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The most successful British film of its original year, 1959, and an equally successful release in the United States, "Carry On Nurse" began as a play by Patrick Cargill and Jack Searle. Part of the appeal of this infectious comedy I assert lies in the complexity of the interwoven story-lines which have been invented for it. Little wonder exists why it spawned so many imitations and a "Carry On" series that has lasted decades since this, the first of the line. The film concerns very anti-Establishment attitudes by the male patients in a British hospital. Then there are the separate stories of the gentlemen trapped under Matron's tyrannical thumb, each with his own visitor or visitors, hopes, complaints, problems, history, purpose and timetable. Finally, there are the nurses, ranging in experience from the inept newcomers to the poised and competent senior staff members. A charming, and sometimes surprising, camaraderie or male bonding develops among the male patients, and the interactions with the nurses range from pursuit to bickering, with the nurses themselves interacting professionally with one another and also personally as human beings. The main storyline is hard to pin down, but never hard-to-follow. A reporter with appendicitis is wooing a pretty nurse, a rising boxer has broken his hand during a successful bout, a man with a large family worries about them, a confirmed bachelor finds himself attracting a lovely young girl, and a cantankerous Colonel irritates Matron and the entire staff; etc., etc. The flavor of the film is very realistic, which allows touches of bawdy humor, wry commentary and dialogue byplay to develop out of the regimen that is stifling patients, burdening nurses and making Matron grimly happy. The ward has rogues, a dilettante who listens to music and conducts wearing 'headphones', malcontents and grumblers, the friendly and the bored. The film was directed by Gerald Thomas from an adaptation of the original play done by Norman Hudis and Jack Beale. Cinematography was done by Reginald H. Wyer with art direction by Alex Vichinsky, both contributing to a realistic style that becomes more than style alone. Joan Ellacott was in charge of costumes and original music was supplied by Bruce Mongomery. The entire cast were well-chosen for their parts. Terence Longdon as the reporter pursues Shirley Eaton, Kenneth Connor is the boxer, Charles Hawtrey, Bill Owen, Norman Rossington play other patients; Hattie Jacques makes a wonderful Matron, Leslie Phillips the rogue, Joan Sims a ditsy young nurse, Susan Stephen a delightfully down-to-earth staff member. Wlfird Hyde-White is properly irritating as the fussy Colonel, with Susan Shaw, Irene Handly, Jill Ireland, Michael Medwin and Rosalind Knight taking other featured roles. The comedic highlight of the film is a surrealistic revolt by some of the patients high on 'laughing gas'. But all turns out well; and this deservedly popular film, whose humor ranges from classic dialogue subtlety to lavatory levels remains in the mind as a classic of its sort--whatever it is--long after Matron has completed her rounds and discovered her nurses' revenge on the obnoxious Colonel which closes the frequently-hilarious proceedings.

The next time you're in your hospital bed and two nurses walk in with a long-stemmed daffodil, do not under any circumstance roll over on your stomach.

Carry On Nurse was the second in the Carry On stream of British comedies that began with Carry On Sergeant and lasted for nearly 20 years. You'll either love 'em or you'll hate 'em. You'll love Carry On Nurse, or at least feel a warm, gentle glow of nostalgia break out over you like a rash, if naughty humor based on bedpans, buxom nurses, buttock massages and bunions make you smile. We're in a hospital ward where the male patients are ruled by Matron and where almost every nurse is a knock-out. Naturally, they innocently cause acute adjustment problems for the men who are away from wives and girlfriends. The Carry On gang is represented here by Kenneth Connor as an anxious but well-meaning boxer; Kenneth Williams, all intellectual condescension; Terence Longdon, the good-looking observer; Charles Hawtrey, who made mincing about an art form; Hattie Jacques as the iron-willed Matron; and a number of others, including a solo appearance by Wilfred Hyde-White as a demanding patient who winds up in the best joke of the movie. It involves that daffodil. Among the nurses is Shirley Eaton, guaranteed to disturb any man's dreams.

The story, such as it is, is even slighter than Carry On Sergeant. Carry On Nurse is really a series of episodic vignettes and jokes, leading up to Hawtrey swishing about in a nurse's uniform, Williams brandishing knives and preparing to remove a bunion while reading how to do it, Connor administering the anesthetic which turns out to be laughing gas, and poor Lesley Phillips, who just wanted his bunion fixed so he could get on with a bit of snogging he'd arranged for the next day. The whole thing's a funny set up.

