Where the Bullets Fly
| Where the Bullets Fly | |
|---|---|
 Original American film poster | |
| Directed by | John Gilling |
| Produced by | James Ward |
| Screenplay by | Michael Pittock |
| Starring |
Tom Adams Dawn Addams Michael Ripper |
| Music by | Kenny Graham |
| Cinematography | David Holmes |
| Distributed by | Embassy Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 88 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Where the Bullets Fly is a 1966 British comedy spy film directed by John Gilling and starring Tom Adams as Charles Vine and John Arnatt repeating their roles from Licensed to Kill (aka The Second Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World). It also stars Dawn Addams, Tim Barrett and Michael Ripper.[1]
Sid James (as a mortician), Wilfrid Brambell (as a train guard) and Joe Baker (as a new Labour Party Member of Parliament) have comedy cameo appearances.
Plot
The film begins with a pre-credit sequence in which a group of unnamed terrorists have parked a vehicle containing a guided missile pointed straight at the Palace of Westminster whilst politicians are heard on the film's soundtrack. They are thwarted by a group of older women in a tour group who turn out to be cross-dressing commandos who eliminate the terrorists with sub-machine guns and grenades. They are led by Agent Charles Vine with his second-in-command being Lt. Guy Fawkes who has saved the Parliament of England.
The film proper begins with the Royal Air Force testing a secret light-weight metal called "Spurium" [2] that enables nuclear aircraft to fly. An unnamed sinister organisation led by a man named Angel hijacks the DC-3 aircraft by hypnotising the RAF Regiment guards and flying the plane to another location but they are shot down by the RAF.
Afraid the incident may happen again, Vine is assigned as security to the project. However Angel's organisation kidnap Vine and replace him with one of their own men named Seraph. Obtaining information before he escapes allows Seraph to steal a sample of Spurium to be sold to the Soviet Union; however the Russians believe he is double-crossing them and kill him.
Vine escapes and reports to the RAF airbase, where he meets his RAF counterpart, Flight Lieutenant Felicity "Fiz" Moonlight. Angel's men try an all-out assault on the airfield to capture the next nuclear aircraft set to fly. Vine and Angel end up in the nuclear aircraft that takes flight but Vine is rescued by F/L Moonlight.
Cast
- Tom Adams - Charles Vine
- Dawn Addams - Flt Lt Felicity 'Fiz' Moonlight
- Michael Ripper - Angel
- Tim Barrett - Seraph
- Sid James - Mortuary Attendant
- Wilfrid Brambell - Train Guard
- Joe Baker - Minister
- John Arnatt - Rockwell
- Ronald Leigh-Hunt - Thursby
- Marcus Hammond - O'Neil
- Tony Arpino - Butler
- Michael Balfour - Band Leader
- Tom Bowman - Russian Colonel
- Maurice Browning - Cherub
- Michael James Cox - Lt. Guy Fawkes
- Sue Donovan - Celia
- Peter Ducrow - Prof. Harding
- James Ellis - Flight Lt. Fotheringham
- Heidi Erich - Carruthers
- Suzan Farmer - Caron
- Michael Goldie - Laborer
- David Gregory - R.A.F. Sergeant
- Gerard Heinz - Venstram
- John Horsley - Air Marshal
- Charles Houston - Co-pilot
- Patrick Jordan - Russian
Production
The Royal Air Force cooperated with the producers allowing several scenes to be filmed at RAF Biggin Hill.
Different dialogue appeared in the American print that had much less of the opening Parliamentary satire and the word "Biggles" is replaced by "Batman" when Seraph is talking of his excitement at visiting Secret Service headquarters.
Originally, the studio announced the title of this film as The Third Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World.
Sequel
A third film in the Charles Vine series, called Somebody's Stolen Our Russian Spy (also known as O.K. Yevtushenko) was produced by James Ward, and written by Michael Pittock. The script is polished and directed by José Luis Madrid, who shot the whole film in Spain rather than United Kingdom where the previous installments were held at. Tom Adams reprises his role as Vine, as well.