Carry On Constable *** (1960, Sidney James, Hattie Jacques, Joan Sims, Kenneth Williams, Kenneth Connor, Eric Barker, Leslie Phillips) – Classic Movie Review 1,908

Gerald Thomas’s 1960 laughter-raiser Carry On Constable is number four in the Carry On series of 31 films. Sid James stars as police Sgt Frank Wilkins trying to cope with comic cops Kenneth Connor, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey and Leslie Phillips.

Director Gerald Thomas’s 1960 laughter-raiser Carry On Constable is number four in the Carry On series of an eventual 31 films, all directed by Thomas and produced by Peter Rogers.

With another screenplay by Norman Hudis, it’s really just Carry On Sergeant transferred to a police station. But, that’s good as it springs up some promising comedy situations, and especially as it’s being done with the confidence and freshness of a series in its prime. There’s a vintage cast of most of the early regulars, and a lorra, lorra laughs. Sidney James, Hattie Jacques, Joan Sims and Kenneth Williams are all on their best form.

Sidney James stars as police Sergeant Frank Wilkins and Eric Barker plays Inspector Mills, trying to cope with bumbling comic cops Kenneth Connor (as PC Charlie Constable, that would be Constable Constable), Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey and Leslie Phillips, new recruits are assigned to Mills’s police station with a flu epidemic running rife.

Plus there’s Joan Sims as winsome WPC Gloria Passworthy, Hattie Jacques as Sergeant Laura Moon, Esma Cannon, Shirley Eaton, Joan Hickson, Jill Adams and Irene Handl as ‘Distraught Woman’. Naturally, this gives rise to romances between Sergeant Wilkins and Sergeant Moon, and PC Constable and WPC Passworthy, while the criminals get away.

Cyril Chamberlain. Terence Longden, boxer Freddie Mills, Victor Maddern, John Antrobus, Robin Ray, Brian Oulton, Michael Balfour, Diane Aubrey, Mary Law and Dorinda Stevens also appear.

It’s a historic moment for the series. It’s the first one to include some nudity and Sidney James makes his Carry On debut here, replacing Carry on Teacher star Ted Ray after contractual problems. Sid James was an instant hit and it turned out to be the first of his 19 appearances in the Carry On franchise, which resulted in the public’s perception, based entirely on his persona in the films, of him as a womanising rogue with a dirty laugh.

Ted Ray was under contract to ABC Cinemas, who were unhappy at one of their actors in a rival production, so they threatened to stop distribution of the film and Peter Rogers reluctantly dropped him.

The nudity? Connor, Hawtrey, Williams and Phillips bare their behinds in a shower scene.

The other series mainstay, Eric Barker, became ill afterwards and was able to be in only Carry on Spying (1964) and Carry on Emmannuelle (1978) after this.

Writer Norman Hudis went to Slough Police Station to research his screenplay.

It is followed by Carry On Regardless (1961).

Leslie Samuel Phillips CBE (20 April 1924 – 7 November 2022).

Mary Law with her music conductor husband Kenneth Alwyn in 1960.

Mary Law was born on September 23 1932 and died on April 15 2024. Her first film appearance is as an office girl in the Dirk Bogarde comedy For Better, for Worse (1954). Her most memorable film appearance was in Carry on Constable as a shop assistant, who suspiciously eyes Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey’s bumbling rookie policemen disguised as female shoppers.

Mary Law recalled: ‘I always remember Charlie Hawtrey coming to ask me how to wear a pair of very high heels and walk properly. I had to spend a very tiring morning running after Charlie and Kenneth Williams somewhere in London.’ That must have been the streets of Ealing, London, where the exteriors were shot. The interiors were shot at Pinewood Studios, Buckinghamshire.

The exterior of the police station is actually Hanwell Library, Cherrington Road, London W7.

In another claim to fame, Mary Law had two stints playing the anxious guest-house proprietress Mollie Ralston in Agatha Christie’s long-running West End play The Mousetrap.

The cast are Sid James as Sergeant Frank Wilkins, Eric Barker as Inspector Mills, Kenneth Connor as Constable Charlie Constable, Charles Hawtrey as Special Constable Timothy Gorse, Kenneth Williams as PC Stanley Benson, Leslie Phillips as PC Tom Potter, Joan Sims as WPC Gloria Passworthy, Hattie Jacques as Sergeant Laura Moon, Shirley Eaton as Sally Barry, Cyril Chamberlain as PC Thurston, Joan Hickson as Mrs May, Irene Handl as Distraught Mother, Terence Longdon as Herbert Hall, Jill Adams as WPC Harrison, Freddie Mills as Jewel thief, Brian Oulton as Store manager, Victor Maddern as Detective Sergeant Liddell, Esma Cannon as Deaf old lady, Hilda Fenemore as Agitated woman, Lucy Griffiths as Miss Horton, Noel Dyson as Vague woman, Dorinda Stevens as Young Woman, and Mary Law as a shop assistant.

It was filmed from 9 November to 18 December 1959 and premiered at London’s Plaza cinema on 25 February 1960, becoming the third most popular film at the British box office in 1960, after Doctor in Love and Sink the Bismarck!

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1,908

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Kenneth Connor plays PC Charlie Constable.