By the gross-out standards of today's movie humor, Carry On Nurse is about as raunchy as Pollyanna. It's vulgar, silly and a lot of fun. Just like the use that daffodil is put to.

The second in the popular series is one of the best, but also the first in a quartet of medical lampoons from this stable – the others being CARRY ON DOCTOR (1968), CARRY ON AGAIN, DOCTOR (1969) and CARRY ON MATRON (1972); I’ve watched the latter but not the other two, though I should be able to get to them fairly soon...

Anyway, coming very early in the series, CARRY ON NURSE – which manages to make the most of its single setting – isn’t as crude or as slapdash as a good many of the later entries regrettably proved to be: in fact, it’s pretty much in the vein of classic British comedy of the time (such as the satirical films by the Boultings). The cast brings together several practiced performers in the field: Kenneth Connor (his “Cor, Blimey” attitude as a boxer with a broken hand is somewhat reminiscent of Norman Wisdom), Kenneth Williams (having a less central role than would be the case later but in quite good form as a bookworm nuclear scientist who’s also something of a misanthrope), Charles Hawtrey (playing a radio fanatic, where his prissy antics are already a bit over-the-top), Joan Sims (as an accident-prone nurse), Hattie Jacques (as the fearsome Matron – which became her trademark role), Wilfrid Hyde-White (as an old man whose military record allows him privileged service at the hospital but hasn’t rescinded his gambling mania!), Leslie Philips (as a fun-loving sort who in a drunken binge with his fellow patients decides to have them perform his delayed operation themselves – the latter scene is the film’s hilarious highlight where, predictably, laughing gas is let loose at the most inopportune moment).

The nominal leads here are actually Terence Longdon as a recovering reporter and gorgeous Shirley Eaton as the idealized nurse, who provide the obligatory romantic interest; Jill Ireland (the future Mrs. Charles Bronson) has one of her earliest roles as the girl who finally ensnares Williams, while both Michael Medwin and Norman Rossington appear briefly – as, respectively, Connor’s manager (a self-proclaimed showman) and a punch-drunk remnant of the boxing profession. Other gags revolve around a snob patient who’s continually embarrassed by his commoner wife, another who’s occasionally compelled to run riot in the corridors, and an impossibly solemn-looking student nurse. Apart from throwing Longdon and Eaton in each other’s arms, the denouement sees the release of several of the ‘star’ patients from the hospital – and culminates with the long-suffering nurses’ revenge on the fastidious Hyde-White, by fitting a daffodil in his rectum instead of a thermometer just as the Matron is making her rounds!

"Carry on Nurse" is one of the finer examples in the series. Only the second film to be made this still captures the naive charm of late 50s humour while exploring the more risque ground of the double-entendre.

The usual gang of misfits are present: Kenneth Connor, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Hattie Jacques (playing Matron!) and Joan Sims in her first "Carry On..." appearance.

The hospital setting works especially well in this film and indeed later entries in the series which sees the gang placed within some institution or other are usually worth a look to see how our heroes react and rebel against authority.

"Nurse", actually voted Best British Film of 1958, is a delight to watch and it's hard to equate this with something as bawdy as "Camping" or "Girls".

And the ending is a scream too with a most inventive use for a daffodil in medical history!

In the last episode I was introduced to the girl who would be painted in Goldfinger (Shirley Eaton). In this one, I see Charles Bronson's wife Jill Ireland (Death Wish II, The Mechanic). You just never know who is going to turn up.

Of course, the usual "Carry On..." cast (Kenneth Connor, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Hattie Jacques (playing Matron) and Joan Sims in her first "Carry On..." appearance) is present to carry on with their gags in a hospital. Most of those gags, of course, revolve around typical male behavior in the presence of pretty nurses. Nothing very original, but it is fun.

Check it out.

