To begin with, I had previously caught a bit from this one on TV while channel-surfing when in London in September 1999! Like CARRY ON DOCTOR (1967), this is another multi-title offering: CARRY ON ABROAD, OR WHAT A PACKAGE, OR IT'S ALL IN OR, SWISS HOLS IN THE SNOW! While this is essentially a second-tier "Carry On", it proved to be consistently enjoyable which is why I went for a higher rating than I had myself anticipated; even so, there are a bit too many gay stereotypes here and it's marred somewhat by the flat TV-style look.
Incidentally the hotel shenanigans which take up most of the running-time anticipate the FAWLTY TOWERS (1975) TV series. By the way, this turned out to be Charles Hawtrey's final "Carry On" unfortunately, he doesn't get to do much
but, then, neither does Kenneth Williams as the tour leader (he's even given an unconvincing romance with a pretty young colleague). On the other hand, Peter Butterworth is at his best as the multi-purpose hotel manager who speaks in broken English (with Hattie Jacques as his massive and grumpy backwoods wife). Among the guests are Sidney James, who's married to Joan Sims but his eyes are constantly on Barbara Windsor!; Sims herself draws the attention of gallant but henpecked Kenneth Connor. There are also a number of youngsters thrown into the fray, as well as a manly Scot, and a group of monks (one of whom, Bernard Bresslaw, is allowed to strike a friendship with one of the girls her companion, incidentally, is played by Sally Geeson from Norman Wisdom's WHAT'S GOOD FOR THE GOOSE [1969], which I watched recently).
As I said, many hilarious gags revolve around the run-down condition of the unfinished hotel but the scene shifts halfway through to an outing in town (which turns into a massive scuffle and lands the group in jail); the climactic farewell party, then, sees the hotel literally on its last legs as it's flooded and crumbling around them. CARRY ON ABROAD (on which a certain Sun Tan Lo Tion served as technical adviser) is one of the more satisfying latter-day efforts from the gang but, ultimately, it's a notch below classic series titles such as CARRY ON COWBOY (1965), CARRY ON SCREAMING! (1966) and CARRY ON...UP THE KHYBER (1968).
