In fact, the consciously tacky special effects benefit from accidents — like the moment when the battery-driven carrier pigeon slips off its guy wire and must be handed up to the stage (still flapping) by the show's director.

This spoof of 1930s spy movies is written by a zany gang of playwrights under the group identity of Low Moan Spectacular, who also concocted the musical revue "El Grande de Coca Cola." It might help to recognize the title as a bastardization of the dashing English character Bulldog Drummond, played on screen by Ronald Coleman. But although recognition isn't a requirement, an appetite for the absurd is a must.

The opening scene has a tiny toy airplane fly across the stage and crash in an English field.

Its pilots are two German villains, Otto and Lenya Von Bruno, who kidnap a British scientist with a formula for making synthetic diamonds. Then it falls to Crummond and the scientist's daughter, Rosemary, to save the day and make England safe again.

It's good to know that Crummond, played with deadpan earnestness by Mark Miller, is fumbling dolt with an inflated ego and a remarkably oversized sexual organ. Jennifer Robideau's Rosemary is a ditzy blonde with a smashing figure and a donkey laugh who finds Crummond irresistible, despite his ego-bruising assessment of her own abilities: "Remember this — you gave me a helping hand. I saved your life!"

Shane and Melanie Garcia play the Von Bruno's — Otto dripping with Nazi caricature and Lenya done up as a cold dominatrix. The show's most fascinating scene has Shane Garcia doubling as two characters engaged in a fist fight with each other. It might be worth the price of admission just to watch his instantaneous switches of costume and accent.

Jared Jeffries completes the cast in an assortment of exaggerated roles from professor to hunchback.

The outrageous dialogue and physical comedy carry the show and almost overshadow some of the carefully subtle staging choices.

True to the old movie concept, costumer Laurie Tanoura puts everyone in shades of black and white, accented by stylized make-up and bizarre wigs and props — like the killer falcon that perches on Lenya's shoulder.

Proulx also designs the set, a deceptively simple collection of gray panels that fold back, greeting-card style, to reveal cartoon backgrounds. It's a successful choice that allows for multiple sets and quick changes on a tiny stage.