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Review Warner Home Video / Carry On Cowboy [1966]
Actors & Directors
  • Sid James
  • Gerald Thomas
  • Joan Sims
  • Charles Hawtrey
  • Jim Dale
  • Kenneth Williams
Release date: 1997-08-18
Run time: 90 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £9.89

Review Carry On Cowboy [1966] / Warner Home Video:

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.

Review Warner Home Video / Carry On Jack [1963]
Actors & Directors
  • Juliet Mills
  • Bernard Cribbins
  • Kenneth Williams
  • Donald Houston
  • Charles Hawtrey
  • Gerald Thomas
Release date: 1997-08-18
Run time: 87 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £0.98

Review Carry On Jack [1963] / Warner Home Video:

Carry On Jack was the 1963 offering from a team which had, by then, become a repertory company with special guests dropping in for a dose of innuendo. "What's all this jigging in the rigging?" demands Kenneth Williams, this time playing a ship's captain, and the scene is set for 90 minutes of ribaldry involving cross-dressing, press-ganging and plank walking. The plot scarcely matters. It's set after the Battle of Trafalgar and the sea is awash with Spanish galleons and pirates as the British navy sets about defending its shores with as much incompetence as possible. Sally, a barmaid at the Dirty Duck (Juliet Mills in feisty principal boy mode), knocks Bernard Cribbins on the head and steals his uniform so that she can go in search of her childhood sweetheart. He is promptly press-ganged and they end up on the same ship. Williams, on the brink of his ascendancy as a star turn, just about keeps the mannerisms under control enough to build the character of the naïve and neurotic captain. Familiar Carry On faces on top form include Charles Hawtrey and Jim Dale, while Peter Gilmore-in his pre-Onedin Line days-appears as a pirate. Peter Rodgers' script is not quite vintage Carry On but the jokes keep coming and it's all good, clean fun. On the DVD: This was one of the first Carry On films to be made in colour. [+]
The print is in reasonable condition. The picture quality, apart from a couple of scratchy scenes of sailing ships that were probably drafted in from stock footage, is fair, as is the sound. But apart from the scene index there are no extras on the disc. Given the cult status of the Carry On films, and the wealth of documentary material which has been made about them and their stars, you'd think something extra could have been offered with the DVD releases to make them a more worthwhile alternative to the video. -Piers Ford.

Review 4 Front Video / Carry On Admiral
Actors & Directors
  • Val Guest
  • Brian Reece
  • A.E. Matthews
  • David Tomlinson
  • Peggy Cummins
  • Eunice Gayson
Release date: 1996-07-15
Run time: 78 min.
Price: £5.99

Review Carry On Admiral / 4 Front Video:


Actors & Directors
  • Charles Hawtrey
  • Joan Sims
  • Gerald Thomas
  • Bernard Bresslaw
  • Kenneth Williams
  • Sid James
Release date: 1999-09-20
Run time: 85 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £2.35

Review Carry on Abroad [1972] / Cinema Club:

One of the last decent Carry On movies, Carry On Abroad is a 1972 venture into the world of package holidays. After this, the series descended into unfunny coarseness as opposed to camply laboured double entendre, culminating in the dreadful Carry On Emanuelle. Here, publican Sid James and dutiful mother's son turned sex maniac Charles Hawtrey are among a brace of Brits heading for the "paradise island" of Elsbels. Kenneth Williams is the out-of-his-depth tour operator, reverting to the sort of effete types he played in the 1950s, Peter Butterworth a pre-Manuel-style manager of a half-built hotel. A series of disasters ensue, with the entire gang landing up in jail following a fracas in a brothel at one point, but everyone finds romantic and sexual fulfilment in a quaint disco finale. This includes a gay character who is "dissuaded" from his homosexuality in a typical example of the thoroughly reactionary subtext that constitutes the really naughty bit of most Carry On films. Nonetheless, this throwback to an imaginary time when the lewdest innuendo of a dirty old man was greeted by young females with a flirty "Ooh, saucy!" is enjoyable on condition that you enter into its seaside-postcard spirit. June Whitfield is fine as a sexually uptight wife, Kenneth Connor a model of red-faced frustration as her wimpish husband. On the DVD: Sadly, no extra features except scene selection. The picture is a 4:3 ratio full-screen presentation. [+]
-David Stubbs.

