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The Bulldog Breed
Norman Puckle, a well-meaning but clumsy grocer's assistant, can't seem to do anything right. After being rejected by Marlene, the love of his life, he attempts suicide, but can't even do that. He is saved from jumping off a cliff at 'Lover's Leap' by a Royal Navy petty officer. He persuades Puckle to join the Royal Navy, where he'll meet 'lots of girls'. Life in the Navy proves not to be as rosy as it's been described, and Puckle fails at every task during basic training. But despite this, he's regarded by the Admiral in charge of a rocket project to be a 'typical average British sailor', and chosen to be the first man to fly into outer space in an experimental rocket.
Release : | 1960 |
Rating : | 6.1 |
Studio : | The Rank Organisation, |
Crew : | Cinematography, Director, |
Cast : | Norman Wisdom Ian Hunter David Lodge John Le Mesurier Terence Alexander |
Genre : | Comedy |
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Reviews
Simply Perfect
A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.
Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
I think the talent of Norman Wisdom has it's own unique quality.There is only one Norman Wisdom and that is what some believe is a disadvantage because he seems to play the same character in all his films, to others this is good and of great entertainment.Have been watching his films since I was a child up to present day, they never fail to make me laugh, no matter how many times I see them.There seems to be a split amongst some about the talents & films of Norman Wisdom, they either hate him or love him. Personally I love him.Our Norman is in his 90s now. I wish him continued long life and long may be reign.FromChiang Mai, Thailand
I didn't think much of THE BULLDOG BREED simply because I don't think much of Norman Wisdom . When you've seen one of his comedies you've basically seen them all . The jokes are corny and predictable and usually revolve around coincidence and misunderstanding . Suppose to were to throw an anchor off a pier what's the chances of a speed boat passing at the same time ? If you threw an anchor of a pier a thousand times I doubt if you'd hit one single boat passing , same as if you threw rubbish overboard from a ship whats the chances that your commanding officer would be berthed alongside ? Yeah I know you're not supposed to think about it but the comedy stretches credibility and shows itself to be unsophisticated There is another problem this movie and that is that it doesn't have a cohesive plot . Think about it , by an unlikely series of events Norman joins the navy but then the location switches to a climbing expedition then later on the story revolves around a journey in to outer space . It's as if the writers had several under developed ideas for a story then not knowing what to do with them tried to piece them together which gives the movie a very episodic feel Despite these criticisms THE BULLDOG BREED remains one of Wisdom's most watchable movies simply because it features so many well known faces from television such as a couple of long running cast members from CORONATION STREET not to mention a couple of uncredited appearances from future film stars Oliver Reed and Michael Caine
Norman Wisdom is- in all of his films- very human. The puppy-dog eagerness, willingness to do anything set before him, ability to make a mistake and then go on to make it worse- are, of course, the very stuff of the comic character that he sets up for us to laugh at. But his genius lies in the ability to make us identify with him, to 'live the life' with him, even as we guffaw.In the Bulldog Breed there are stock characters aplenty, and the players act their roles accordingly, but Wisdom- like a wicked imp- seems to dodge and dart round the convention & hierarchy that still- in 1960- characterized much of the English way of doing things. He is like the benign counterpart of a poltergeist: causing disruption, certainly, but not as an alien or supernatural incursion, rather a human intervention into a stiff and inhuman environment. The sequence in which he gets a whole ship's crew into the water is an excellent example of this.One thing that often goes unremarked in Wisdom's films is the sexual presence there. There is almost always some lubricious lovely in the line-up and, in this case, Wisdom (after some other amorous adventures) ends up on the beach with a girl in a grass skirt, being told to 'carry on'. By contemporary standards what is there is so laughably little that it seems distinctly odd to regard it as 'sex interest' but, in historical context, it is definitely that, and as much a part of the humour as 'dirty postcards' were a part of the English seaside holiday of the time.Bear in mind, by the way, that in the years running up to the first moon-landing, this film is also a comment on Britain's presence in space!
As time passes, the warmth and innocence of Norman Wisdom films becomes a rarer and rarer treat. This is one of his best and includes all of the trade-mark ingredients. The scene where Norman throws the whole crew of a Navy frigate overboard is priceless and the reaction of the supporting cast to Norman throughout the film is as worth watching as the man himself. If you like the predictable, honest and gentle humour of the black and white Ealing era then this is one of the best.