MOVIE REVIEW : ‘BULLSHOT’ CRUMMOND HITS COMEDIC BULL’S-EYE

From the ‘20s through the ‘60s no fewer than 13 actors, including Ronald Colman and Ralph Richardson, played Bulldog Drummond, that dashing amateur sleuth, World War I flying ace and Britain’s most-decorated hero.

Just the sort of fellow ripe for a sendup, Drummond in 1974 got his in the stage hit “Bullshot Crummond,” created by the Low Moan Spectacular comedy troupe, fresh from international success with its “El Grande de Coca Cola” revue. Now “Bullshot” (opening at the Cineplex Friday) has come to the screen, in hilarious fashion.

So through and through is Bullshot (Alan Shearman) a British gentleman that in World War I aerial combat with Count Otto von Bruno (Ron House), he refuses to shoot down the count when Von Bruno’s machine gun jams. A decade later Bullshot has cause to regret so excessive a gesture of fair play.

Accompanied by his slinky wife (Frances Tomelty), who’s given to wearing a Venus flytrap as a corsage, Von Bruno arrives in Britain (“that insignificant rock off the German coast”) to kidnap a famous scientist (Michael Aldridge) in an attempt to secure his secret formula for a synthetic fuel. Who can his distraught, klutzy daughter Rosemary (Diz White) turn to for help but the incomparable Bullshot? (However, before he can keep his lunch engagement with her, Bullshot must first win the big race at the Henley Regatta all by himself.) Like “A Private Function,” “Bullshot” was produced by Denis O’Brien and George Harrison’s HandMade Films. Spoof rather than the satire “A Private Function” is, “Bullshot” is very broad, very silly and often very funny. It would be stretching the truth to say it inspires nonstop laughter, but the jokes and gags pay off often enough to make it warmly welcome at a time when screen humor with any pretense to sophistication is scarce indeed.

Characters don’t come more obtuse than Bullshot, who’s so totally innocent in his smug, ultrachauvinist superiority that he’s endearing. The same can be said for Rosemary, whose one accomplishment in life seems to be in baking the world’s hardest scones. These two are obviously made for each other, but romance must wait till the Von Brunos are defeated. When Rosemary admits she’s afraid for him, Bullshot replies, “I say, old girl, I don’t know the meaning of the word.”

So thoroughly cinematic is the adaptation of “Bullshot Crummond” to the screen by Shearman, White and House (who constitute Low Moan Spectacular) that if you didn’t know, you’d probably never suspect the film came from a play. Directed by Dick Clement at a properly fast clip, it strikes a happy balance between physical and verbal comedy. As a period piece, it’s as rich in grand vintage settings and costumes as “Chariots of Fire” (in one sequence, Bullshot wears a wonderfully loud Argyle plaid pullover and matching socks with his knickers). “Bullshot” (rated PG for some sexual innuendo) also may boast more antique autos than any British film since “Genevieve.”

Shearman, White and House, like everyone else here, are so right for the parts they’ve created for themselves. The clean-cut Shearman has an old-fashioned hero’s square jaw, but he’s a bit on the short side for his derring-do to seem dashing rather than comical.

After all, it’s hard to resist a comedy in which the hero, in discussing a criminal’s disguise, says dismissively, “Why, it’s the oldest trick in the world, wearing real hair.”