That's Carry On!

"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.

This is not a documentary but a compilation of some of the best gags from the long running Carry On movie series. Introduced by Carry On veterans Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor, it takes you through what was then 28 films in the series. This is a fairly good way to get an idea of what the movies were, the slapstick, the double entendres, the silliness and sometimes crudeness, but like all compilations its missing some personal favorites. Its hard for you to go wrong to choose a film that had Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Joan Sims, Barbara Windsor and Charles Hawtrey in it, they are pretty much the best. I've not seen every Carry On film yet, but this is a good primer. Carry On!

Carrying On Inappropriately with That's Carry On! (1977).

A series of films carried on, with perpetual double entendre, loved to finger an organ, unleash melons to gorge on, baps, flaps, jugs, bazookas went ding dong.

Though it's not quite so funny today, Fanny plays with her balls in new ways, Dick's choppers been cut, Kitty's curtains are shut, the clams gone from splayed to being spayed.

What an awful sequence of films these were, revisited today, they demonstrate just how out of touch and offensive the so called humour of yesteryear was, and how a generation of inappropriate behaviour was considered acceptable.

Carrying On Inappropriately with That's Carry On! (1977).

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.

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)!