I am quite fond of the Carry On movies, and Carry on Nurse while not the best is no exception. It is too short, the story is rather slight and plays second-fiddle to the gags and while most of them are funny and work very well the film does overdose a tad on the food, bedpan and needle gags. The film does look good enough, I can understand why people would say it's dated, but the photography is crisp and the setting is quite nice too. Carry on Nurse is efficiently directed by Gerald Thomas, the script is snappy and the gags are funny. The performances also add a lot, Hattie Jacques is superb while Joan Hickson, Joan Sims, Shirley Eaton, Leslie Phillips, Kenneth Williams and especially Wilfred Hyde-White are a lot of fun to watch. All in all, an enjoyable film and worth seeing for the cast. 7/10 Bethany Cox

The Carry On formula was a straightforward one: take any familiar stuffy Brit institution with its blustering authority figures and inflexible bureaucracy and reduce it to chaos with a little strategically applied low class maliciousness. The resulting mayhem and farcical runnings about inevitably turn pompous prigs into quivering jellies, to the roaring amusement of Brit audiences who lived their lives under the heel of such petty authorities and loved to watch them taken down.

Carry on Nurse, with its casual snipes at the Public Health, zany ward carryings on after hours by bored neglected patients fed up with their authoritarian Matron (Hattie Jacques, in her first of more than a dozen appearances as this familiar type) and fighting back in a series of anarchic stunts, shows the Carry On formula in ready-made form and is an excellent starting point for new viewers.

After the unexpected success of the previous outing, Carry On Nurse was soon to follow, utilising the same template and marking the first in a quartet of medical lampoons for the series. As the second film in the series, it still captures the naive charm of late '50s humour while exploring the more risque ground of the double entendre, but it is still a long way from the type of humour more associated with this franchise. Like the previous film, this film was based on a pre-existing property, Ring for Catty, and once again features a pair of romantic lovers around which a series of comic and sentimental episodes are loosely stitched together. This would be more of a problem if the gags weren't hilarious, which thankfully the majority are; the humour is far more gentle rather than forced, almost innocent at a glance, with a greater emphasis on misunderstanding, innuendo, smooth seducers and the accident-prone Joan Sims in her first appearance for the series. While the series certainly hasn't hit its stride as of yet, Carry On Nurse is still vulgar, silly and endearingly camp fun, managing to ensure the franchise's continued life.

I have long found it rather odd that British people find hospitals so hilariously funny. They are preoccupied with bed pans, injections and telling patients to get back into bed. The patients rarely look very sick and having once experienced the health scheme in England I wonder if the Carry on team need a reality check. Still at least England has a national health scheme as all civilised countries should. Charles Hawtrey is a delight. He is as always wonderfully supported by Kenneth Williams. Hatti Jaques is as always delightful and there are plenty of fine British actors such as Joan Hickson, Wifred Hyde White, Irene Handl, Joan Sims and the gang to keep the show going. Its a very warm little movie but not really very funny. It has one of the best endings which other users have discussed. The British have long found bottoms extremely funny. I must say I found the film much funnier as a kid and when I watched it last night I was a bit surprised that the film was not all that funny. The annoying Kenneth Connor is so irritating I am finding him the weak link in all these films. I might have found him funnier when I was young. Its rather fun watch patients smoke in hospital, flirt with nurses.. ah sweet nostalgia. Its in glorious black and white. Not as good as Carry on Regardless which followed. Kids will love the film.

Carry On Nurse was the second of the Carry On movies and also the first of the medical ones.

This one is about life in a ward in Haven Hospital. The patients include a boxer, nuclear scientist and a Major. We get to see one of them snogging a nurse, the Major always calling for help and, best of all, the patients trying to do a bunion operation while breathing in laughing gas! There is also an accident prone nurse to add to the chaos.

I find this to be one of the funnier Carry Ons and is shot well in black and white.

Now to the cast, which includes plenty of well known stars joining the regulars: Kenneth Williams, Hattie Jaques, Kenneth Conner, Charles Hawtrey, Leslie Phillips and the Carry On debuts of Joan Sims and June Whitfield. With Bond girl Shirley Eaton (before she was painted gold in Goldfinger), Bill Owen (Compo from Last Of the Sumer Wine), Norman Rossington, Joan Hickson (Miss Marple), Susan Shaw, Jill Ireland (Charles Bronson's wife) and Wilfred Hyde-White as the Major.

Have a good laugh with Carry On Nurse. Great fun.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5.

