Carry On Spying *** (1964, Kenneth Williams, Barbara Windsor, Bernard Cribbins, Charles Hawtrey) – Classic Movie Review 1914

Director Gerald Thomas’s 1964 spy spoof comedy – the ninth Carry On move – sends in the clowns to join in the 60s espionage game.

And, in the absence of James Bond or Napoleon Solo, BOSH security headquarters sends in inept spy-catcher Agent Desmond Simkins (Kenneth Williams) and his trainees Charlie Bind (Charles Hawtrey), Harold Crump (Bernard Cribbins) and Daphne Honeybutt (Barbara Windsor) to Vienna and then the Casbah to sniff out villainous STENCH agents who’ve stolen a secret chemical formula.

Eric Barker (as The Chief), Dilys Laye and Jim Dale also star in this bright, jovial and high-spirited spy spoof, with especially good fun performances from a very young-looking Kenneth Williams and from a pert and pretty Barbara Windsor (aged 27), who was an instant hit in her first Carry On. She carried on to make 10 in all.

It’s slightly disappointing that so many of the regulars aren’t carrying on here. There’s no Sidney James, Joan Sims, Hattie Jacques, Bernard Bresslaw or Kenneth Connor, though, and they are very much missed. But Victor Maddern (Dr Milchman), Eric Pohlmann (The Fat Man), Richard Wattis (Cobley), Judith Furse (as Doctor Crow), Frank Forsyth, Tom Clegg and Renée Houston do appear.

BOSH = the British Operational Security Headquarters. STENCH = the Society for Total Extinction of Non-Conforming Humans.  SNOG and SMUT also feature = the Society for the Neutralisation of Germs and the Society for the Monopoly of Universal Technology.

 Cribbins did not appear in another Carry On for 28 years until his appearance in the final one, Carry on Columbus (1992).

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1914

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com/