CARRY ON DICK is one of the last in the long-running series and indeed the last proper CARRY ON film to feature the likes of Sid James, Barbara Windsor, and many others of the core team. It's also a last gasp for their historical romps (the previous of which was CARRY ON HENRY), and it's as low brow and crude as the title would suggest.
It's a shame to see that the scripts by this stage had become so puerile because the cast were clearly still game for a laugh and you get a feeling of wasted talent. James is as irresistible as ever, playing a DOCTOR SYN-style figure masquerading as a clergyman by day and acting the highwayman by night, and there are fairly substantial roles for Bernard Bresslaw and an on-form Barbara Windsor. Sad then that about halfway through you realise the script is a complete rip-off of the earlier CARRY ON DON'T LOSE YOUR HEAD, only inferior in every respect.
It's been said that writer Talbot Rothwell had a breakdown while authoring the script for CARRY ON DICK, which would understandably be his last film for the franchise, and his paucity of imagination is more than evident. There are tired phallic jokes galore, along with one raunchy scene following another. Only a few moments offer genuine laughs, but it's nevertheless a treat to see the pros going through the old routines one last time.
