Film Review
By the time the Carry On team
had arrived at their 25th offering of
innuendo and slapstick it was apparent that the series had run out of
steam and was destined to repeat itself as writer Talbot Rothwell
failed to come up with new gags. The gradual fading away of the
regulars compounded the series' woes but the main reason why the Carry
Ons were losing their appeal was because they were being overtaken by
events. More explicit sex comedies, such as the
Confessions films,
were beginning to make the Carry Ons look naive and dated, but when producer Peter
Rogers and director Gerald Thomas tried to move with the times and go
for more graphic sexual references, they were destined to fail, as this
was not what audiences expected from the Carry Ons.
Carry On Girls marked the beginning
of this decline.
With Charles Hawtrey having been dropped from the series and Kenneth
Williams busy performing
My Fat
Friend in the West End, the film is already reeling from the
loss of two of the Carry Ons' best-loved stars. Hawtrey is
replaced by Jimmy Logan, who, as the lisping poor man's Larry Grayson,
gives the absolute worst performance of any Carry On film.
Inexplicably, Valerie Leon was dubbed by June Witfield (and badly so in
many scenes), which wouldn't have been so bad if Witfield was not
already playing a major character in the film. The film also
suffers from some bad editing and a lethargically paced plot.
Carry On Girls does offer a
few amusing situations (notably the infamous cat fight in which Babs
Windsor gets down and very dirty with a rival beauty contestant), the humour is generally way below par and few, if any, of
the performers have that sparkle which they showed in the previous
films. Overall, the film is watchable and not quite as dull as
its grim seaside location (easily recognisable as Brighton), but the
laughs are few and far between and you do feel by this stage that the
Carry Ons have had their day. Unfortunately, worse was to come...
© James Travers 2009
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Gerald Thomas film:
Carry on Dick (1974)
Film Synopsis
Fircombe is a dreary English seaside resort which is having difficulty
attracting tourists. In the hope of reviving the glum little
town, district councillor Sid Fiddler suggests that a beauty contest be
held on the pier. The mayor Frederick Bumble endorses the
proposal but Augusta Prodworthy, the leader of a militant women's lib
group, is vehemently opposed to it. Sid's girlfriend Connie
Philpotts is none too taken with the idea either, especially when Sid
decides to accommodate the shapely contestants in her hotel for
free. Connie joins forces with Augusta and the mayor's wife
Mildred to sabotage the beauty contest...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.