Carry on Henry *** (1971, Sidney James, Kenneth Williams, Joan Sims, Charles Hawtrey, Barbara Windsor, Kenneth Connor, Terry Scott) – Classic Movie Review 2375

Director Gerald Thomas and producer Peter Rogers assemble a splendid vintage Carry On cast for their amusing 1971 English historical send-up, with a screenplay by Talbot Rothwell. Sidney James, Kenneth Williams, Joan Sims, Charles Hawtrey, Barbara Windsor, Terry Scott and Kenneth Connor star.

King Henry VIII (Sidney James) is more than keen to consummate his marriage to his new bride Marie of Normandy (Joan Sims) but because she’s French she is always eating garlic and refuses to stop. Henry is further not amused when he discovers Marie has been carrying on with someone else, Sir Roger de Lodgerley (Charles Hawtrey) of Bedside Manor, Wilts, and that her baby-to-be is Sir Roger’s and not his. Henry has to find some way of disposing of her without provoking war with Marie’s cousin, King Francis of France (Peter Gilmore).

Sidney James’s lusty, surprisingly Cockney King Henry VIII and Joan Sims’s slightly unkind take-off of Genevieve Bujold in the then current movie Anne of the Thousand Days (though in fact she is playing Marie of Normandy) are the main delights of director Gerald Thomas’s 1970 Tudor spoof.

Kenneth Williams plays Thomas Cromwell, Barbara Windsor is Bettina, Terry Scott is Cardinal Wolsey and Kenneth Connor is Lord Hampton of Wick.

It is mostly amusing and above-average fun for a later Carry On, with almost all the series stalwarts still here and on good form, all the familiar smutty gags trotted out again by regular screenwriter Talbot Rothwell, but with a surprisingly handsome production too.

Also in the cast are Julian Holloway, Julian Orchard, William Mervyn, Derek Francis, Bill Maynard (as Guy Fawkes), Dave Prowse, Patsy Rowlands, Peter Butterworth, Gertan Klauber (as Bidet), David Davenport, Margaret Nolan, Norman Chappell and John Bluthal. Alas there is no Hattie Jacques or Jim Dale, though.

It is also known as Carry on Henry VIII (1970).

The advertising just had to say it, didn’t it? ‘A great guy with his chopper.’

By the way… ‘This film is based on a recently discovered manuscript by one William Cobbler which reveals the fact that Henry VIII did in fact have two more wives. Although it was at first thought that Cromwell originated the story, it is now known to be definitely all Cobbler’s…….. from beginning to end.’

Bill Maynard (8 October 1928 – 30 March 2018) played in five Carry On films.

RIP much-admired English comedian and actor Bill Maynard (8 October 1928 – 30 March 2018). In the 1970s, Maynard played in five of the Carry On films, including Carry On Matron (1972) Carry On Dick (1974), Carry on Loving (1970), Carry on Henry [Carry on Henry VIII] (1970), and Carry On at Your Convenience (1971), as well as playing Mr Lea in Confessions of a Window Cleaner (1974) and its sequels.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2375

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