Oh my God (first time in years I use this now very popular expression), football Berlusconi style, Big Girls & Big Guns (Nicola Berti - used to be a great player for Inter with a career spanning three decades - in the studio!)
In Holland a team, ADO Den Haag, was ‘bought’ by a Chinese entrepeneur who decided to lead the team from his office in Shanghai, by phone. Dick Advocaat and a few other well-known personalities from the world of Dutch football were asked to do some field work for him, but understandably they said Thank you but no thank you.
Whatever else we might say about these films they certainly were efficient. Shot in a few weeks and released before you could blink. The previous one I watched looked a bit rushed too but this one not so much. All very silly of course and lacking Kenneth Williams but Frankie Howerd was a nice bonus and there were a couple of genuine laughs amongst the more obvious nonsense. Not the best by a long way but not the worst either.
All this talk about the Carry On movies made me want to revisit the series myself. I found both Doctor and Camping on You Tube & Dailymotion, in reasonable image quality (but you can’t ask too much of these video sharing sites). I started with this one, mainly because the things Phil had said about it, had made me curious:
[center][i]“ 1969 was a key year for pushing the boundaries in cinema. (…) Carry On Camping took the much loved series into the realms of sex comedy for the first time. (…) There had been some innuendo and “Phwoar!” moments up till now but here there is hardly a scene that isn’t about sex in some way or another. (…)
The problem for me in all this is that the series had been going on for some time now and its team of players were far from youthful so it became inevitable that we would be subjected to a bunch of older men leching and leering at young girls. Sid James was 55 when this film was made and the story has him shifting his amorous attentions from his non-compliant 30 something girlfriend to a troop of school girls. Frankly, this is just downright creepy. No wonder there are so many nonces being uncovered here from the UK entertainment world of the early seventies if everyone thought this was all right. (…) “[/i][/center]
Yes, the good old Carry On franchise almost reaches Porky’s dimensions here, with one particular scene, involving a hole in the wall, that apparently was copied 13 years later by the Porky team. However, the outcome would be different in the North-American version from ‘82. A key year for pushing bounderies or not, in ‘69 the idea of a middle-aged, overweight woman grabbing a young man’s part and pulling with all strength was still out of the question, at least in a movie aimed at large audiences.
I see the problem of middle-aged men chasing schoolgirls, especially in the light of some recent revelations of sex scandals involving TV personalities, but the schoolgirls are played by actresses who seem closer to thirty than twenty. Barbara Windsor was 32 at the time.
Overall this was an okay watch for me, hardly ever hilarious but funny enough to keep a smile on my face most of the time. The innuendoes and double entendres wear a bit thin after a while.
I actually enjoyed this one a lot more than I was expecting. Very much in the sex comedy style and a farce by structure yet somehow it had a gentler, more old fashioned Carry On feel to it. The fashions, furniture and interior design of 1970 Britain is also a treat to behold and the jokes all work pretty well. This isn’t necessarily a classic but will get a far higher rating than I would have predicted.
[quote=“Phil H, post:44, topic:3484”]Carry On Loving (1970)
I actually enjoyed this one a lot more than I was expecting. Very much in the sex comedy style and a farce by structure yet somehow it had a gentler, more old fashioned Carry On feel to it. The fashions, furniture and interior design of 1070 Britain is also a treat to behold and the jokes all work pretty well. This isn’t necessarily a classic but will get a far higher rating than I would have predicted.[/quote]
After watching (and thoroughly enjoying) the full series of Wolf Hall with the wife I thought I’d back it up with another meticulously researched historical drama… Carry On Henry (1971)
Amazingly the stories took hugely diverse directions. Who would have thought.
Anyway, there was a couple of laughs but in general this was just another one to tick off my increasingly difficult to complete list. Of side interest, apparently the producers got a deal on re-using all the costumes from the recently completed Anne of a Thousand Days so Sid James is wearing Richard Burton’s kit throughout. Not surprising that the costumes were the most impressive element then.
Don’t think I have watched this one since it first came out at the cinema and my memories of it were not great. But, what do you know, I found myself laughing quite a bit. Especially enjoyed the scenes with Hattie Jacques and the budgie. Hat was on top form here. Make no mistake though, despite all its similarities in plot this is no I’m Alright Jack. But it did have me laughing despite being a bit obvious and clumsy at times. Definitely one for the ‘better than expected’ list.
