| Country: | Australia |
| Language: | English |
| Producer: | Alan Burke |
| Company: | ABC |
Rusty Bugles is a 1981 Australian television film based on the stage play of the same name.
Sumner Locke Elliot announced in the late 1970s he wanted the play to be filmed.[1]
The ABC filmed it in 1981. It was the second last in a series of play adaptations on the ABC. By this stage the play was established as a modern classic – it had been published by Currency Press in 1980 – and the Herald called it "a wry, rich and intensely Australian comedy peopled by Australian soldiers who chafe at the boredom of life in an out of the way camp while their mates are off fighting a real war."[2]
Alan Burke was again associated with the production as producer, although John Matthews was the director.
The Sydney Morning Herald called it "one of the more enjoyable programs" of the week, in which the performances "could not be bettered... enjoyed it immensely."[3]
The Age called it "heady stuff for expatriate Australians and those who have an ear for local slang... the letdowns and character development are predictable, if well done and amusing. What I enjoyed was the throwaway lines."[4]
The critic from the Woman's Weekly complained about the "quaint, old-fashioned dialogue" and "some quaint, old-fashioned direction" in which "the viewer was never certain he was watching a photographed stage play or a badly re-enacted documentary... A study of boredom, became studiously boring."[5]
The Canberra Times called the 1981 production "the sort of entertainment that makes satire redundant."[6]
Another writer for the Age thought the ABC had "revived Rusty Bugles without bothering to work out what it was about" and complained about the historical accuracy of the uniforms.[7]