end once the First World War was over. This notion of postwar "ennui" features continually in British popular literature between the wars and is peculiarly British. The French and the Germans had both suffered too greatly to feel nostalgic about the war; the British had suffered significantly but also significantly less.
Drummond is a typical postwar hero too in that he is relatively impoverished, reflecting the fact that the depression that followed the war war brought a marked decline in the wealth of the British upper and upper-middle classes.
None of this makes quite so much sense in a US context, where the involvement in the war had been considerably less profound, its social effects negligible and and where the postwar economic effects had largely been beneficial until the European economic depression began to react back on the US economy at the very end of the twenties.
This film was supposedly a part-talkie but the version I have seen (and possibly the only version that survives) is silent. The definitive film Drummond would be played by British actor Ronald Colman in the full talkie Bulldog Drummond of 1929.
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