No, I haven’t given up this little endurance test. I just needed a break to maintain what is left of my sanity.
Felt stronger today so braced myself and watched Carry On Abroad (1972).
Bloody awful. Everything I came to dislike in the series first time around and why I stopped watching them when I was younger. Cringe worthy and crass and a waste of everyone’s talent but a good representation of what was actually quite popular at this time in the UK. The year earlier Hammer had their most financially successful film ever in the UK with a film adaptation of the TV series On the Buses. Nuff said. All a bit tawdry and not nearly funny enough which is pretty much how I remember it.
Oh, come on! Abroad is nowhere near as bad as the truly unlikeable, nasty and misogynistic On the Buses movies. Was it arguably the bawdiest one up to that point? Yeah, I’d concede that but, as Seymour Skinner once said: “The times, they are a-becoming quite different.” Peter Butterworth’s virtuoso performance alone makes Abroad a worthy entry:
-I am the representative of Wundatours, Stuart Farquhar.
-Stupid what?
-Stuart! Stuart Farquhar!
-(Vic) I think he was right the first time!
-Aahh! You Mr Farki-hars!
[i]-I hope you show more imagination with the main dish.
-Ah, that is specialities of the house.
-Ah…
-Sausage, beans and chippings!
Is that all??
-That’s plenties!
-But isn’t there a choice?
-Of course! You can have sausages and chippings, sausages and beans, or beans and chippings. NOW THAT’S CHOICES!" [/i]
Although there’s plenty more meat in this stew. Ecouter:
-Don’t drink?
-No, I tried it once and didn’t like it.
-Smoke?
-I tried it once and didn’t like it.
-Strange.
-Not at all, my daughter is just the same.
-Your only child, I presume!
Maybe I’m just losing patience with them after watching so many recently but, I’m afraid yes, bloody awful. The best Carry Ons had two things going for them in my opinion (apart from the undoubted talents of some of the regular cast members). They rarely looked as cheap as they actually were and they maintained a certain charm despite their corniness. Films like Abroad failed on both fronts for me and as a result the talents of the cast (Peter Butterworth included) couldn’t overcome the weaknesses.
Having said that it is of the contemporary topical variety which was always a strength of the series and one of the reasons they can still hold interest outside the humour. That is to say it makes fun of something which was relevant to audiences of the time. In this case cheap overseas holidays which had recently become popular. The Carry Ons had mined this sort of vein from the start either with social issues (National service, the NHS, labour relations) or with popular culture spoofs (Bond films, Westerns, Hammer Horror) and it makes them social documents of their times in a way.
Either way, still not really my cup of Sangria this one so we’ll have to agree to disagree.
And as for you Scherp…On the Buses?!?..(shakes head and walks away disappointed)
[quote=“Phil H, post:50, topic:3484”]After watching (and thoroughly enjoying) the full series of Wolf Hall with the wife I thought I’d back it up with another meticulously researched historical drama… Carry On Henry (1971)[/quote]I watched Wolf Hall last week, thought it was excellent.
I wonder if we’re in for more, as I was expecting it to go up till Cromwell’s death for some reason.
And back again for another instalment. Say what you like about me but I’m no quitter.So today it was Carry on Girls (1973).
This sort of British humour is often called ‘end of the pier’ and this time they decided to actually set the film there as a beauty contest takes place at a miserable UK seaside town. I’m not sure exactly what the differences are in some of these films which appear to be the same but somehow some of them work for me and some of them don’t. Surprisingly, this one did. Maybe it was all the familiar British television beauties from my teenage years turning up at once (Valerie Leon, Sally Geeson, Margaret Nolan) but whatever it was it got me smiling and that’s an improvement on some of the series I’ve seen so far. It was also a first viewing for me I think. I certainly don’t remember seeing it before so perhaps that helped too. Anyway, not a classic but enjoyable none the less.
OK, I am genuinely jealous about that one, Yod.
Always loved Valerie Leon and used Hai Karate as an impressionable teenager who didn’t really need to shave as a result.
