The 18th century, with its frills and bawds, was ideal territory for the Carry On team: Carry On Dick is one of the few of the series where one notices the quality of the art direction in intervals between terrible old Talbot Rothwell jokes and the creaking of standard farce moments. Captain Fancy (Kenneth Williams) is sent to the remote village of Upper Denture to arrest Big Dick Turpin (Sid James) and makes the mistake of confiding in the local Rector, the Reverend Flasher (who is Big Dick's secret alter ego). Dick has troubles of his own: his liaison with his housemaid and henchperson Harriet (Barbara Windsor) is perpetually interrupted by his amorous housekeeper (Hattie Jacques). Meanwhile, Joan Sims struts around the plot as the proprietor of a touring show of scantily clad young women. This is not one of the best of the series--a certain mean-spiritedness creeps in to the humour as does the self-conscious awareness that 1974 was a date a little late for some of the more sexist jokes--but any film with Kenneth Williams discussing satin coats with his tailor has something going for it. --Roz Kaveney
Shot in the bright postal colours of a seaside postcard, 1971's Carry On Henry applies the usual Carry On sniggering to the married life of Henry VIII. Talbot Rothwell's script is standard bedroom farce and full of jokes about choppers, while the threat of beheading and the actuality of torture are constantly present but only as the terrible things that happen to cartoon characters who will be back next time. Sid James turns in one of his better performances as the endlessly lecherous and fickle Henry, married to Joan Sims and lusting after Barbara Windsor. There is a genuine sexual chemistry between James and Windsor, which at times almost breaks open the farce formula. The usual regulars--Kenneth Williams as Thomas Cromwell, Terry Scott as Cardinal Wolsey, Charles Hawtrey as Sir Roger--do their usual turns; Williams is more subdued than usual, while Hawtrey hugely enjoys playing the Queen's secret lover. This was not one of the high points of the series, but it has its own curious charm. --Roz Kaveney
Made in the "classic" period of the series, 1966's Carry On Cowboy is a spoof Western set in Stodge City, about to suffer the arrival of black-hatted outlaw The Rumpo Kid, played by the less-than-youthful Sid James. Kenneth Williams is the aptly named Judge Burke, who appeals to Washington for help to combat this gunslinger and his henchmen. Assistance arrives in the form of Jim Dale's Marshall P Knutt, a drainage, sanitation and garbage expert from England, with a reference from Lady Pushing for doing a "good job on her main sludge channel", whose Christian name provokes a predictable misunderstanding. Fortunately, he's accompanied by Annie Oakley. As ever, much fun is to be had cheering/groaning along to double-entendres about "big ones", but never mind the script, feel the characters. Joan Sims does a good Mae West impression; Syd James "Ha hwa-ha-ha!"s his way through his part with his usual aplomb; the underrated Peter Butterworth is excellent as an inept Doctor; while Bernard Bresslaw adds to his impressively multi-ethnic CV, playing a Native American, with Charles Hawtrey as his incorrigible firewater-loving Chief. On the DVD: No extras, sadly, other than scene selection but Alan Hume's splendidly authentic colour lensing is suitably refurbished here. --David Stubbs
This box set features a veritable campsite of bawdy comedic treats from the Carry On crew! Includes: 1. Carry On Abroad (1972) 2. Carry On Again Doctor (1972) 3. Carry On Doctor (1967) 4. Carry On Don't Lose Your Head (1966) 5. Carry On England (1976) 6. Carry On Follow That Camel (1967) 7. Carry On Matron (1972) 8. Carry On at Your Convenience (1971) 9. Carry On Behind (1975) 10. Carry On Camping (1969) 11. Carry On Dick (1974) 12. Carry On Emmanuelle (1978) 13. Carry On Girls (1973) 14. Carry On Henry (1971) 15. Carry On Holiday 16. Carry On Loving (1970) 17. Carry On Up The Jungle (1970) 18. Carry On up the Khyber (1968) 19. Carry On Sergeant (1958) 20. Carry On Nurse (1959) 21. Carry On Teacher (1959) 22. Carry On Constable (1960) 23. Carry On Regardless (1961) 24. Carry On Cruising (1962) 25. Carry On Cabby (1963) 26. Carry On Jack (1963) 27. Carry On Spying (1964) 28. Carry On Cleo (1964) 29. Carry On Cowboy (1965) 30. Carry On Screaming! (1966)
Carry On Don't Lose Your Head (1967): Carry On laughing until you have hysterics but...Don't Lose Your Head as the Carry On team destroy everything sacred about the classic story of the Scarlet Pimpernel set during the French Revolution. Sid James stars as the Black Fingernail always one jump ahead of Citizen Camembert and Citizen Bidet... Carry On Dick (1974): Notorious outlaw Dick Turpin (More commonly referred to as Big Dick) is running rings around King George's Bow Street runners. Can the half-witted Captain Desmond Fancey Sir Roger Daley and Sergeant Jock Strapp succeed in bringing the wily rogue to justice? Sid James and the rest of the 'Carry On' gang are having a ball and everyone is invited; merry England was never merrier! Carry On Up The Jungle (1970): The Carry On Team go ape crazy in darkest Africa as Professor Inigo Tinkle (Frankie Howerd) and his clumsy sidekick Claude (Kenneth