Review Warner Home Video / Carry On Cleo [1964]
Actors & Directors
  • Gerald Thomas
  • Kenneth Connor
  • Joan Sims
  • Kenneth Williams
  • Sid James
  • Charles Hawtrey
Release date: 1997-08-18
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £6.99
Price: £1.09

Review Carry On Cleo [1964] / Warner Home Video:


Review Cinema Club / Carry On Matron / Carry On At Your Convenience [1971]
Actors & Directors
  • Joan Sims
  • Sid James
  • Kenneth Williams
  • Hattie Jacques
  • Gerald Thomas
  • Charles Hawtrey
Release date: 2000-09-30
Run time: 172 min.
Price: £9.99

Review Carry On Matron / Carry On At Your Convenience [1971] / Cinema Club:


Review Cinema Club / Carry On Matron [1972]
Actors & Directors
  • Sid James
  • Charles Hawtrey
  • Kenneth Williams
  • Hattie Jacques
  • Gerald Thomas
  • Joan Sims
Release date: 1995-04-03
Run time: 85 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £0.98

Review Carry On Matron [1972] / Cinema Club:

Hattie Jacques finally got to the play the title role in 1972 when Carry On Matron immortalised the character she had developed during several previous outings, most notably in Carry On Doctor. And she seized it with gusto. This is no one-dimensional performance, but a very human portrait of a woman doing her best to retain her authority in the face of mounting chaos-a raid planned by Sid James to steal the hospital's supply of contraceptive pills. Certainly, she's obsessed with regular bowel movements-this wouldn't be a Carry On film otherwise-but she remains a majestic figure of dignity with a touch of human warmth. Occasionally, too, a real hint of irony peeks through the slapstick and the innuendo. Surely scriptwriter Talbot Rothwell had his tongue lodged firmly in his cheek when he gave Barbara Windsor-then married to Ronnie Knight-the line, "I don't fancy being a gangster's moll!" Terry Scott makes a guest appearance and Sid James is at his most conniving and lecherous. Theatre impresario Bill Kenwright has a cameo role and there's an early appearance from Wendy Richard as a prototype Pauline Fowler. But it's the female stalwarts who shine. Joan Sims and Hattie Jacques were truly comic actresses of the highest order. -Piers Ford.

Review Cinema Club / Carry On Girls [1973]
Actors & Directors
  • Sid James
  • Bernard Bresslaw
  • Barbara Windsor
  • Gerald Thomas
  • Kenneth Connor
  • Joan Sims
Release date: 1996-01-15
Run time: 84 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £2.24

Review Carry On Girls [1973] / Cinema Club:

Carry On Girls was the last really successful instalment of the epic series of British film comedies. It's studded with gems of cameo performances and a tremendously innuendo-laden Talbot Rothwell script that 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 into the cause. Margaret Thatcher never sounded so ominous. On the DVD: Like most of the other DVD Carry On releases, this one is presented in 4:3 format with a mono soundtrack. [+]
All right, you don't really need anything more sophisticated to recreate the cosy ritual of Carry On watching in your living room. And the print is good and sharp. But apart from the usual scene index, the lack of extras reflects a disappointingly unimaginative approach to celebrating a genre of film comedy that, for all its low budget reputation, provided a showcase for the cream of a whole generation of British comic actors. They deserve better. -Piers Ford.

