Operation Bullshine

As a massive fan of 50s & 60s British films, I love this one. Clearly directed by a man & stereotypical but, hey, it was 1959. A simple humorous easy-to-watch film. In colour too !

This witless army farce was presumably shot under the title 'Girls in Arms' (since that's the name of the song bellowed under the opening and closing credits), before they decided it needed something more sophisticated. It also requires a fluffier leading lady than Barbara Murray.

Embellished with Technicolor (which makes the film look less cheap and provides the novelty of seeing Ronald Shiner & Naunton Wayne in colour) and set in wartime; but - apart from a few wartime posters and a gag involving a downed German airman - otherwise making absolutely no attempt to be in period.

If the leering emphasis on young ladies in their scanties hasn't already offended enough people, there's also the 'hilarious' presence of a troop member with a speech impediment!

For its time (1959, film censorship was still quite strong), "Operation Bullshine" is a fairly piquant comedy; it certainly anticipates the bolder sex farces of the 1960s, and even contains some discreet almost-nudity. The Technicolor cinematography is colorful, and the new Region 2 DVD transfer is quite pleasing to the eye. Unfortunately, the film does not have enough big laughs; only a sequence near the end, where all the men and women of the unit must prepare in record time for an upcoming inspection, has a real comic rhythm. There is not much story, either; the film is basically a series of episodes. Painless but not very memorable. ** out of 4.

The soundtrack blares out 'Girls in Arms' and you suspect this was the original title of the film, from the same people who'd made the nautical farce GIRLS AT SEA shortly before. Certainly 'Operation Bull' is only an incident toward the end of the picture.

Naunton Wayne is the exasperated Major Pym, in charge of a World War Two anti-aircraft unit with women in the majority. They can get little right, with some competing for the affections of ladies' man Lieutenant Brown - Donald Sinden in the days before he acquired that extraordinary accent. When his wife Betty - the adorable Barbara Murray - is somehow posted to the unit, mistaken identities, misunderstandings and compromising situations are the inevitable result.

This is a likable mixture of farce and time-honoured comical army routines. Dora Bryan loses her skirt on parade, while Peter Jones is a weapons enthusiast with an unintelligible Stanley Unwin-type patter. Some years later, Jones also featured in the crude and mirthless CARRY ON ENGLAND, which had a similar theme and identical ending. Best moments though are the scenes between Brown and Betty, their relationship complicated by man-hungry Carole Lesley.

The title of this review should clearly state my overall opinion of this film.

Within the first 5 minutes: the inaccuracies, blatant sexual bias and pure lack of respect for the women who served in the armed forces during WW2 was astounding.

As the male population decreased through injury or death - a new shield had to come to the fore.

Women worked in factories - clothes factories, weapons factories and munitions factories, raised much need funds, worked as farm hands for little or no pay, as labourers and fore(men) on road and rail projects, as nurses, as doctors and a whole myriad of other positions - formerly the sole purview of men - with all the inherent dangers but with so much less recognition.

Factories of any kind were targets for bombing - as were rail yards and most transport infrastructure. Munitions factories were not only a target - but the handling of highly volatile and unstable explosives could and did lead to catastrophic accidents.

This portrayal of women as mere 'decoration' is little short of a slap to the face, to those women who served this country in its time of deepest need - despite its last 5 minute "we're all together in this" ending.

Many would say that I'm over-reacting and that this film is "of it's time" - a puerile phrase that means nothing - but consider this... my mother has been deaf from age 16, the result of an explosion in the munitions factory she worked in and which also killed both her sisters.