| Series: | Wednesday Theatre |
| Season: | 1 |
| Episode: | 25 |
| Director: | Alan Burke |
| Teleplay: | John Warwick |
| Prev: | Louise |
| Next: | School for Fathers |
"Rusty Bugles" is a television play episode of the Australian ABC television series Wednesday Theatre which aired on 23 June 1965.[1] [2] [3]
It was Alan Burke's first production for the ABC since he returned from England where he had directed a TV production of The Harp in the South.[5] it was shot at the ABC's studios in Sydney. Some of the language of the play was toned down for the adaptation. Burke said "I'm very excited about the play and I feel sure viewers will react the same way after they see it on tv."[6]
It was designed by Kevin Brooks.[7]
The critic for The Sydney Morning Herald thought the adaptation blundered by not establishing where and when the play was set, saying the director "wasted speculation while a huge cast of strange characters passed before him — too many, in fact, to be accommodated comfortably in such short playing lime." He also felt the word "flamin' " was overused.[8]
Another reviewer for the same paper noted the high use of the word "flamin" ("it got a flamin' good workout") while "the other word, which the wowsers took such exception to when the play was first staged in Sydney some 15 years ago, hardly got a look-in." However he thought "Alan Burke's production was a good, smooth job" and did "draw the pathos from the story."[9]
The TV critic for The Age said it "came through as a worthwhile piece of Australiana which one should have seen."[10]
The Bulletin said "most of the flavour" of the play came through in the adaptation.[11]
The production was repeated in March 1966.[12]