Film Review
After a decade of assiduous beating about the bush (so to speak)
the
Carry On team finally step out from
behind the coy innuendos and embrace the permissive society for all its
worth.
This is the point at which British film comedy went well
and truly down the tubes as writers and directors, in an attempt to move
with the times, gave up on the clever allusions to sex and instead
showed us the real thing, in all its lascivious, full-blooded,
distasteful glory. No wonder the 1970s is considered the
low-point of British cinema. This is the decade when subtlety
died and mindless vulgarity took over. Just as the dinosaurs were
wiped out by a meteorite / ice age / tsunami / a deadly plague of
haemorrhoids, the British film industry was all but obliterated by a
wave of tawdry low budget sex comedies. Inevitably, the
Carry On films would be one of the
instigators of this catastrophe and one of its main casualties.
Carry on Loving may have set
the
Carry Ons on the road to
oblivion but, in itself, it is not a bad film. (You only have to
compare it with the truly risible
Carry on Emmannuelle (1978),
affectionately known as
Carry On Last-Nail-In-The-Coffin,
to see how good it is.) Yes, many of the jokes are awful, in fact
so dated that they make the works of Chaucer look as if they were
written yesterday. Yes, the constant banging on about sex is
tedious enough to make you want to spend the rest of your life in a
monastery. By rights, this should be a terrible film but,
somehow, miraculously, it isn't at all bad.
As ever, what saves the day are the
Carry
On regulars, possibly the best ensemble of comedy performers
ever to waylay a British film. And here we have almost a full
house. Sid James and Kenneth Williams, at their comedic best, are
partnered with the equally delightful Hattie Jacques and Joan Sims,
with stalwarts Charles Hawtrey and Bernard Bresslaw providing ample
support as a private dick and homicidal wrestler respectively.
Newcomers to the team, Terry Scott, Patsy Rowlands, Richard
O'Callaghan, and Jacki Piper, take up the slack and deliver more than a
few classic
Carry On moments,
with the gorgeous Imogen Hassall providing the glamour. And if
you are trying to put a face to that lucky lad who gets to snog his way
through every other scene in the film, it is Mike Grady, better known
as Ken from the BBC TV sitcom
Citizen
Smith.
Carry on Loving clearly ushers
in a new era, one soiled by tacky permissiveness and low grade
humour. Yet, whilst the jokes are generally awful, the film still
manages to deliver the laughs by the cartload, and is a paragon of
virtue and sophistication compared with what would follow later in the
decade.
© James Travers 2009
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Gerald Thomas film:
Carry on Up the Jungle (1970)
Film Synopsis
Sidney Bliss and his long-term girlfriend Sophie Plummett run a
marriage agency that prides itself on bringing together lonely hearts
and setting them on the path to matrimonial success. Ironically,
Sid seems strangely reluctant to tie the knot with Sophie and is more
interested in vetting one of his clients, Esme Crowfoot.
Suspecting that Sid is cheating on her, Sophie hires private detective
James Bedsop to spy on him. Although their operation is a sham,
Sid and Sophie have no difficulty attracting customers.
27-year-old Bertrum Muffet, an unassuming undertaker's assistant who
devotes his free time to making model aeroplanes out of milk bottle
tops, suddenly realises he is missing out on something and believes
that the Wedded Bliss agency will give it to him. Terry Philpotts
has made a habit of sleeping with his friend's wife and decides that it
is high time he found a wife of his own. Percival Snooper
discovers that he cannot possibly be an effective marriage guidance
counsellor whilst he remains single so he begins the search for a
partner of the opposite sex - just for the practical
experience, you understand. Whilst Sid and Sophie try to resolve their own
pre-marital differences, their hapless clients are directed to their
randomly selected mates and soon discover that love can be a very dirty
four letter word...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.