Carry on Abroad (1972) - film review

Pub landlord Vic Flange has booked a Wundators package holiday to the Spanish resort Elsbels, which is coincidentally where the buxom beauty Sadie Tomkins intends to spend her holiday.  When Vic’s battleaxe wife Cora hears of this she insists on accompanying him, to keep him out of mischief.   Stuart Farquhar, the Wundators rep, welcomes the Flanges and their fellow holidaymakers onto the coach at the start of what will be a very memorable holiday.  Arriving at their destination, the sun seekers are surprised to see that their luxury hotel is still under construction but its owner, Pepe, and his wife, Floella, do their best to keep their customers happy.  The accommodation may be awful and the food indigestible, but the holidaymakers try to make the best of things.  Things don’t go too badly, until a market place brawl lands them all in jail...

A gloriously silly last hurrah for the Carry Ons.  The 24th entry in the phenomenally successful British film comedy series is the last to feature all of the regulars and to all intents and purposes marks the end of an era.  Peter Rogers and Gerald Thomas went on to make a further five Carry Ons, but by this stage the magic had all but evaporated and these later films are widely considered to be vastly inferior to what had preceded them.  Carry on Abroad should have been the series’ swansong rather than the overture to a lingering and highly embarrassing demise.

Of course, after fourteen years of Carry Ons, the gags had all been pretty well used up, but like old friends you’re always pleased so see them when they show up again (and again).  Some of the jokes had been used so often that you could almost see your face in them.  By now, the characters have all crystallised into the cartoon caricatures of the McGill seaside postcards and the humour is the predictable mix of camp silliness and unsubtle double entendre.  If anyone else had dared to make this film it would have been unwatchable.  It is testament to the appeal and comic genius of the Carry On regulars that they somehow succeeded in elevating it to the level of a minor classic.

Carry on Abroad is pretty well a re-tread of the earlier Carry On Camping (1969) – both films take a light-hearted look at the grim reality of the British summer holiday, cramming in as many bum and tit jokes as the censor will allow whilst keeping up the pretence that this is family entertainment.  Neither film has any real structure to it and each looks like it may have been knocked out by screenwriter Talbot Rothwell in a spare afternoon.  Yet the enthusiasm and joy that the Carry On stars bring to their work make both films irresistible entertainment. 

Despite Sid James’s personal concern that he was getting a reputation as an ageing lecher, he still can’t avoid ogling Barbara Windsor.  Kenneth Williams may have had aspirations of becoming a straight actor (yes, really), but when producer Peter Rogers gave him the call he is out camping like the best of them (and being even more outrageous off-screen than he ever was on-screen).  Bernard Bresslaw plays the innocent missionary who can’t help ripping clothes off pretty young things, under the disapproving glare of Derek Francis.  Hattie Jacques and Peter Butterworth are hilarious as the owners of the hotel from Hell, speakings in a very funnies ways of talkings.  The film even features a gay couple, played by John Clive and David Kernan - pretty daring for the time, even if one of them turns hetero as soon as he claps eyes on Sally Geeson in a skimpy bikini (but then again, who wouldn’t?  Cue Sid laugh.).  Add comic performers of the calibre of Jimmy Logan, Kenneth Connor and June Whitfield to the mix and even the worst jokes manage to get a substantial titter (even those that look like a bad accident happening in slow motion).  It is also worth paying tribute to the technical crew and designers who performed miracles on a very modest budget. Would you think that the exotic exteriors for this film were shot entirely in the car park at Pinewood studios?

Carry on Abroad marks the final appearance of Charles Hawtrey in a Carry On.  His drink problem (which Rothwell alludes to in his script, not very tactfully) had brought him into conflict with Peter Rogers and, after an acrimonious falling out over the billing in that year’s TV Christmas special, Hawtrey was dismissed from the repertory.  His growing alcoholism made it virtually impossible for him to find further work, although he did subsequently make a few appearances on British television.  In common with all of the other Carry On performers, Hawtrey received no payment for the frequent re-screenings of his films on television or in cinemas, and he died in straitened circumstances – a desperately tragic outcome for a great comedic actor who brought pleasure to millions, and still does.  Charles, we salute you.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

Write a review for this film...

What do you think of this film?