| The Bulldog Breed | |
|---|---|
 UK Quad poster | |
| Directed by | Robert Asher |
| Written by | Henry Blyth Jack Davies Norman Wisdom |
| Produced by | Hugh Stewart |
| Starring | Norman Wisdom |
| Cinematography | Jack Asher |
| Edited by | Gerry Hambling |
| Music by | Philip Green |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Rank Film Distributors |
Release date |
|
Running time | 97 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
The Bulldog Breed is a 1960 British comedy film directed by Robert Asher and starring Norman Wisdom. [1]
Norman Puckle, a well-meaning but clumsy grocer's assistant, cannot seem to do anything right. After being rejected by Marlene, the love of his life, he attempts suicide, but cannot 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 will meet "lots of girls".
Life in the Navy proves not to be as rosy as described, and Puckle fails at every task during basic training. Despite this, he is 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.
Puckle fails at every stage of his training and is court-martialed, but successfully pleads for a final chance to prove himself. By accident, he takes the place of an astronaut and leaves Earth in the rocket. Equally by accident, he manages to return. He crash-lands on a Pacific island and ends up in the arms of a compliant local maiden.
The film features early appearances by Michael Caine and Oliver Reed.
Coronation Street actors Johnny Briggs and William Roache also had small roles.
The film was made with co-operation from the Royal Navy, and features several of the Type 14 Blackwood-class frigates. An early scene shows a flotilla of these sailing out of Portland harbour, led by HMS Murray (F91).
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "A naval farce which ought never to have put to sea. The best scene finds Norman Wisdom imprisoned in an over-inflated diving-suit. It is also, perhaps, the only genuinely funny scene." [2]
Variety wrote, "the film stands or falls by Wisdom and though the actor, as always, seems to be trying rather too hard, his general good humour and energy carry him through the various situations entertainingly ... Wisdom is surrounded by some very capable performers, notably Ian Hunter as the pompous admiral and Edward Chapman as an even more pompous character." [3]
The film was a hit at the box office. [4]
The Caine Mutiny is a 1954 American military trial film directed by Edward Dmytryk, produced by Stanley Kramer, and starring Humphrey Bogart, José Ferrer, Van Johnson, Robert Francis, and Fred MacMurray. It is based on Herman Wouk's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1951 novel of the same name.
Sir Norman Joseph Wisdom, was an English actor, comedian, musician and singer best known for a series of comedy films produced between 1953 and 1966 featuring a hapless character called Norman Pitkin. He was awarded the 1953 BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles following the release of Trouble in Store, his first film in a lead role.
The Battle of the River Plate is a 1956 British war film in Technicolor and VistaVision by the writer-director-producer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. The film stars John Gregson, Anthony Quayle, Bernard Lee and Peter Finch. It was distributed worldwide by Rank Film Distributors Ltd.
Hell Divers is a 1932 American pre-Code black-and-white film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer starring Wallace Beery and Clark Gable as a pair of competing chief petty officers in early naval aviation. The film, made with the cooperation of the United States Navy, features considerable footage of flight operations aboard the Navy's second aircraft carrier, the USS Saratoga, including dramatic shots of takeoffs and landings filmed from the Curtiss F8C-4 Helldiver dive bombers after which the movie was named.
Sink the Bismarck! is a 1960 black-and-white CinemaScope British war film based on the 1959 book The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck by C. S. Forester. It stars Kenneth More and Dana Wynter and was directed by Lewis Gilbert. To date, it is the only film made that deals directly with the operations, chase and sinking of the battleship Bismarck by the Royal Navy during the Second World War. Although war films were common in the 1960s, Sink the Bismarck! was seen as something of an anomaly, with much of its time devoted to the "unsung back-room planners as much as on the combatants themselves". Its historical accuracy, in particular, met with much praise despite a number of inconsistencies.
Graham William Stark was an English comedian, actor, writer and director.
The Cruel Sea is a 1953 British war film based on the novel of the same title by Nicholas Monsarrat. The film starred Jack Hawkins, Donald Sinden, Denholm Elliott, Stanley Baker, Liam Redmond, Virginia McKenna and Moira Lister. The movie was made by Ealing Studios seven years after the end of the Second World War, and was directed by Charles Frend and produced by Leslie Norman.
John Ernest Briggs was an English actor. He was known for his role as Mike Baldwin in the soap opera Coronation Street, in which he appeared from 1976 to 2006.
Herbert Anderson was an American character actor from Oakland, California, probably best remembered for his role as Henry Mitchell, the father, on the CBS television sitcom Dennis the Menace.
Edward Chapman was an English actor who starred in many films and television programmes, but is chiefly remembered as "Mr. William Grimsdale", the officious superior and comic foil to Norman Wisdom's character of Pitkin in many of his films from the late 1950s and 1960s.
Ronald Jack Pennick was an American film actor. After working as a gold miner as a young man, serving as a U.S. Marine, he would go on to appear in more than 140 films between 1926 and 1962. Pennick was a leading member to in the informal John Ford Stock Company, appearing in dozens of the director's films. Pennick also drilled the military extras in John Wayne's The Alamo (1960).
William Haade was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 250 films between 1937 and 1957. He was born in New York City and died in Los Angeles, California.
Destroyer is a 1943 American war film directed by William A. Seiter and starring Edward G. Robinson.
Watch Your Stern is a 1960 British comedy film directed by Gerald Thomas and starring Kenneth Connor, Eric Barker and Leslie Phillips. It was based on the play Something About a Sailor by Earle Couttie.
We Joined the Navy is a 1962 British comedy film directed by Wendy Toye and starring Kenneth More, Lloyd Nolan, Joan O'Brien, Derek Fowlds, Graham Crowden, Esma Cannon and John Le Mesurier. Produced by Daniel M. Angel, it was based on the 1959 novel of the same name by John Winton, a former Royal Navy lieutenant commander.
Anthony Sagar was an English character actor and a member of the National Theatre. He was prolific screen performer and appeared in many films and television series including the 1959 adaptation of The Moonstone, Steptoe and Son, The Avengers and Dad's Army.
Sailor Beware! is a 1956 British comedy film directed by Gordon Parry and starring Peggy Mount, Shirley Eaton and Ronald Lewis. It was released in the United States by Distributors Corporation of America in 1957 as Panic in the Parlor.
A Stitch in Time is a 1963 comedy film directed by Robert Asher and starring Norman Wisom, Edward Chapman, Jeanette Sterke andJerry Desmonde. It was produced by Hugh Stewart and Earl St. John. The film is set in a children's hospital and features an early role for Johnny Briggs.
Sailors Three is a 1940 British war comedy film directed by Walter Forde and starring Tommy Trinder, Claude Hulbert and Carla Lehmann. This was cockney music hall comedian Trinder's debut for Ealing, the studio with which he was to become most closely associated. It concerns three British sailors who accidentally find themselves aboard a German ship during the Second World War.
William Patrick Roache is an English actor, best known for playing Ken Barlow in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street. Roache is the longest-serving cast member in Coronation Street having appeared in the show continuously since its very first broadcast on 9 December 1960. He is listed in the Guinness World Records as the longest-serving television star in a continuous role.
