Category Archives: Antagonistics

Charles Charlemont’s Students Demonstrate Savate and la Canne (1928)

Posted on December 22, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 5th August 2017 This newly-released sound film from the Fox Movietone Archive shows training drills and bouting by students of Professor Charles Charlemont. At the turn of the 20th century, Charlemont had … Continue reading →

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Umbrella vs. Knife in a Hamburg Back-alley (Swing Kids, 1993)

Posted on December 22, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 4th September 2017 In this short fight scene from the movie Swing Kids, Peter Müller (Christian Bale) takes on a knife-wielding member of the Hitlerjugend, applying some deft umbrella techniques that will be … Continue reading →

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The Gentlemanly Art of 19th Century Cane Fighting in … 1990s Russia!?

Posted on December 22, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Wednesday, 6th September 2017 The 1990 Russian sociopolitical satire Bakenbardy (“Side-whiskers”) is distinguished as the only feature film in which walking stick fighting serves as a crucial plot device.  It’s also a pertinent warning as … Continue reading →

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“How Sir Hiram Maxim Met the Hooligan” (St James’s Gazette, 24 June 1902)

Posted on December 22, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Friday, 8th September 2017 In which the estimable inventor Hiram Maxim, best-remembered today for devising the world’s first portable machine gun, tells of how he fended off a London hooligan with his fists and … Continue reading →

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How To Make A Kingsman-Style Gunbrella (Sort Of)

Posted on December 22, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Wednesday, 13th September 2017 In honour of (and to help promote) the upcoming release of Kingsman: The Golden Circle, The Hacksmith YouTube channel has been challenged to create a Kingsman-style weaponised umbrella: In the pedantic interests … Continue reading →

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“John Steed’s Sword-Stick”: an Umbrella Fighting Tutorial from The Avengers Annual of 1967

Posted on December 21, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Tuesday, 2nd January 2018 Having already addressed the umbrella combat of debonair super-spy John Steed in general terms, our attention now turns to some of the specifics, as delineated in The Avengers Annual of … Continue reading →

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Adam Adamant: an Edwardian Gentleman-Adventurer in Swinging ’60s London

Posted on December 21, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Tuesday, 2nd January 2018 Popular enough in its day but almost forgotten over the past four decades, the mystery/adventure TV series Adam Adamant Lives! was intended as the BBC’s answer to The Avengers.  Both series featured … Continue reading →

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“To Defy the Hooligan: Advice to Ladies” (1905)

Posted on December 21, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 6th January 2018 A satirical self-defence article from the Bristol Magpie of February 2, 1905: NOTWITHSTANDING there are already numberless systems of self defence extensively advertised and practiced, Magpie hopes to be … Continue reading →

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“I’m Teaching the Police to Fight” (1911)

Posted on December 20, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 10th February 2018 The following article describing a Bartitsu-like method of self-defence was first published in Pearson’s Weekly of January 26, 1911. The author’s name is given as Baron Albrecht von Knobelsdorff-Brenkenhoff, … Continue reading →

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“Self Defence for Ladies and Gentlemen” Seminar in Bavaria, Germany

Posted on December 20, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 3rd March 2018 Bartitsu instructor Alex Kiermayer (above) and pugilist Christoph Reinberger are teaming up for a seminar in Victorian and Edwardian antagonistics. The two-day event will cover fisticuffs, jiujitsu, Bartitsu stick … Continue reading →

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