Carry On Jack *** (1964, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Bernard Cribbins, Jim Dale, Juliet Mills, Cecil Parker, Donald Houston) – Classic Movie Review 2,377

Gerald Thomas’s eighth 1964 Carry On film comedy Carry On Jack comes from the series’s vintage era but manages to assemble only three of the regular team.

Director Gerald Thomas’s eighth 1964 Carry On film comedy Carry On Jack comes from the series’s vintage era but manages to assemble only a very few of the regular team. Along with Carry On Cruising (1962), this entry features the lowest number of Carry On regulars, with only three. Sadly only Kenneth Williams (as Captain Fearless), Jim Dale (as Young Carrier) and Charles Hawtrey (as Walter Sweetly) are present and correct from the regulars.

So they join a new band of players and amusingly send up swashbuckling epics, particularly the then current Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), and the British Royal Navy, in the team’s first historical period costume comedy. It is largely Bernard Cribbins’s film in the first of his three Carry On appearances as greenhorn midshipman Albert Poop-Decker, who falls for Sally (Juliet Mills in her only Carry On, replacing Liz Fraser), even though she has stolen his uniform and taken his place on the good frigate ship HMS Venus. Indeed, it was called Carry On Venus in America, a better title really.

Talbot Rothwell’s first script written for the series was originally called Up the Armada, but the British Board of Film Censors declined the title. Rothwell also wrote Carry On Cabby (1963), which was produced first and released first, on November 7, 1963 (UK), only three and a half months before Carry On Jack. He went on to write 20 Carry On scripts.

Rothwell’s satisfactory screenplay provides lots of high jinks and a lot of low comedy on the high seas, and the nice also-starring cast of Donald Houston as First Officer Jonathan Howett, Cecil Parker as the First Sealord, Patrick Cargill as Don Luis the Spanish Governor, Percy Herbert as Mr Angel the Bos’un, Peter Gilmore as Patch the pirate captain, Ed Devereaux as Hook the pirate, and Anton Rodgers as Hardy help.

Also in the cast are George Woodbridge, Ian Wilson, Jimmy Thompson (as Admiral Horatio Nelson), Michael Nightingale, Frank Forsyth, Barrie Gosney, John Brooking, Jan Muzurus, Viviane Ventura and Marianne Stone.

Release date: 23 February 1964.

The cast are Kenneth Williams as Captain Fearless, Bernard Cribbins as Midshipman Albert Poop-Decker, Juliet Mills as Sally, Charles Hawtrey as Walter Sweetley, Percy Herbert as Mr Angel, Donald Houston as First Officer Jonathan Howett, Jim Dale as Carrier, Cecil Parker as First Sea Lord, Patrick Cargill as Spanish Governor, Ed Devereaux as Hook, Peter Gilmore as Patch (Roger), George Woodbridge as Ned, Ian Wilson as Ancient carrier, Jimmy Thompson as Nelson, Anton Rodgers as Hardy, Michael Nightingale as Town Crier, Frank Forsyth as Second Sea Lord, John Brooking as Third Sea Lord, Barrie Gosney as Coach driver, Jan Muzurus as Spanish Captain, Viviane Ventura as Spanish secretary, Marianne Stone as Peg, Sally Douglas as Girl at Dirty Dicks (uncredited), Dorinda Stevens as Girl at Dirty Dicks (uncredited), Jennifer Hill as Girl at Dirty Dicks (uncredited), Rosemary Manley as Girl at Dirty Dicks (uncredited), Dominique Don as Girl at Dirty Dicks (uncredited), Marian Collins as Girl at Dirty Dicks (uncredited), Jean Hamilton as Girl at Dirty Dicks (uncredited), Jim Brady as Pirate (uncredited), Guy Standeven  as Pirate (uncredited), Kenneth Cope as Sailor (uncredited), Pat Gorman as Sailor (uncredited), Maxwell Craig as Deckhand (uncredited), George Hilsdon as Deckhand (uncredited), and Reg Thomason as Naval Officer (uncredited).

Kenneth Cope (14 April 1931 – 11 September 2024).

Kenneth Cope appears uncredited in Carry On Jack (1964) as Sailor, but later had leading roles in Carry On at Your Convenience as Vic Spanner and in Carry On Matron (1972) as Cyril Carter.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2,377

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