Review Cinema Club / Carry On Dick / Carry On Henry [1971]
Actors & Directors
  • Kenneth Williams
  • Barbara Windsor
  • Joan Sims
  • Gerald Thomas
  • Sid James
  • Hattie Jacques
Release date: 2000-09-30
Run time: 173 min.
Price: £9.99

Review Carry On Dick / Carry On Henry [1971] / Cinema Club:


Review Cinema Club / Carry On Follow That Camel / Carry On Don't Lose Your Head [1967]
Actors & Directors
  • Joan Sims
  • Kenneth Williams
  • Charles Hawtrey
  • Jim Dale
  • Gerald Thomas
  • Phil Silvers
Release date: 2000-09-30
Run time: 180 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £10.95

Review Carry On Follow That Camel / Carry On Don't Lose Your Head [1967] / Cinema Club:


Actors & Directors
  • Jack Douglas
  • Kenneth Connor
  • Judy Geeson
  • Patrick Mower
  • Windsor Davies
  • Gerald Thomas
Release date: 1999-09-20
Run time: 84 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £15.01

Review Carry on England [1976] / Cinema Club:

By way of an experiment, a mixed-sex anti-aircraft battery is set up during World War II. The result is Carry On England, and 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 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 damper on the adult-panto atmosphere which the best Carry Ons deliver. The cast commendably manage to transcend this, though, so there's still plenty of fun to be had. On the DVD: The feature is presented in 1. 77:1 aspect ratio, but the disc has no added features. -Roger Thomas.

Actors & Directors
  • Sid James
  • Joan Sims
  • Barbara Windsor
  • Kenneth Connor
  • Peter Butterworth
  • Alan Tarrant
Release date: 1996-07-15
Run time: 100 min.
Price: £5.99

Review Carry On - The Screaming Winkles [1975] / 4 Front Video:


Review Warner Home Video / Carry On Sergeant [1958]
Actors & Directors
  • Eric Barker
  • Shirley Eaton
  • Gerald Thomas
  • Dora Bryan
  • Bill Owen
  • William Hartnell
Release date: 1997-08-18
Run time: 81 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £0.99

Review Carry On Sergeant [1958] / Warner Home Video:

The first of the Carry On movies, 1958's Sergeant is rather different from its successors, much more a film of its time (the latter days of National Service) and rather less a bawdy picture postcard. Sergeant Grimshaw (William Hartnell long before Doctor Who) is about to retire and hopes that he can get his last platoon into shape as Champion Platoon of its intake. Unfortunately, the new recruits include the clumsy Golightly (Charles Hawtrey), the barrack-room lawyer Bailey (Kenneth Williams) and the hypochondriac Horace Strong (Kenneth Connor). Love interest is provided by Bob Monkhouse and Shirley Eaton-newlyweds separated by the call-up and reunited by her taking a job in the canteen-and by the pursuit of Horace by Dora Bryan's Nora. The film relies heavily on a mixture of slapstick and paradoxical revelations of character complexity-the obnoxious Bailey nonetheless takes the trouble to coach the incorrigibly dense Herbert (Norman Rossington); the series' later obsession with low comedy only really emerges in the scenes between Horace and the medic Captain Clark (Hattie Jacques). The platoon's eventual coming together as other than total incompetents is predictable, but likable. On the DVD: The DVD has no frills whatever except for a widescreen picture and chapter selections; it has been cleaned up however so that we get a remarkably crisp mono picture and mono sound, which brings out the quality of the military-band score by Bruce Montgomery, who was also the writer Edmund Crispin. -Roz Kaveney.

Actors & Directors
  • Hattie Jacques
  • Kenneth Williams
  • Gerald Thomas
  • Charles Hawtrey
  • Joan Sims
  • Sid James
Release date: 1999-09-20
Run time: 86 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £9.79

Review Carry on Loving [1970] / Cinema Club:

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 argument both for marriage and for 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. On the DVD: The picture ratio is 4:3, and as is usual for this series the disc has no added features, which always seems like a terribly missed opportunity. -Roger Thomas.

Actors & Directors
  • Gerald Thomas
  • Bernard Cribbins
  • Peter Richardson
  • Maureen Lipman
  • Jim Dale
  • Alexei Sayle
Release date: 2000-06-26
Run time: 87 min.
Price: £5.99

Review Carry On Columbus [1992] / Warner Home Video:


Review Cinema Club / Carry On Up The Jungle [1970]
Actors & Directors
  • Joan Sims
  • Charles Hawtrey
  • Gerald Thomas
  • Frankie Howerd
  • Sid James
  • Terry Scott
Release date: 1995-04-03
Run time: 87 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £2.00

Review Carry On Up The Jungle [1970] / Cinema Club:

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.

