Film Review
After the superlative
Carry On Up the Khyber, the
Carry On team ditched the period
costumes and returned to more familiar territory with this, their
seventeenth offering of madcap innuendo-laden fun. If there is a
plot to this film it is very carefully hidden; instead, what we have is
a well-stocked compendium of gags bolted together in the episodic
format of the earliest
Carry On
films. Whilst clearly not the best film in the series,
Carry On Camping remains one of the
most watched and best loved. It had the distinction of being the
highest grossing film shown in British cinemas in 1969 (the second
highest grossing was, incidentally,
Up
the Khyber).
If there is one enduring image in
Carry
On Camping it is the sight of Barbara Windsor losing her bikini top
whilst performing an exercise routine with Kenneth Williams. This
is just one of several brilliantly executed visual gags that the film
has to offer. Screenwriter Talbot Rothwell may have given up on
the plot but he can still deliver the laughs. His script is
saturated with so many comedy nougats that it must have felt like a
gift to the performers.
With most of the regulars present and giving of their best, it is no
wonder that
Camping is
considered one of the most enjoyable of the
Carry Ons. As Sid James
salivates at the sight of Babs Windsor (along with at least half of the
audience) and Charles Hawtrey becomes a target for comedy missiles of
every kind, Kenneth Williams and Hattie Jacques pick up more or less
from where they left off in
Carry On Doctor (1967).
Once again, poor Ken manages to unwittingly release Hat's pent-up
feminine yearnings and ends up looking like a man superglued to the
side of a volcano just before it erupts. Meanwhile, the
incomparable Betty Marsden (who had worked with Williams on the popular
BBC radio series
Round the Horne)
makes life like Hell for miserable hubby Terry Scott
(who, throughout the soggy November location shoot, was afflicted with hemorrhoids). What else
could we ask for?
© James Travers 2009
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Gerald Thomas film:
Carry on Loving (1970)
Film Synopsis
One year, Sid and Bernie decide to take their girlfriends, Joan and
Anthea, on a camping holiday. They had intended to spend a week
of wild abandonment in a nudist camp but instead find themselves at an
ordinary campsite run by the aptly named Mr Fiddler. The site
offers no attractions and the two men are ready to give up and go back
home when they see a party of well-endowed young females descending
from a coach. This is the latest intake at Chayste Place, an
exclusive finishing school run by Dr Soaper and his assistant Miss
Haggard. A camping holiday is just what is needed to give the
young ladies an appreciation of the joys of nature, thinks Dr
Soaper. Sid couldn't agree more...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.