Operation Bullshine (1959) Poster

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7/10
Aimiable Army Comedy
wilvram17 July 2014
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.
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5/10
Mildly piquant, mildly funny
gridoon20247 December 2014
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.
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6/10
Love it
deryckhigh7 January 2020
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 !
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6/10
Girls In Arms.
morrison-dylan-fan25 March 2016
Warning: Spoilers
For Easter I started looking round for easy-going movies to view over the holidays,and I remember a fun War Comedy that I've been meaning to watch again for a while,which led to me getting ready to see the girls go on parade.

The plot:

Working on an all-women ATS unit, Lt. Gordon Brown (not the future Prime Minister!) keeps the fact that he is married secret,so that he can join Major Pym in chasing after the soldiers affections.During a training session, Gordon Brown discovers that his wife Pvt. Betty Brown has moved to the unit,which leads to Gordon having to battle the enemy,and battle to stop Betty meeting his lover.

View on the film:

For one of the biggest hits at the UK box office in 1959,Network aim for approval from the top brass,with the clear audio being joined by a clean transfer which brings out the shine of the military green.

Following on the war path of the surprise success of Carry on Sergeant from the previous year,the screenplay by co-writer/(along with Anne Burnaby & Rupert Lang)director Gilbert Gunn trims most of the raunchy elements for playful,snappy wordplay,as Brown and Betty try to keep their relationship under guard.Joined by a wonderfully brittle Dora Bryan and a jumpy Peter Jones, Donald Sinden and Barbara Murray give very good performances as Gordon and Betty Brown,thanks to Sinden's attempts to be a straight-lace gentlemen solider being undone by the sharp eyes Murray gives Betty,as the women shine in their operation.
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7/10
Don't make them like this anymore
evans-154758 July 2021
Probably more sexist than your average carry on film but if you are over 50 you should be able to enjoy this comedy without counselling.
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5/10
Amiable rather than funny
malcolmgsw19 February 2017
This wartime army comedy was clearly made to cash in on the success of Carry On Sergeant.The clue being in the trailer on the DVD,which uses the words Carry On.Despite being made in colour this seems to have been made on a smaller budget than the Carry Ons.Most of the film is patently studio bound.There is a reasonable cast struggling to get laughs out of a mind and script.The one exception to this is ABPCs answer to Diana For a,Carole Lesley.Sadly she clearly has no talent for comedy and is wearing a fifties glossy hairdo.Her career ended in the sixties and she committed suicide when she was only 38.Dora Bryan shows her how to give a perfect comedy performance.
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5/10
WW2 comedy set in AA Battery - a bit lame
tc_nafsasp26 September 2014
Warning: Spoilers
I found this on DVD in a local charity shop, and purchased it out of interest as had not heard of it before. The cast is perhaps average, although Peter Jones does an excellent turn as a gunner with a speech impediment, Naunton Wayne is barely recognisable, late in his career, and Donald Sinden seems slightly uneasy in his role as the Battery officer who's wife turns up unexpected while he's the target for most of the ATS girls' affections. The similarities to Carry on England are many, although less smutty. Overall, this is a mediocre film, it could have been much better scripted, and the cast has too many holes. I'll keep it, just in case I decide to give it a second viewing, but 5/10 is about as much as I envisage I'll ever score it.
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1/10
An insult to the women who served during WW2 in the UK
notom-2301227 September 2017
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.
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1/10
Now your lawn in the rain instead
chesaroo19 October 2019
From the starting credits of images of women in their underwear I knew this wasn't going to be a homage to the girls who served in WW2. Nearly all the women were shown to be sex crazed man eaters who stopped to apply lipstick when the base was being attacked rather than manning their posts. It is dated and full of cliché after cliché. Give it a miss.
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2/10
Pretty Awful
richardchatten7 January 2020
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!
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3/10
A sexist comedy about women in an ack ack battery
vampire_hounddog6 August 2020
During WWII, women join an ack-ack battery in the countryside and cause discombobulation between the male soldiers.

Despite its decent cast, viewed today this is a very sexist comedy indeed that seems men are merely drooling idiots around women or assume that women are not fit to be in the army and merely a distraction. Add to that sadly the film contains very few laughs.
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