Review Cinema Club VC 1065 / Carry On Henry [1971]
Actors & Directors
  • Terry Scott
  • Charles Hawtrey
  • Gerald Thomas
  • Kenneth Williams
  • Joan Sims
  • Sid James
Release date: 1991-07-22
Run time: 87 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £1.98

Review Carry On Henry [1971] / Cinema Club VC 1065:

Shot in the bright postal colours of a seaside postcard, 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. On the DVD: The DVD has no extras whatever, but is a good clean print in 1. 77:1 ratio with crisp mono sound. -Roz Kaveney.

Review Cinema Club / Carry On Dick [1974]
Actors & Directors
  • Hattie Jacques
  • Gerald Thomas
  • Sid James
  • Barbara Windsor
  • Bernard Bresslaw
  • Kenneth Williams
Release date: 1996-01-15
Run time: 86 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £6.98

Review Carry On Dick [1974] / Cinema Club:

The 18th century, with its frills and bawds, was ideal territory for the Carry On movies: 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. On the DVD: Sadly, the DVD has no frills: it is presented in mono and 4:3 screen ratio. -Roz Kaveney.

Review Cinema Club / Carry On At Your Convenience [1971]
Actors & Directors
  • Kenneth Williams
  • Gerald Thomas
  • Joan Sims
  • Sid James
  • Hattie Jacques
  • Charles Hawtrey
Release date: 1996-01-15
Run time: 86 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £2.97

Review Carry On At Your Convenience [1971] / Cinema Club:

In 1971 when Carry On at Your Convenience hit the screen, the series had long since become part of the fabric of British popular entertainment. Never mind the situation, the characters were essentially the same, film after film. The jokes were all as old as the hills, but nobody cared, they were still funny. But it's just too easy to treat them as a job lot of postcard humour and music hall innuendo. This tale of revolt at a sanitary ware factory-Boggs and Son, what else?-certainly chimed in with the state of the nation in the early 1970s when strikes were called at the drop of a hat. Here, tea urns, demarcation and the company's decision to branch out into bidets all wreak havoc. Kenneth Williams as the company's besieged managing director, Sidney James and Joan Sims give their all as usual, but it's the lesser roles that really add some lustre. Hattie Jacques as Sid's budgerigar-obsessed, sluggish put-upon wife and Renee Houston as a superbly domineering battleaxe with a penchant for strip poker remind us that in the hands of fine actors, even the laziest of caricatures becomes a real human being. On the DVD: Presented in 4:3 format with a good clean print and standard mono soundtrack, Carry On at Your Convenience feels as comfortable as an old pair of shoes. But where's the context? The lack of extras leaves the viewer wanting biographies and some documentary sense of the film's position in the series. [+]
The scene index is often arbitrary and the budget packaging means that we don't even get a full cast list. -Piers Ford.

Review Warner Home Video / Carry On Regardless [1961]
Actors & Directors
  • Joan Sims
  • Ralph Thomas
  • Kenneth Connor
  • Gerald Thomas
  • Charles Hawtrey
  • Sid James
  • Kenneth Williams
Release date: 1997-08-18
Run time: 87 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £3.98

Review Carry On Regardless [1961] / Warner Home Video:


Models & Brands:
Carry On Cowboy [1966], Carry On Jack [1963], Carry On Admiral, Carry on Abroad [1972], Carry On Cleo [1964], Carry On Matron / Carry On At Your Convenience [1971], Carry On Matron [1972], Carry On Girls [1973], Carry On Dick / Carry On Henry [1971], Carry On Follow That Camel / Carry On Don't Lose Your Head [1967], Carry on England [1976], Carry On - The Screaming Winkles [1975], Carry On Sergeant [1958], Carry on Loving [1970], Carry On Columbus [1992], Carry On Up The Jungle [1970], Carry On Henry [1971], Carry On Dick [1974], Carry On At Your Convenience [1971], Carry On Regardless [1961]

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