Displaying items by tag: Ronald Shiner

OPERATION BULLSHINE

UK, 1959, 84 minutes, Colour.

Donald Sinden, Barbara Murray, Carole Leslie, Ronald Shiner, Naunton Wayne, Dora Bryan, John Cairney, Fabia Drake, Joan Rice, Daniel Massey, Barbara Hicks..

Directed by Gilbert Gunn.

Watching this British comedy in the late 1950s, emerging in the same time as the Carry on series, including Carry on Sergeant in a similar vein, it is surprising to see how sexist this film is. Most of the man are ogling and drooling over the women. There are implications that women shouldn’t be involved in Army training manoeuvres. And there are all kinds of sex-farce complications about marriage and affairs.

One notices that many bloggers refer to the film as “witless”, as regards its themes and as regards the type of farce comedy on display. (The theme song throughout the film is Girls in Arms. Girls at Sea was released the year before, both films directed by Gilbert Gunn.

There are some surprises in the cast, especially Donald Sinden, a popular leading man of the 1950s as well as comedian, Naunton Wayne, best known for his comedy routines with Basil Dearden, especially 20 years earlier in The Lady Vanishes. There were comedians of the time like Ronald Shiner who appeared in both films as did Fabia Drake and Daniel Massey, Massey at the beginning of his career. The main member of the cast who gets into the spirit of things and gets away with a lot of the comedy as well as vigorous dancing is Dora Bryan.

While the film be seen as indicative of British comedy of the 1950s – and its themes developing during the 1960s with greater permissiveness, it does not offer a great deal of entertainment value.