Carry On Regardless (1961)

I love this movie so much

Simply A Masterpiece

As Good As It Gets

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Unlike the other films in the series, this is essentially a sketch comedy film held together by a loose plot. I was sceptical about the sketch format at first and it took a while to get going but I think that it worked very well. The funniest sketches feature Kenneth Williams taking a woman's pet chimp Yoki on a walk around London and taking in a chimp's tea party, Joan Sims getting extremely drunk at a wine tasting event, Sid James being mistaken for one of the finest living diagnosticians at a hospital and Kenneth Connor getting the wrong end of the stick and thinking that he has been hired to work as a spy. The latter is a great parody of pre-Bond British spy films. Those four actors are the strongest performers and get the best material on this occasion.As in sketch shows, not all of them work. The comedic potential of Charles Hawtrey (criminally underused in contrast to most of the other films) working as a bouncer at a strip club is wasted because we never actually see him do it. The four scenes in which Stanley Unwin spouts his trademark gobbledygook are just painful, frankly. On the bright side, as the matron in the hospital sketch, the prim and proper Joan Hickson provides a fantastic contrast to James' leering and dirty jokes. The film has a very good cast such as Hattie Jacques (who only appears in said hospital sketch), Esma Cannon, Fenella Fielding and Terence Alexander. However, the early regular Terence Longdon, making his final appearance in the series, and Bill Owen are basically relegated to cameos and Liz Fraser only has one scene worth mentioning after she parades around in her underwear at the beginning of the film.The aforementioned problems aside, however, it is an extremely funny film which produced plenty of belly laughs. What more can you ask for from a "Carry On" film?

The Carry On gang had one of their best outings in Carry On Regardless, the story of an employment agency run by Sid James where they handle temporary and unique job situations. The nature of the film with the various Carry On troupe members sent on assignment is perfect exhibiting the comedy styles of all the regulars.Such a structure tends to be episodic but in this case hilarious. During the course of the film we see Kenneth Williams get hired as a pet walker and the pet turns out to be a chimpanzee. Great scene when they end up at the London Zoo with Williams and his charge at tea time with his peers. There's also Joan Sims hired to help out at a wine tasting party by Howard Marion Crawford and getting absolutely polluted. And we can't forget Charles Hawtrey hired as a boxing ring second stepping into the ring and taking over when his fighter can't perform. Each skit fills the comic style of the performer perfectly.A really marvelous comedy from Great Britain courtesy of the ever ready Carry On troupe this time at the Helping Hands Employment Agency.

This fifth film in the popular British series of alluring comedy films is probably the only one that doesn't really have a storyline, but the theme is a good hook. Basically a variety of characters are complaining that all jobs that are advertised are boring, and the ones they are interested in disappear. Then they are brought to the Helping Hands agency, run by Bert Handy (Sid James), a new enterprise that specialises in helping people in any kind of odd jobs, these jobs aren't just odd, they're strange in most cases. So Sam Twist (Kenneth Connor) is contacted to be a babysitter for Penny Panting (Fenella Fielding) who really wants company and then to make her husband jealous, Francis Courtenay (Kenneth Williams) is looking after a pet chimpanzee for a woman with flu, and Lily Duveen (Joan Sims) is taking invitation cards for a wine tasting evening which she boozes in. Bert gets himself into a job himself as well, when Sir Theodore (Kynaston Reeves) wants him to take his place in a hospital queue, but he ends up being mistaken for him not as a patient but an inspector, looking over the wards, and some new nurses in their underwear and bras. Francis gets two more jobs, first modelling in a bee-keepers helmet, and then with his knowledge of languages translating for a bickering couple with the wife being German, while Sam is desperate to quit smoking, but can't, oh and Gabriel Dimple (Charles Hawtrey) is helping out at a boxing match, and he ends up being the opponent in the ring when he is insulted, and he wins. Next Sam is over the moon when he thinks he has found a job as a top secret spy, he believes he is expected at the Forth Bridge in Scotland, but it was a mix up and he was actually meant to play the card game bridge. When he returns all the new employees of Helping Hands are teaming up to demonstrate some new products for the Ideal House exhibition, of course this doesn't go well as mishaps ensue while trying to work everything. The final scene sees Bert joining all his employees as they make what might be a last attempt to impress a high paying gibberish talking customer, repairing an old mansion falling apart, but in the end the guy changes his mind allows them to carry on regardless. Also starring Liz Fraser as Delia King, Bill Owen as Mike Weston, Hattie Jacques as Sister, Terence Longdon as Montgomery Infield-Hopping, Joan Hickson as Matron, Esma Cannon as Miss Cooling and Stanley Unwin as Landlord. The cast as usual make you laugh with their enjoyable individual characters, the film is filled with the usual double meaning dialogue, the saucy stuff, a little innuendo, and some slapstick that will certainly make you chuckle, a fun comedy. Carry On films were number 39 on The 100 Greatest Pop Culture Icons. Good!

The Carry On movies at one time were the very soul of British humour. I used to love them. And I have fond memories of a London stage Review "Carry On London" on one of my first visits there in the sixties. But, alas, the movies, at least this one, have not worn well. I eagerly looked forward to watching this item when it turned up on one of our specialty channels. After all, Sid James is/was a very funny man! But, sad to say, I found it trite, predictable, clichéd,dated,juvenile and not really all that funny. I guess it was right for the times, a product pre-dating IRA bombing campaigns, the common market and the Americanization of English life. But in 2005, unlike some other "oldies", it just doesn't make it.