1959's "Carry On Nurse" was the 2nd and apparently most 'commercially successful' of the ~30 film Brit-com 'Carry On' series - despite being as bland as the preceding "Carry On Sergeant" (with even less actual plot from return writer Norman Hutis). It's a slice-of-life from a hospital's men's ward where the tame mischief of patients like Kenneth Williams, Kenneth Connor, Charles Hawtrey (poor), Leslie Phillips, Bill Owen & Terence Longdon irks and/or amuses their various visiting partners (inc June Whitfield & Irene Handl) and the nursing staff (inc Hattie Jacques (iconic), Joan Sims, Shirley Eaton & Joan Hickson). Forgettable - but the series WOULD get better.

Well, it was interesting. I laughed more at "Carry On Sergeant".

Fun seeing Wilfred Hyde White, an early Jill Ireland (but as a love interest for old Nasal Nose?) and June Whitfield, no doubt best known in America as Edina's mother on "Absolutely Fabulous."

The strongest point seemed to be waiting for Matron (what little I have seen of this woman, she is steadily emerging as the fave) to show up for inspection, but nothing really coming of it. I suppose the daffodil scene was bold for its time, must remember that. Certainly more daring than anything on American cinema.

I did enjoy Nurse Nightingale tho, keeping an eye on the patient.

There was just a bit of a hint of what is to come with Kenneth Williams and Hattie Jacques, as the two argued here over why he couldn't wear his robe while lying in bed.

And the laughing gas operation was highly original. I would wager that scene had something to do with why it got noticed in America.

Truthfully, I have never heard of any of these movies until a vacation to the UK back in '97.

It is an utterly fascinating idea to use the same actors over and over again in different settings tho.

The first was not made as a series, it was a one off, but since it was successful, they made a second, still no intention to go much further, so there was not much change from the first.

Not the greatest Carry-on, but it does have some of the team, Joan Sims, June Whitfield, Leslie Phillips do their first, for Charles Hawtrey, Kenneth Williams, Kenneth Conner and Hattie Jacques its the second and Bernard Bresslaw (well his legs) is uncredited. Most have passed away now, except Leslie Phillips, he is still going strong at 96. The main roles are Shirley Eaton and Terence Longden who were part of the early Carry-on Team, along with Norman Rossington, Bill Owen, others that were seasoned British actors doing a turn were Wilfrid Hyde-Whyte, Joan Hickson, Irene Handl and Jill Ireland.

Its more of a comedic melodrama, but well made and well acted, particularly the amateur operation scene. Made in the same style as CO Sergeant, but a different situation and about the same quality as that.

The second film from the Carry On team, following on from 'Carry On Sergeant', it is not as funny as its predecessor and very slow to build up, but it is quite amusing, especially in the final few scenes with the laughing gas. The storyline is again rather fragmented, the jokes again do not work all the time, and in fact there's little in it for me to recommend it more so than the average comedy; but it is a pleasure to see the delightful cast of the first film back in different roles, and those final scenes are almost worth the film themselves. The film was followed in the series by 'Carry On Teacher' - an entry that I would provide a stronger recommendation for than this one.

Carry on Nurse is the second Carry on film and it was a reworked stage farce called Ring for Catty.

The Carry on team end up in hospital as either patients or nurses. Bernie Bishop (Kenneth Connor) has a boxing injury. Percy Hickson (Bill Owen) had an accident at work. Jack Bell (Leslie Phillips) wants his bunion removed pronto as he needs to go on holiday.

Oliver Reckitt (Kenneth Williams) finds his stay at the hospital is getting in the way of his studies. The events are observed by local newspaper reporter Ted York (Terence Longdon) who has appendicitis. He also is smitten with Nurse Denton (Shirley Eaton.)

The Colonel (Wilfrid Hyde-White) causes chaos as he tries to get people to place bets and he plays pranks on the young nurses.

The movie works as the Carry ons are not yet formulaic. The characters are also not stereotyped. The best example is Kenneth Williams as the shy young man who falls for a girl.

There are hints of a few risque jokes, some double entendres. There is still some inventiveness in the comedy.

Eaton is sexy in heels and stockings. Phillips comes out with the catchphrases he became well known for in this movie.

The Colonel has the last scene with a daffodil acting as a thermometer.