Connor) embark on a bird fancying expedition. Primitive passions are unleashed a forgotten tribe of gorgeous man-hungry females is encountered and a loin-clothed vine-swinging jungle boy (Terry Scott) is the unlikely hero in this riotous romp. Sid James as the fearless white hunter Bill Boosey Joan Sims as the naughty Lady Bagley and Charles Hawtry as Tonka - the father of countless happily go native for this classic Carry On. Carry On Henry (1971): Carry On Henry is the (almost) true story of the love-life of that much-married British monarch Henry VIII (Sid James). A right Royal Flush is guaranteed when flirty Bettina (Barbara Windsor) becomes a favourite at court much to the displeasure of Queen Marie (Joan Sims). Discover the previously hidden details of Henry's private life such as his hatred of garlic and his love of hunting... wenches that is! Carry On England (1975): Make love not war! The Carry On team are part of an experimental mixed anti-aircraft battery during World War II. The Luftwaffe never had it so easy! Recruits ready (Jack Douglas) Willing (Judy Geeson) and Able (Patrick Mower) join forces to strike terror into the heart of the enemy and run rings round their pompous captain S. Melly (Kenneth Connor). Discover where Churchill's famous Victory sign originated from in this classic khaki caper: patriotism has never been funnier! Carry On Up The Khyber (1968): British India 1895. The Burpas are revolting but then again 'The Devils In Skirts' who guard the Khyber Pass are not too inviting either! Can Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond (Sid James) prevent the scheming Khasi of Kalabar (Kenneth Williams) from starting a full blown rebellion massacring thousands of innocent people ending British rule and making his kushy job obselete? Can he rely on the help of the wayward Brother Belcher (Peter Butterworth)? And can he prevent the secret concerning the 3rd Foot and Mouth Regiment from becoming common knowledge among the natives? All will be revealed in this masterly tale of passion greed and missing underpants!
The Carry On which caused a national sensation when a daffodil replaced a thermometer - you know where! The Carry On team have picked up their stethoscopes and bed pans for a strong dose of hospital humour. Hattie Jacques is the infamous matron doing battle with the patients in the second series of the world famous Carry On series.
The Carry On Collection DVD box set contains the following 17 films in Special Edition versions, complete with a selection of commentaries, documentaries or other features on each disc, plus That's Carry On, a celebration of 20 years of the series hosted by Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor. The individual films are: Don't Lose Your Head; Follow That Camel; Doctor; Up the Khyber; Camping; Again Doctor; Up the Jungle; Loving; Henry; At Your Convenience; Matron; Abroad; Girls; Dick; Behind; England; Emmanuelle and That's Carry On.
Carry On Up the Jungle has worn less well than some of the others in the series, simply because the African exploration genre it parodies--with its cannibals, great white hunters and lost Amazon tribes--is so entirely out of fashion. Still, Frankie Howerd made so comparatively few films that one which has him as an ornithologist searching for rare birds in the company of Joan Sims and Sid James is not going to be entirely without interest; he has few great moments here, but runs through his usual repertoire of groans and horse-faced sorrowful expressions with brio. The idea of Terry Scott playing Tarzan is in itself such a good joke that it hardly matters that most of what follows is him swinging, on ropes, into obstacles. On the DVD: The DVD has no special features whatever. It is presented in 1.77:1 ratio with mono sound. --Roz Kaveney
Setting a Carry On film in a marriage bureau has a certain self-serving obviousness, so it's hardly surprising that Carry On Loving milks the idea for all it's worth. The Wedded Bliss Agency is of course a pretty dubious outfit, being run by Sid (James) and Sophie Bliss (Hattie Jacques), who together are the worst possible example for both marriage and their own profession: they constantly snipe at each other, they aren't actually married and their sophisticated computer matching system is in fact a complete fake. The remainder of the team are mostly cast as hapless clients, with predictable but often very funny situations arising from the various mismatches engineered by the agency, such as the inevitable misunderstanding over one client's interest in modelling. Yes, the humour is about as subtle as a flatulent elephant, but you can't help entering into the spirit of the thing. If there's an outstanding performance it has to be that of Imogen Hassall, who handles her transformation from round-shouldered frump to well-bred love goddess with considerable expertise and a genuine sense of fun. --Roger Thomas
Ninth entry in the Carry On series. Ancient British slaves save Caesar (Kenneth Williams) from assassination in Rome 50 B.C. Meanwhile Mark Antony (Sid James) romances Egyptian Empress Cleopatra (Amanda Barrie). Revolting Britons include Kenneth Connor and Charles Hawtrey while Warren Mitchell plays a partner in the slave-trading firm Markus & Spencius.
