Carry On: Don’t Lose Your Head *** (1966, Sidney James, Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Dany Robin, Peter Butterworth, Peter Gilmore) – Classic Movie Review 1128

‘Carry On laughing until you have hysterics, but… Don’t Lose Your Head!’

The 1967 British comedy film Don’t Lose Your Head is the 13th in the series of 31 Carry On films (1958–1992), and features regular team members Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Charles Hawtrey and Joan Sims.

With the noblest heads in Paris tumbling in 1789 during the French Revolution, bored English aristocrats Sir Rodney Ffing (Sidney James) and Lord Darcy Pue (Jim Dale) decide to go to their aid. Sir Rodney is a master of disguise and he goes under the alias of The Black Fingernail. But Citizen Camembert (Kenneth Williams), a big cheese in the Paris police, and his bumbling assistant Citizen Bidet (Peter Butterworth) are hot on their trail. 

Camembert and Bidet abduct the Fingernail’s true love, Jacqueline (Dany Robin), and plot to lure the Fingernail to his death. But Camembert’s flamboyant mistress Désirée Dubarry (Joan Sims) is in love with the Fingernail too, and will give her all to save him from the guillotine.

In 1967 the Carry On cast (also including Charles Hawtrey as Duc de Pommfrit, Peter Gilmore as Citizen Robespierre, Julian Orchard as Rake, Elspeth March as Lady Binder and Leon Greene as Malabonce) send up the French Revolution in director Gerald Thomas’s jaunty swashbuckling lark Carry On: Don’t Lose Your Head, parodying Baroness Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel.

The 13th in the series is unusually handsomely produced by Peter Rogers. It is attractively costumed and gracefully staged for once, though naturally the comedy, written by Talbot Rothwell, is just as vulgar and tasteless as ever. Nevertheless, arguably, Don’t Lose Your Head has the best punning and word plays:

‘Come, my dear, let’s take a walk in the arbour.’ ‘Blaimy! I didn’t know we were so near the sea.’

‘Remember you must be circumspect.’ ‘Oh, I was Sir. When I was a baby.’

‘I’m Camembert! I’m the big cheese!’

‘The Duc de Pommfrit has ‘ad ‘is chips!’

Also in the cast are Michael Ward as Henri, Marianne Stone as Landlady, David Davenport as Sergeant, Richard Shaw as Captain of Soldiers, Jennifer Clulow as First Lady, Valerie Van Ost as Second Lady, Jacqueline Pearce as Third Lady, Billy Cornelius, Richard Shaw, Leon Greene, David Davenport, Elspeth March, Julian Orchard, Karen Young, Hugh Futcher and Diana MacNamara.

Carry On: Don’t Lose Your Head is made by Peter Rogers Productions and is shot in Eastmancolor at Pinewood Studios, Buckinghamshire, with location filming taking place at Clandon Hall (Guildford, Surrey), Cliveden, Claydon Park, Black Park and Waddesdon Manor, all in Buckinghamshire .

It was made and originally released as Don’t Lose Your Head. J Arthur Rank Film Distributors took over distribution but not initially the Carry On title, which was added some years later. It was called Carry On Pimpernel in America. It was one of only two not to have Carry On in the original title, along with Carry On Follow That Camel.

Jim Dale was signed for a small part in Carry On Cabby (1963) but he was so popular he became a regular member of the cast. Unlike many comics, Dale insisted on performing his own stunts and injured his arm performing a stunt in Carry on Again Doctor (1969), his last film of the series until he returned to Britain in 1992 for an appearance in the final Carry On film, Carry on Columbus (1992).

‘Cor, blimey!’: Sid James.

The man with the lascivious persona, the ‘Cor, blimey!’ catchphrase and the dirty laugh, Sid James made 19 Carry On films, receiving top-billing in 17.

When French actress Dany Robin was cast, this became the first Carry On film to include a non-British actor. Robin starred in Waltz of the Toreadors.

Jacqueline Pearce in 2005.

RIP Jacqueline Pearce (1943–2018), for ever Servalan in Blake’s Seven. Just before Don’t Lose Your Head, she made two decent Hammer films, The Reptile and The Plague of the Zombies.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1128 derekwinnert.com