That's Carry On!

Well, hardly the best of.

If I were wanting to introduce someone to Carry On, I wouldn't recommend this. It wasn't full or complete.

For some reason it showed more of Carry On Camping and the Khyber one. I thought I was watching the actual movie of one of them, so much scene was being shown.

But there were great moments from other movies that weren't shown, which was a shame.

Williams and Windsor did dish out their dialogue in the connecting bits very well.

I especially liked Williams talking about how he would only listen to or work with someone who was clearly more intelligent than he, he worded it much better than that, and the clip from "Carry On Regardless" when he was walking the monkey was shown.

Altho I now stand at having only seen half the series, the first half, that is, I do think there was more to the Carry On movies than what this hilight reel states.

But I was disappointed that the theme music from the first five Carry Ons was dismissed with Cruising. What a pity.

No idea how that music would have sounded with "Carry On Cowboy" or "Carry on Screaming" but I think someone who was half creative could have figured something out.

Carry on.

Hunting through the archives in their local cinema, Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor dig out all the old classics and settled down to watch them while eating out of a hamper. The structure (as if to suggest there is one) involves them playing a few clips from each movie as they make regular quips in between. As always with the series, originality and production values were not always top of the agenda and so this idea was ripped off from the success of MGM's That's Entertainment so the Carry On producers were trying to get more money out of very little.

Of course some of the clips are funny but if you are a fan you'll have seen them all before and will actually enjoy the films themselves rather than just watching the clips (and this isn't aimed at fans then who is it aimed at?). Not all the movies were much good though and it reflects in the fact that many of the clips are not that funny either. The interruptions (as the credits say) by Williams and Windsor all feel very cheap and lacking in imagination – there is a fine line between witty innuendo and out & out crudity and they are way, way over that line here with a shed load of unimaginative and crude jokes around body parts, sex and going to the toilet. Of course this will not be too much of a shock to those who have seen any of the films but it is the way it is done here that put me off.

Of course being a clips show we can't pick which ones we one to watch and therefore are lumbered with a lot of poor material just to get to the better stuff (much like the series over all) so I'd say just cherry pick the films themselves; that way you can select the better films, ignore the lesser ones and you won't have to put up with some real sub-par crudity from Williams and Windsor in cheap, dated clothing, not ever really putting the effort into it at all.

This is rather a lackluster "Best Of" compilation overall; it takes a more-or-less chronological look at the series but then omits entirely the most recent effort up to that time i.e. CARRY ON ENGLAND (1976)! Linking material features stalwarts Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor mugging and witlessly chatting; however, no real discussion is made on how the series evolved to begin with…or, for that matter, any background given on individual performers.

Some of the series highlights are seen, to be sure – and Williams does single out his role in CARRY ON...UP THE KHYBER (1968; scenes from which open and close this film) as being his personal favorite – but, watched out of context, they just don't have the desired effect (even if several of them came from entries I viewed only recently)!

"That's Carry On!" is an okay compilation of the highlights from Britains' legendary "Carry On" series of theatrical farces. Series veterans Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor act as hosts, mugging their way through so-so material. She naturally is quick to point out how quick the filmmakers were to capitalize on her "assets", while he ends up having to go to the washroom very badly.

While a lot of this archive footage is indeed funny (and the footage gets more and more lively as the movie goes on), the viewer might wish for a more thorough examination of how this series got developed, and its importance to British cinema. Overall, "That's Carry On!" is rather lightweight, unless the viewer just wants to relax and enjoy memorable moments and sequences. There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason as to how the footage is assembled other than it is shown in a mostly chronological order. It's certainly a likeable enough movie, and one can see how talented the various cast members were. A lot of this farce was delivered in such a riotous, breathless manner.

At the very least, it may intrigue some viewers *just* enough to check out the whole series in the proper context. As of this writing, this viewer has only seen "Carry On Sergeant". In addition to listing all of the actors & actresses featured, various technical credits are listed at the end, indicating the number of entries upon which each person worked. Director Gerald Thomas had done all 28.

Six out of 10.

Originally released in 1977 as B movie support to the Richard Harris film Golden Rendezvous, That's Carry On! is basically a compilation picture produced to make money for the then dwindling franchise of a much beloved series of films. The year previously had seen the risible Carry On England released, and the final nail in the coffin would come a year later in 78 with Carry On Emanuelle. Fighting different smutty cinema conventions like the "Confessions Of" run of films starring Robin Askwith, the Carry On formula was out of step and certainly now out of time with a changing British landscape. Sadly this meant that this compilation picture only serves to remind us of what was once great about the series, with the inevitable complaints about it not using certain clips proving to be loud from a disappointed and committed fan base. It's weird that in a film that runs over an hour and half in length, there still wasn't enough time to insert enough clips to provide relief for many Carry On acolytes!

The premise is wrapped around a scenario that sees Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor holed up in a projection booth. They swap weak innuendos whilst running through clips of the series. Kenny gives it a good go, as he always did, and Babs wears a tight top that showcases her assets that so dearly cheered the horny hounds in the Carry On crowds. Windsor's casting is understandable, but that doesn't necessarily make it a correct one. Where Williams was the stalwart who had up to then made 24 Carry On movies, Windsor had made 8. Joan Simms had done 23 by this time and Hattie Jacques 14, now they may not have been available? But really you feel that one of the older female guard should be there for this overview; as shallow as it ultimately is. The DVD finds its way into box sets and occasionally the film shows as a time filler in the early hours of the morning on British television, but it's far from essential viewing; either for fans or interested newcomers. It remains the lazy cash cow that it is, viewing it only makes us hanker still further for the times when Carry On really was a fun and vibrant British institution. 5/10