JIM KELSALL Alan Shearman was brilliant as the dashing Bullshot Crummond (with apologies to Bulldog Drummond) the all-round sportsman and know-it-all! The usual 'true Britisher' saving the earth from world dominating foreign types! The writing team was of three people Ron House, Diz White and Alan Shearman. I can't say that I have ever heard of the first two people, but Alan Shearman was in a TV comedy called 'Mog' with En Reitel, another very funny chap.Ron Pember and Mel Smith are in supporting roles, clearly before Mel Smith went to the US to live and work; as did Alan Shearman, which is a pity really, as I thought that he had a lot to give in Britain. Perhaps the roles didn't come his way, so he decided to 'up and off' to the land of plenty!

bertwap 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 .

ShadeGrenade '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!

cyclonev Very much along the lines of Ripping Yarns, so essential viewing if that's your kind of thing. The cast by itself should give you a fair idea of whether you'll like it. Unashamedly "dated"; I never find that term valid as criticism - surely any film/programme that so strongly represented its era that morons have to call it "dated" isn't necessarily a bad thing? Don't be disturbed by the moronic female lead - the actor playing her co-wrote the script and, remember, it is satire!Ra ra ra!!