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!
Review of Bullshot Crummond