This is the first "Carry On" movie I've ever seen and boy was I disappointed! I can see that if I had grown up with these movies as a kid I would have enjoyed them but what was edgy and naughty back in mid century is now just plain vanilla. Regarding the rating, if you subtract the nostalgia factor I can only give this movie a 3. A lot of reviewers rated this movie one of the better in the series; after seeing this one I'm not motivated in watching another. Oh, well, somethings age better than others; I watched a Charlie Chan movie the other night and was thoroughly entertained. Another piece of classic TV that I watched recently was an episode of the Jack Benny's TV show; it was brilliant. The comic actors can really make a difference; the particular show I watched had guest star Mel Blanc; along with Rochester they were all brilliant!!

If you grew up with these movies then have at it and enjoy your trip down memory lane, otherwise pass.

I watched this movie as a kid and still get a real thrill out of it. Never fail to laugh at Charles Hawtrey falling out of bed whilst playing his imaginary piano. A great way to switch of and have a few belly laughs after a day at the office. EXCELLENT MOVIE FUN.

Sadly not all the Carry On's were as good, the later productions being well below par. But most of the series were hugely enjoyable. I think they just ran out of steam at the end and became too smutty.

The previous writer said this was the first of the Carry on films. Actually it may have been as far as USA audiences were concerned but the first here in the UK was Carry On Sargent 1958. Carry on Nurse followed in 1959. Altogether there were a total of 32 Carry On movies the last being made in the 1990's with an almost totally new cast the others having died or moved on to new interests.

The last Carry on was Carry On Columbus which should have sunk before it reached the cinemas.

Hattie Jacques rules the nurses with a rod of iron as the matron; Wilfred Hyde-White has them all dancing to his tune as the "Colonel" and the rest of patients seem to be in far more danger inside this ward in the "Haven Hospital" than they might be outside walking down the motorway! Things lurch from minor disaster to minor disaster until "Jack" (Leslie Phillips) has to have his bunion operation deferred. He has other, urgent, plans and after a few glasses of bubbly the patients decide that this surgery is a dawdle, take over a theatre in the dead of night and attempt to remove it themselves! Enough to make your eyes water! Jacques was always in her element as the authoritarian figure and there are some fun pranks afoot to get revenge for her ruthlessness from both the poorly folks and from her put-upon nursing staff too. The humour is simple, there's a touch of slapstick and even a wee bit of romance - as well as some over sterilised catheter tubes and plenty of quirky character-driven sub-plots to give each of the cast their moment in the sun. Not my favourite, it's a bit too obvious much of the time - but it's still watchable if you get into the (surgical) spirit of the thing.

In Haven Hospital an entire ward is made up of men, ranging from the snooty Oliver Reckitt, the distracted Hinton, the gambling Colonel to the injured boxer Bernie Bishop. With nothing but men around young female nurses things could easily get out of hand but luckily the nurses are ruled by the Sister who in turn lives in fear of Matron, who rules the hospital with an iron fist. However when discipline is so strict, it is only a matter of time before the patients start to act out and rebel.

This is one of the earliest Carry On films in the long running series and it stands out from Constable and Sergeant because it has a much more ensemble feel to it and more of a rambling narrative that works better than the "serious story surrounded by sketches" stuff that the others had tries at doing. In this regard it does seem to keep up a constant tone and is amusing even if it rarely made me actually laugh out loud. This is the problem with a lot of the earlier films in the series – they lack the wit and cheeky humour of the films made in the heyday of the series and thus feel quite stiff and perhaps almost dull at times. There are enough amusing moments here to make it worth seeing but two or three good laughs in 90 minutes is not really enough I'm afraid.

The cast are the same from the first film with a few additions and yet still lacking some of the names that are synonymous with the series (Sid James in particular). Connor is OK in a simple role; Eaton is pretty to look at even if she has few laughs to her name; Hawtrey seems to be in his own film but is fun regardless; Phillips does his usual stuff but familiarity has not bred contempt in me and I enjoyed him; Hyde-White is good value and has the famous final scene to himself while Joan Sims runs around a lot in the way she did in the early days. Owen is OK but the film is stolen by a typical but funny turn from Williams and the very famous Matron character as played by Jacques, who suits the larger than life domineering character well.

Overall this is not a great film and it has not dated well at all. It is amusing but yet rarely that funny – a problem when it seems to be trying to be wacky and outrageous at each step. Time has not treated it well and it is the structured but cheeky Carry On films that have lasted the best. Fans of the series may like it and the cast certainly make it worth a look but this is nothing that special and were it not part of this famous series I doubt it would be seen that often by many viewers.