Ein total verrückter Urlaub

The Carry On team tackle that other British staple of the 1970s, the package holiday to the Med for some sun, sea, and a bit of 'how's your father?'; the result is another seriously silly caper full of low-brow humour and cheap titillation that is more fun than doing a drunken flamenco on a tapas bar table. Olé!

Kenneth Williams plays travel guide Stuart Farquhar (Stupid what?), who leads a troupe of happy-go-lucky holidaymakers to the resort of Elsbels. With Sid James, Charles Hawtree, Joan Sims, Babs Windsor, Kenneth Connor, and Bernard Besslaw amongst the travellers, hilarity is most definitely on the agenda, especially since the hotel they are booked into is not only seriously understaffed, but also isn't quite finished being built.

Having left their inhibitions back in England, the Gang proceed to drink, fight and flirt their way through the week, getting in trouble with the local police, partaking of a suspicious looking aphrodisiac purchased on an excursion, and partying while the hotel collapses, all of which allows for plenty of smutty innuendo, daft slapstick, and a spot of welcome T&A from Carry On regular Windsor, babes Carol Hawkins and Sally Geeson, and total hottie Gail Grainger as Williams' sexy assistant Miss Plunkett.

7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.

The 24th film in the Carry On series finds the cast partaking in a package holiday to Els Bels. Once arriving they find their hotel still under construction and nobody much likes the company they are in!

This is actually one film that boasted the most regular Carry On cast members, something which carries the pic up above and through some choppy waters. Leaning heavily towards the more bawdy side of the franchise, it obviously couldn't appeal to everyone. This is the 1970s in Britain and it was becoming a place of decadent sexuality, which sees the makers earnest in their attempts to capture the zeitgeist of the time. Also one tends to think they had to be aware of the more openly sexual nature of some other comedy films of the era, thus they had to compete.

This is great fun for series fans, an absolute ramshackle holiday experience, the very definition of a cheap deal that "WAS" too good to be true. The makers bombard us purposely with stereotypes - the Brits abroad crassness, the bad food and excessive drinking, the undersexed and the oversexed clientèle, bad weather, nudity, a raucous set to at a red light establishment, sexual stimulants and on it goes - no sand pebble is left unturned.

Cast are great, reliable sorts with such cheeky material to work from. Peter Buterworth takes the leading honours as the hotel manager trying to convince everyone this hotel from hell is a paradise! and he is well supported by June Whitfield who makes one of her more expansive ventures into the series. The double entendre's flow, the chaotic scenes stack up and the corn is well and truly laid on a plate. Suffice to say this is not about pathos or intelligent meanings!

The finale is two-fold and great for fans, the drunken party on the last night at the hotel literally is crash bang and wallop, while the collective character closure at Sid and Joan's English bar has a warmness to it that fans can relate to. Charles Hawtrey, the legendary skeleton on legs, left the series here, playing an alcoholic rogue, the makers accepting his real life issues and incorporating it into his farewell performance for some poignant reflection. 7/10

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).

RANKING: one of the best of the modern-dress ones. The humour is a bit more smutty than in some but it's not dirty - it's still funny.

TYPICAL: Like all their non-historical films since CAMPING, they're all the exact same story but with different names. By 1972 when they made this, they'd got the recipe just right, it just clicks. Whilst hardly the height of sophisticated wit, every single line of the script seems to be a silly smutty double entendre. It's almost clever! One of the running gags is a local drink which makes you see the young ladies in their underwear - it's that sort of humour so if If you like this type of thing, this will be perfect for you. Unlike the last few films they did, this one's genuinely funny because it's silly and smutty rather than rude and offensive.

SEXY LADIES: The other essential of a Carry On film is saucy, sexy ladies and in this one we have them in abundance. The man (definitely a man) who did the casting must have particularly enjoyed that job. What's really surprising is how weirdly charming and innocent the gratuitous nudity is! Somewhere on set someone must have been told to ring a bell every five minutes signifying that whichever young lady was in frame at that moment they had to get their boobs out. The worthy winner of this 'adult' musical chairs game is usually Barbara Windsor. Her frequent toplessness is however never seedy and never vulgar, it's always done for laughs which makes her so endearing.

I don't know how well perceived the Carry On's are in the States, but I like to think us Brits consider them a national treasure. This is on the usual format, lots of characters, lots of silly antics, etc, but again the British films of these genre are always getting on the wrong end of critisism, they are harmless fun, and the Carry On's are the best for this, put them on if you are feeling down, or ill, they are guaranteed to make you feel better, whether you're a fan of the King of cool himself (Sir)Sidney James, Kenneth Williams' overly campness, Charles Hawtrey's ability to mock himself, Barbara Windsor's amazing sexiness,Kenneth Connor, Peter Butterworth etc etc, this has it all. buy them all*******