Bullshot (1985)

Very well executed

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

This was the twenty-fifth and final Bulldog Drummond film, a spoof, with actor Alan Shearman playing 'Captain Bullshot Crummond'. It is not funny. Dick Clement was not a good director. Early in his career, he took a fascinating stage play by Iris Murdoch and J. B. Priestley, 'A Severed Head' (which was mesmerising in the theatre, where I saw it at the Criterion in London), and made one of the worst films in British history of it (1970). This is very much a 'let's all get together and make a spoof on Bulldog Drummond' venture, as the three lead actors, Shearman, Diz White, and Ronald House, all wrote the script. They must have been in fits of laughter cooking up all those gags, really clever. But spoofs are not as easy to make as you think, and this was just a total flop. A really clever director might have pulled it off, who knows. It falls into the category of 'totally cringe-making'. The only person (apart from Mel Smith, of whom we get a glimpse now and then) in the film who is any good is my old friend of yesteryear, the late Bryan Pringle, as a waiter. Bryan was always good. You couldn't put him down. I am frankly amazed that several other viewers have been thrilled and delighted at this film, believing it to be hilarious and indeed wonderful. There's no accounting for taste, especially in comedy. (Some of the 'comedy' on television is so appalling I wouldn't dirty my eye-sockets with it, if that isn't too complicated a metaphor.) However, I do not wish to malign those joyous souls who loved this film. I just wish to say it stinks!

This film was shown on U.K. television way back in the late 1980's or early 1990's in the early hour's of the morning.I do not know why? because it is one of the best British comedy film's ever made!.Only grave robber's,vampire's and insomniac's like myself got a chance to see this fine British gem.It has a wealth of top notch comedy and acting talent.Talent from Alan Shearman,Diz White,Ron House,Frances Tomelty,Michael Aldridge,Billy Connolly,Mel Smith to long gone dear old Ted Malt.This film deserves better treatment from the British media executive's and should be given more credit and than what it as ever had.A fine Film from a fine company Handmade Films and thank you always's to George Harrison .

'Bullshot' was one of several productions from Hand Made Films, created originally by George Harrison and Denis O'Brien to make 'Monty Python's Life Of Brian' ( 1979 ). There is nothing Pythonesque about this romp however. It has more in common with Michael Palin and Terry Jones' 'Ripping Yarns' television series, in particular 'Whinfrey's Last Case'. Sapper and Gerald Fairlie's dashing hero 'Hugh Drummond' ( known to all and sundry as 'Bulldog' ) was just ripe for sending up. The resulting film, based on a stage play, compares favourably with those wild, wacky American spoofs 'Airplane!' and 'Blazing Saddles'. Professor Rupert Fenton ( the late Michael Aldridge ) lives in the country with his unmarried daughter Rosemary ( Diz White ), who cannot say her 'r''s properly. When he is kidnapped by the German villain 'Otto Von Bruno' ( Ron House ), she calls on England's greatest hero - Captain Hugh 'Bullshot' Crummond ( Alan Shearman ). Von Bruno wants the secret half of the formula Fenton devised - it is in the locket Rosemary wears round her neck. While they plan to get it, Crummond has to suspend his investigations because of a prior commitment - he is due to take part in the London to Brighton car rally... Shearman, who bears a striking resemblance to Stanley Baxter, cuts a dash as Crummond, all stiff upper lip, slicked back hair, and plus fours. Instead of depicting him as a buffoon, the writers went to the other extreme by making him impossibly brilliant at everything he does. He can work out complicated mathematical equations in the blink of an eye, and wins the boat race at the Henley Regatta all on his own! Despite his tendency to indulge in stirring patriotic speeches, he contrives to be a bigger fascist than his arch-enemy. Global warfare is his answer to the world's ills. Every one of the men who served under him in The Great War is now either dead, crippled or destitute. Witness his stance on feminism; "This country would be in a right mess if they made a woman Prime Minister!. White is delightful as 'Rosemary', with Ron House looks suitably villainous as the bald, monocled 'Von Bruno'. This is terrific fun, the post-W.W.1 flavour is nicely caught by director Dick Clement, and the cast throw themselves into the thing with gusto, particularly Shearman, White and House ( who also wrote it ). Frances Tomelty ( Sting's ex-wife ) is stunningly sexy as the seductive Lenya, while Mel Smith, Billy Connolly and Nicholas Lyndhurst crop up in smaller roles. Much of the humour is 'end of the pier', such as the unseemly bulge in Crummond's underwear, and the Fokker reference, but the film's no more smutty than your average 'Carry On'. Better than most of them in fact. The film surprisingly opened to a critical drubbing and none too impressive box office grosses. Since then, it has grown in popularity. Deserves a major critical reevaluation. Oh and John Du Prez's music's fabulous too. Toodle pip!

One of the silliest films I've seen. It captures everything that separates British humour from the rest of the world. Captain Crummond is portrayed as an accidental hero, who wins through despite all of his failings. It is well directed. I particularly like the use of quirky English locations.