Operation Bullshine

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.