Theatre / Bullshot Crummond

Bullshot Crummond is a 1974 play which parodied 1930s British heroes like Bulldog Drummond and Biggles. The play was written by Ronald E. House, Diz White, John Neville-Andrews, Alan Shearman, and Derek Cunningham — who also took roles in the theatre production. The characters they played are:

• Rosemary Fenton: The Ingenue, The Ditz, a Damsel in Distress who seeks the aid of...
• Captain Hugh "Bullshot" Crummond: The Cape, Ace Pilot, Comedic Hero, Destructive Saviour, and Arch-Enemy of...
• Count Otto von Bruno, the Second Most Dangerous Man in Europe: a Notorious Hun and Master of Disguise; who along with the evil...
• Fraulein Lenya: a Femme Fatale, carry out the dastardly kidnapping of...
• Professor Rupert Fenton: an Absent-Minded Professor, and the Narrator of this Two Fisted Tale of adventure and intrigue!

Adapted for film as Bullshot in 1983. A production of the stage version appeared on television in 1979 under the Broadway on Showtime banner. And a sequel play has been written and performed, Bullshot Crummond & The Invisible Bride of Death.

The play homages and spoofs numerous tropes of the genre, including:

• Cliffhanger: The end of Act One. "Does this mean the end of Captain Crummond?"
• Comedic Hero: Bullshot.
• Contrived Coincidence: Parodied mercilessly.
• Deathtrap: Bullshot escapes from several 'inescapable' deathtraps via a combination of outrageous luck, arcane knowledge, and all-round awesomeness.
• The Ditz: Rosemary.
• Double Entendre: Plenty of 'em.
• Evil Laugh
• Genteel Interbellum Setting
• Good Guns, Bad Guns
  Otto: "Not zo fast -- zis is a Luger!"
  Professor Fenton: "That means you're Hun! You're both Huns!"
• Homoerotic Subtext: Between Bullshot and Algy.
• Incredibly Obvious Bug
• MacGuffin: Professor Fenton's formula for synthetic diamonds, to be used to ruin the world's economy.
• One Head Taller: Inverted as the playscript specifically recommends that the actress playing Rosemary be taller than Bullshot.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Restaurant Waiter (on seeing Bullshot dressed as a pipe-smoking Arab): "May I hang your disguise in the cloakroom, sir?"
• Poisoned Chalice Switcheroo: Bullshot suggests one last drink before Count Otto von Bruno kills him off, and slips knockout pills into his glass. First he hides the doped glass and holds out the other to Otto, knowing he'll insist on swapping. Otto takes a sip and spits it out, then suggests they drink "Eastern European fashion" so Bullshot gets the doped glass. Both end up keeling over.
• Red Right Hand: Marovitch has a hunchback, a patch over one eye, a large scar and walks with a limp.
• Sequential Symptom Syndrome: After a Poisoned Chalice Switcheroo, Bullshot lists the effects of the knockout drug he's slipped into Count Otto von Bruno's drink.
  Bullshot: You want to curse me, von Bruno, you can curse me now, for I have slipped you a deuced large Mickey Finn. You will shortly feel the effects. To begin with a crippling pain in your stomach. Followed by slurred speeshhhh (Bullshot breaks off into incoherence and keels over unconscious)
• Special Effect Failure (In-Universe): A Running Gag is the play's over-ambitious effects including an airplane crash, a car chase (with both chaser and chased using the same prop car), a fake pet falcon, a fight where the actor playing Bullshot is substituted for a dummy, and a scene where Otto 'mimics' Professor Fenton's voice (by lip-syncing it while the Professor's mouth is covered).
• Sword Fight: Otto pretends to be an amateur, and Bullshot is too thick to notice he's hopelessly outclassed.
• Telegraph Gag STOP: When Bullshot dictates a message to Rosemary: "Car stopped, stop. Won't start, stop. Can't stop, stop."
• Truth Serums: Cranium Stimulus X.
• Upper-Class Twit: Crummond's friend Algy (a Shout-Out to Biggles' friend of the same name).
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Bullshot suffers from vertigo; the ever-screaming Rosemary remains calm.