Re: Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back

On 17/06/2025 05:07, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:

In article <gmj15k9flfpblsan654v8geukcno0eumo8@4ax.com>,
Joy Beeson  <jbeeson@invalid.net.invalid> wrote:

>
Sunday, 15 June 2025
>
At times I think I may have read this book as a teenager.
>
The decision to go to Farthington instead of telephoning was
all doylist, with no watsonian explanation.  Also, a
concussion that keeps one (or two) out of action for days is
not as trivial as I expect it to turn out to be.
>
Monday, 16 June 2025
>
Mr. McNeil goes out of his way to portray Bulldog as not too
swift in the head, but you'd think that at least one of the
gang would suspect that "died in agony" would cast some
slight doubt on the suicide theory.
>
And yes, Bulldog woke up, leaped out of bed, and beat up six
goons.
>
But he did portray, in the coda, the two concussed patients
convalescing in bath chairs.
>
--

 I'm a little confused.  Are you talking about the 1934 film?
I don't see a McNeil book by that title.

I've got <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulldog_Drummond_Strikes_Back_%281947_film%29>
(1947) said to be "loosely based on the
H. C. McNeile ['Sapper'] novel _Knock-Out_" (1932).
Appropriate title.
Each work has a "stub" Wikipedia article, i.e.
not comprehensive.  For instance, no plot
information is included.  But there are
external links.
I speculate that _Knock-Out_ has an American
book edition with the other title, either around
1932 or 1947 or in-between.
I might be pressed to reproduce remarks in
Dorothy L. Sayers's _Murder Must Advertise_ (1933)
- if I've actually got a copy - about the robust
constitution of thriller heroes, specifically
Sexton Blake - Sayers had enjoyed Blake's
adventures much earlier, and there are reports
that her detective Lord Peter Wimsey first
occurred in a Sexton Blake story that she wrote
by and possibly for herself.  I don't think this
is canon.  In _Murder Must Advertise_,
Lord Peter recruits an assistant who also is
a Blake fan, and who lends Lord Peter one of
these thrilling novels.