Carry On Up the Jungle has worn less well than some of the others in the series, simply because the African exploration genre it parodies--with its cannibals, great white hunters and lost Amazon tribes--is so entirely out of fashion. Still, Frankie Howerd made so comparatively few films that in one which has him as an ornithologist searching for rare birds in the company of Joan Sims and Sid James is not going to be entirely without interest. He has few great moments here, but runs through his usual repertoire of groans and horse-faced sorrowful expressions with brio. The idea of Terry Scott playing Tarzan is in itself such a good joke that it hardly matters that most of what follows is him swinging, on ropes, into obstacles. --Roz Kaveney
In 1975's Carry On England, a mixed-sex anti-aircraft battery is set up during World War II by way of an experiment. The sex is indeed pretty mixed, although the drafting in of Patrick Mower and Judy Geeson rather demonstrates the need for at least some of the cast to be attractive in order to make this odd premise feasible. For the most part, of course, it's tits-out sex-comedy slapstick all the way, but there's a nicely ambivalent performance from Kenneth Connor, who portrays the wartime British officer class as being pretty much bonkers, a telling interpretation, which Stephen Fry was to perfect years later in Blackadder Goes Forth. The location is of course typically Carry On cheap-and-cheerful, but its inevitable drabness, together with the indistinguishable khaki uniforms, tends to put a bit of a dampener on the adult-panto atmosphere that the best Carry Ons deliver. The cast commendably manage to transcend this, though, so there's still plenty of fun to be had. --Roger Thomas
An hilarious romp through the bars and bedrooms of the Wild West with the Carry On gang! Sid James is on top form as the Rompo kid an outlaw who shakes up the sleepy residents of Stodge City. Kenneth Williams is the puritanical judge and Jim Dale plays Marshall P. Knutt a hapless plumber mistakenly sent to clean up the town.
The Carry On which caused a national sensation when a daffodil replaced a thermometer - you know where! The Carry On team have picked up their stethoscopes and bed pans for a strong dose of hospital humour. Hattie Jacques is the infamous matron doing battle with the patients in the second series of the world famous Carry On series.
This Carry On collection includes the following films: Carry On Again Doctor: If you are seriously ill and need to go to hospital just make sure it isn't the Long Hampton Hospital as this is where the Carry On team have taken up malpractice. If it's laughter you're after join eminent surgeon Frederick Carver orderly Screwer and Doctors Stoppidge and Nookey for a prescription of smutty smiles. It's the perfect tonic you should take as regularly as your funny bone allows. Where there's a pill there's a way! Carry On Camping: Sid (Sidney James) and his reluctant mate Bernie (Bernard Bresslaw) hit on the idea of a nudist camping holiday to spice things up with their girlfriends! The arrival of Dr Soaper (Kenneth Williams) headmaster of the Chayste Place Finishing School his matron Miss Haggard (Hattie Jacques) in charge of eleven nubile girls including star pupil Babs (Barbara Windsor) set the scene for one of the funniest frolics in the Carry On repertoire. Carry On Up The Jungle: The Carry On Team go ape crazy in darkest Africa as Professor Inigo Tinkle (Frankie Howerd) and his clumsy sidekick Claude (Kenneth Connor) embark on a bird fancying expedition. Primitive passions are unleashed a forgotten tribe of gorgeous man-hungry females is encountered and a loin-clothed vine-swinging jungle boy (Terry Scott) is the unlikely hero in this riotous romp. Sid James as the fearless white hunter Bill Boosey Joan Sims as the naughty Lady Bagley and Charles Hawtry as Tonka - the father of countless happily go native for this classic Carry On. Carry On Henry: The (almost) true story of the love-life of that much-married British monarch Henry VIII (Sid James). A right Royal Flush is guaranteed when flirty Bettina (Barbara Windsor) becomes a favourite at court much to the displeasure of Queen Marie (Joan Sims). Discover the previously hidden details of Henry's private life such as his hatred of garlic and his love of hunting... wenches that is! Sid James turns in a majestic performance and is given noble support by Carry On greats Kenneth Williams Terry Scott Charles Hawtry and Kenneth Connor as his not-so-loyal courtiers.
