Carry On England ** (1976, Kenneth Connor, Joan Sims, Peter Butterworth, Judy Geeson, Windsor Davies, Jack Douglas, Melvyn Hayes, Patrick Mower) – Classic Movie Review 2376

Director Gerald Thomas’s laborious 1976 Carry On film is the 28th and penultimate movie in the beloved innuendo-ridden series – at least until the 90s revival Carry On Columbus added a final 30th. It is set, promisingly enough, in 1940 and England is under heavy bombardment from the Germans. But the script and actors are largely just going through the motions.

Presumably inheriting the star part written for Sidney James, Kenneth Connor lands the top-billed role for his one and only time as Captain S. Melly, the daffy new Commanding Officer of a wartime anti-aircraft battery at an experimental mixed sex air defence base. The crew seem more interested in each other than the enemy planes, so Captain Melly determines to keep the men and women apart, but the crew have other ideas.

Joan Sims as lovelorn Private Jennifer Ffoukes-Sharpe, Peter Butterworth as Major Carstairs, Jack Douglas and Windsor Davies as Sergeant Major ‘Tiger’ Bloomer are happily here among the shambling shower. But otherwise there are too many new, non-authentic Carry On personnel on both sides of the camera, and they don’t really gel as a new team, though many of the comedy faces are genuine pleasures to watch.

Also in the cast are Jack Douglas as Bombardier Ready, Judy Geeson as Sergeant Tilly Willing, Patrick Mower as Sergeant Len Able, Diane Langton as Private Alice Easy (a role written for Barbara Windsor), Melvyn Hayes as Gunner Shorthouse, Peter Jones (as the Brigadier, a role written for Kenneth Williams), David Lodge, Julian Holloway, Linda Hooks, Patricia Franklin, Vivienne Johnson, Larry Dann, Brian Osborne and Johnny Briggs. It is the only Carry On appearances of Geeson, Hayes and Mower.

But there’s no doubt that Sidney James (who died of a heart attack on April 26 1976, aged 62, a week before filming on this movie started), Hattie Jacques (died October 6 1980, aged 58) , Kenneth Williams (died April 15 1988, aged 62) and Charles Hawtrey (died October 27 1988, aged 73) are much missed in this movie – and of course always.

David Pursall and Jack Seddon are the screen-writers of the weak, tepid screenplay. The idea for the film started as a script for the TV show Carry on Laughing! (1975), 

When the female recruits parade topless, only half of them assemble because the star actresses refused to take their tops off.

Carry On composer Eric Rogers refused to work on the film when he was told that budget cuts would reduce the orchestra from 40 to 20 musicians. He suggested Max Harris as his replacement.

World War Two footage of British and German aircraft comes from The Battle of Britain (1969).

Sidney James could star in the film because he was performing in a revival tour of The Mating Season at the Sunderland Empire Theatre, where he died on stage. 

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2376

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