Carry On Nurse **** (1959, Hattie Jacques, Kenneth Williams, Joan Sims, Kenneth Connor, Bill Owen, Irene Handl, June Whitfield, Leslie Phillips) – Classic Movie Review 1213

One of the most successful and best of the Carry On movies, director Gerald Thomas’s Carry On Nurse was Britain’s top money-maker in 1959.

Kenneth Connor, Kenneth Williams and Wilfrid Hyde White star as broken-wristed Bernie Bishop, nuclear physicist Oliver Reckitt and the horse-race-loving Colonel, who are hospital patients involved in an epic battle of wills between patients in a men’s surgical ward and the hospital staff in Haven Hospital. Leslie Phillips also stars as Jack Bell, who wants his bunion removed straight away, so the patients decide to have a drink and then remove the bunion themselves.

It is perhaps Hattie Jacques’s finest hour, hilarious in her defining role as Matron, with lots of funny things to do and say, and there is a splendid climax with the celebrated daffodil joke. Joan Sims is also great as Student Nurse Stella Dawson, Shirley Eaton shines as Staff Nurse Dorothy Denton and Joan Hickson stands out as Sister. Susan Stephen and Susan Beaumont are other nurses.

Norman Hudis’s funny screenplay amply shows that hospitals are fertile ground for laughs in films in contrast to the often frightening and demoralising places they are in real life. It is a long, long time ago and everybody looks so young, especially Williams, Sims and Jacques, and it is lovely to see them like this.

The script is based on Patrick Cargill and Jack Beale’s London West End play farce Ring for Catty. But it was successfully rejigged and cleverly retitled to become the second in the Carry On series after the unexpected runaway success of Carry On Sergeant (1958), also based on a play and never intended to be part of a movie series. Director Gerald Thomas’s Twice Round the Daffodils (1962) is based on the same play Ring for Catty, also with a screenplay by Norman Hudis, and also featuring Kenneth Williams and Joan Sims.

Bill Owen, Irene Handl, June Whitfield, Terence Longden, Susan Shaw, Norman Rossington, Jill Ireland, Michael Medwin as Ginger, Cyril Chamberlain, Ann Firbank, Rosalind Knight, Ed Devereaux and Anthony Sagar are also in the cast.

It was so popular that three other Carry On movies with hospital backgrounds followed, including Carry On Doctor (1967) and Carry On Again Doctor (1969), right up to Carry On Matron in 1972, as well as Twice Round the Daffodils (1962) and its follow-up Nurse on Wheels (1963).

Carry On Nurse is directed by Gerald Thomas, runs 86 minutes, is made by Peter Rogers Productions, Beaconsfield Productions, and Allied Artists, is released by Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors (UK) and Governor Films (US), is written by Norman Hudis, based on Patrick Cargill and Jack Beale’s play Ring for Catty, is shot in black and white by Reg Wyer, is produced by Peter Rogers and is scored by Bruce Montgomery.

It is shot at Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England.

Leslie Phillips also stars in Carry On Teacher (1959), Carry On Constable (1960), and Carry On Columbus (1992).

RIP lovely, funny national treasure June Whitfield, who died on 28 December 2018, aged 93. In 1959 she made her first Carry On film appearance in Carry On Nurse, the first of four she starred in, followed by Carry on Abroad (1972), Carry on Girls (1973) and Carry on Columbus (1992). ‘Carry On Abroad was my favourite,’ she said. ‘I was usually paired with Ken Connor who was a joy to work with.’

Michael Medwin was born on 18 July 1923 in London.

A very special happy 95th birthday to Michael Medwin on 18 July 2018. He played a different character called Ginger in four films: The Intruder (1953), Checkpoint (1956), Carry on Nurse (1959) and Rattle of a Simple Man (1964).

Michael Medwin died on 26 February 2020, aged 96.

Leslie Samuel Phillips CBE (20 April 1924 – 7 November 2022).

Leslie Phillips was born on 20 April 1924 in Tottenham, London, and died on 7 November 2022 after a long illness, at the age of 98. He took elocution lessons as a child to lose his cockney accent and acquire his famous plummy tones. His catchphrase ‘Ding dong’, said whenever he saw an attractive woman, started when he played Jack Bell in Carry on Nurse.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1213

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

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