Carry On Cowboy **** (1966, Sidney James, Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Angela Douglas, Peter Butterworth, Bernard Bresslaw) – Classic Movie Review 1910

Director Gerald Thomas’s affectionate 1965 Western spoof Carry On Cowboy is one of the best, funniest and most ambitious of the series, with the director, producer Peter Rogers, writer Talbot Rothwell and the whole Carry On team intent on and succeeding in getting the Western atmosphere and detail right, as well as getting the laughs.

It is the eleventh in the series of 31 Carry On films (1958–1992) and stars series regulars Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Charles Hawtrey and Joan Sims.

‘My name is Belle, but my intimate friends call me Ding Dong,’ bar-room queen Joan Sims vampishly tells Sidney James as the villainous Johnny Finger, the Rumpo Kid (‘I could give you a ring sometime,’ he replies) when he rides into Stodge City and terrorises the townsfolk.

That is, at least until Jim Dale, as Marshal P Knutt, a conscientious sanitary engineer (plumber) mistaken for the marshal, takes up the lawman’s role for real, and plans to clean up the town of outlaw scum like Rumpo, leading to an inevitable showdown.

Screenwriter Talbot Rothwell ensures that there is a fistful of double entendres in his funny and inventive screenplay. And, to deliver them, there are also a whiskery Kenneth Williams as Judge Burke, Bernard Bresslaw as Little Heap, Charles Hawtrey as Chief Big Heap, Peter Butterworth as Doc and Angela Douglas as revenge-seeking, all-singing, trigger-happy gunslinger Annie Oakley. Ah, Carry On heaven!

Percy Herbert (as Charlie, the Bartender), Davy Kaye (as Josh the Undertaker), Jon Pertwee (as Sheriff Albert Earp), Peter Gilmore (as Henchman Curly), Brian Rawlinson as Stagecoach guard, Sally Douglas as Kitikata, Sydney Bromley (as Sam Houston), Margaret Nolan as Miss Jones, Tom Clegg as Blacksmith, Gary Colleano as Slim, Edina Rosay as Delores, Lionel Murton as Clerk and Alan Gifford as Commissioner are also on the trail.

Also in the cast are Michael Nightingale as Bank manager, Simon Cain as Short, Cal McCord as Mex, Arthur Lovegrove as Old cowhand,  Larry Cross as Perkins, Brian Coburn as Trapper, Ballet Montparnasse as Dancing girls, Hal Galili as Cowhand (uncredited), Norman Stanley as Drunk (uncredited), Carmen Dene as Mexican girl (uncredited), Andrea Allan as Minnie (uncredited), Vicki Smith as Polly (uncredited), Audrey Wilson as Jane (uncredited), Donna White as Jenny (uncredited), Lisa Thomas as Sally (uncredited), Gloria Best as Bridget (uncredited), George Mossman as Stagecoach driver (uncredited), Richard O’Brien of The Rocky Horror Picture Show in his debut as Rider (uncredited), Eric Rogers as Pianist (uncredited).

Angela Douglas makes a strong impression in the first of her four Carry Ons and it is also the first Carry On for regulars Peter Butterworth and Bernard Bresslaw.

Joan Sims pushed a nervous Angela Douglas onto the Pinewood studio sound stage to perform her saloon bar singing sequence on ‘This is the Night for Love’, having given her two brandies.

It the first film in the series to have a sung main title theme.

Stodge City’s main street had to have a turn at both ends to hide the lack of wild prairie at Pinewood.

The Indian encampment was shot at Black Park Country Park, Wexham, Buckinghamshire; and the Wild West open prairies were shot at Black Park, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, and Chobham Common, Surrey.

Carry On Cowboy is directed by Gerald Thomas, 95 minutes, is made by Peter Rogers Productions, is released by Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors (1965) (UK) and Warner-Pathé Distributors (1966) (UK), is written by Talbot Rothwell, is shot in Eastmancolor by Alan Hume, is produced by Peter Rogers and is scored by Eric Rogers, with Art Direction by Bert Davey.

Kenneth Williams noted in his diary that the film was ‘a success on every level’.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1910

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