A taut crime melodrama, Chain of Events features noted actor and film-maker Kenneth Griffith as a bank clerk whose attempt to dodge a fare has devastating consequences; a powerful cast includes Rank Charm School starlet Susan Shaw and future Richard the Lionheart lead Dermot Walsh. Adapted from a radio play written by inimitable character actor Leo McKern and directed by Carry On legend Gerald Thomas, Chain of Events is featured here in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio. John Clarke, an uninspiring sort of fellow, one day boards a bus on his way home from work and foolishly forgetsĀ to pay his fare. He is caught by an inspector, but instead of owning up to it, gives the name and address of one of the bank's clients, setting in motion a violent chain of events involving blackmail, robbery and death... SPECIAL FEATURES: Image Gallery Original Pressbook PDF
Carry On Girls was the last really successful film in the epic series of British film comedies. It's studded with gems of cameo performances and boasts a tremendously innuendo-laden Talbot Rothwell script which is easily the equal of any of its predecessors. The setting, a beauty contest to raise the profile of the dismal resort Fircombe-on-Sea, is ripe for politically incorrect activity of the sort that could only be conducted by Sid James at the height of his lecherous powers. Enter Bernard Bresslaw in a corset, Wendy Richard as Ida Downs, Barbara Windsor as Miss Easy Rider and a host of other semi-clad lovelies and watch as the whole thing rises to a slapstick climax of frisky old colonels, bikinis, bosoms and itching powder. In the smaller roles, Joan Hickson (BBC television's Miss Marple) is hilarious as an elderly woman who believes she is a man-magnet, and the always under-used Patsy Rowlands excels as the downtrodden mayor's wife, a worm who finally turns. But in many ways this is June Whitfield's film: as the terrifying reactionary councillor Mrs Prodworthy, with a butch lesbian sidekick, she plots the downfall of her male colleagues with classic lines. "Rosemary, get the candle", she orders as Patsy Rowlands requests initiation. --Piers Ford
One of the funniest Carry Ons ever! Who is stealing virgins and turning them into shop-window mannequins? What is the meaning of the gigantic hairy finger found at the scene of the latest crime? What clues can the mad professor or his deathly pale and impossibly buxom sister provide to the hopeless Detective Bung?
Filmed in 1968 and set in British India in 1895, Carry On Up the Khyber is one of the team's most memorable efforts. Sid James plays Sid James as ever, though nominally his role is that of Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond, the unflappable British Governor who must deal with the snakelike, scheming Khasi of Khalabar, played by Kenneth Williams. A crisis occurs when the mystique of the "devils in skirts" of the 3rd Foot and Mouth regiment is exploded when one of their numbers, the sensitive-to-draughts Charles Hawtrey, is discovered by the natives to be wearing underpants. Revolt is in the offing, with Bernard Bresslaw once again playing a seething native warrior. Roy Castle neatly plays the sort of role normally assigned to Jim Dale, as the ineffectual young officer, Peter Butterworth is a splendid compromised evangelist, while Terry Scott puts his comedic all into the role of the gruff Sergeant. Most enduring, however, is the final dinner party sequence in which the British contingent, with the Burpas at the gates of the compound, plaster falling all about them, demonstrates typical insouciance in the face of imminent peril. The "I'm Backing Britain" Union Jack hoist at the end, however, over-excitedly reveals the streak of reactionary patriotism that lurked beneath the bumbling double entendres of most Carry On films. On the DVD: Sadly, no extra features except scene selection. The picture is 4:3 full screen. --David Stubbs
It's non-stop romps as the Carry On team deliver the goods in one of the rudest and funniest of the Carry On films. The cast are all on top form as a bunch of no-hopers who join an agency in the search for a job. The anarchy mounts as they do a series of odd jobs including a chimps tea party trying to stay sober at a wine tasting and demolishing a house.
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