RANKING: This is not one of the best but it's not at the bottom either. Best described as: "watchable at a push." It's better than those from the late seventies when desperate for ticket sales they just became crude and a bit sordid and it's better than those first six which were scripted by a different writer so don't feel anything like Carry On films. The reason this isn't ranked higher is because it's silly rather than funny.
TYPICAL: This should be typical because it was the first one Talbot Rothwell wrote but he hadn't quite gotten into his stride yet. It wasn't even conceived as a Carry On film and although they stuck the Carry On prefix onto it, it doesn't feel like one. It's just an immature comedy with Kenneth Williams doing his silly voices. He is actually very amusing but not enough to fill an hour and a half - a decent script would have helped. Giving a foretaste of the "big-budget" historical ones to come (well, relatively big budget) this one looks really good. It's set in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars, and real effort seems to have gone into its art direction to create a reasonably authentic early 19th century feel. It's a shame that this much effort didn't go into making it funny. What this feels like is that Talbot Rothwell had just come on board and was joining a very established team. Not wanting to rock the boat too much he wrote something which was more like the Norman Hudid stories of the very early Carry Ons. He'd let rip with his bawdy seaside postcard humour next time once he'd gotten his sea legs.
SEXY LADIES: The other essential of a Carry On film is saucy, sexy ladies and in this one we're treated to the loveliness of Juliet Mills. She's very sweet but maybe a little too sweet considering that she is supposed to work at Dirty Dicks, the sailors' favourite brothel. Juliet Mills does not seem the type but fits in well with the 'family friendly' style of what is essentially a 'kid's film.'
