Derek Winnert

Carry On Matron *** (1972, Sidney James, Kenneth Williams, Hattie Jacques, Joan Sims, Charles Hawtrey) – Classic Movie Review 1212

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Matron, the screens!’

Director Gerald Thomas’s 1972 film is the 23rd in the series and the fourth Carry On with a hospital background. Most of the regular team is assembled in an amusing episode, back near their peak form of the 1960s.

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The story centres on a plot by disguised criminals Sid James, Kenneth Cope (looking good in drag!) and Bernard Bresslaw to rob the local Finisham maternity hospital of a valuable shipment of contraceptive pills.

An amusing script by regular screenwriter Talbot Rothwell, one of his best, boasts lots of funny jokes about expectant mums and cut-throat doctors, but it’s mainly a performing success.

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The star trio are hilarious in disguise, with James in beard and specs, and Cope and Bresslaw in drag as a mum and a nurse. Plus there are very funny turns from Joan Sims as the indigestion-prone mum-to-be Mrs Tidey, Kenneth Williams as the hypochondriac consultant Sir Bernard Cutting and of course Hattie Jacques as Matron.

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Barbara Windsor, Terry Scott, Kenneth Connor, Jacki Piper, Bill Maynard, Patsy Rowlands, Derek Francis, Valerie Leon, Gwendoline Watts, Margaret Nolan, Wendy Richard, Bill Kenwright and Jack Douglas also star.

At a total of 11, it is the film that features the largest number of Carry On regulars, a total shared with Carry on Abroad (1972). They are Joan Sims, Kenneth Williams, Barbara Windsor, Terry Scott, Kenneth Connor, Hattie Jacques, Bernard Bresslaw, Patsy Rowlands, Sidney James, Jack Douglas and Charles Hawtrey. But Jim Dale and Peter Butterworth are missing.

(C) Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 1212

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/

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Kenneth Connor.

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Barbara Windsor.

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Bernard Bresslaw.

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