Carry on Sergeant

The first "Carry On" is not among the best: it's an all-too-typical army comedy, albeit an agreeable one. William Hartnell stars as a Sergeant about to retire but who has yet to win a contest for leading his barracks' finest platoon, so he determines to achieve just this with his last batch of recruits – unfortunately for him, these include Kenneth Connor, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Bob Monkhouse, Terence Longdon and Norman Rossington (actually, such a dumb subject that he's been rejected by several previous outfits and has been stranded in the camp ever since)! As can be seen, this same plot would eventually be worked into two later series outings – CARRY ON TEACHER (1959), down to the sentimental ending, and CARRY ON, CONSTABLE (1960), with Eric Barker once again as the disciplinarian but flustered Captain.

Shirley Eaton provides the eye-candy as Monkhouse's fresh bride, who contrives to get a job in the barracks' kitchen in order to be near him; her companion, ugly-duckling Dora Bryan, has set her eyes on hypochondriac Connor (who is forever appearing before medical officer Hattie Jacques with some mysterious ailment or other, until she decides to have him undertake a thorough test by several specialists so as to declare him physically fit once and for all!). Hawtrey is typically bumbling; Williams scores best as a smug, know-it-all recruit (he plays it quite straight and, again, variations of this were seen in CARRY ON NURSE [1959] and CARRY ON, CONSTABLE). Needless to say, once the boys realize what the outcome of their training would mean for the long-suffering Hartnell, they put their best foot forward to send him home with his well-deserved prize in tow.

And subtle this is, making Sergeant an extremely strange Carry On experience.

As the first of the original five films these form, along with Cabby, (not counting the intentional noir of Spying), the only examples of the series in black and white. Far away from the whistles and bells, boobs and bums of the accepted format, the largely all-male cast plays out a light character comedy. The few female roles are better developed than in the 70s; something you might suspect would be the other way around.

There's the odd sight of players who never made a repeat appearance, such as stars William Hartnell and smug Bob Monkhouse, here quite good in his dashing leading man role. Of what were to become the regulars, Charles Hawtrey is his usual self in one of his funniest performances, though it's weird to see Kenneth Williams actually acting. Here he plays it straight as Jim, the spoilt rich kid with a degree. His bolshie character – "don't you think this is a trifle out of date in a world bristling with H-bombs, Sergeant?" – is quite refreshing, and Williams plays him with admirable conviction. Later he would opt for camping up his roles in more and more over the top performances, which were nevertheless much funnier. This is what marks the fundamental difference between Sergeant and the majority of the franchise; it has a greater mark of quality, but it isn't that amusing.

Occasional lines show what was to come ("Your rank?" "Well that's a matter of opinion") and there's also the "raise your back sight" line and the scene with the fire extinguishers. Some of the jokes are a little obvious, such as Kenneth Connor's vaguely irritating hypochondriac being called Strong. Though the relative cleanness of his ultimate medical check up shows how much broader and coarser the series was to become. This is more in the traditional mould, where the comedy arises out of the situation, rather than the situation being contrived around non-stop jokes and innuendo. While the next year's follow-up, Nurse would see quite racy shaving and daffodil scenes, it was still tied in to the same sort of (relative) naturalistic performances. It wasn't until around 1962's Cruising that the Carry Ons as they're most remembered started to emerge. This is strange, because while the first seven films with their sub-Ealing sensibilities now seem out of place in the franchise, they ARE the Carry On franchise. The Talbot Rothwell scripts which are so well remembered are actually subversions of the series into broader comedy. Certainly dated, Sergeant's humour is unusually underdefined, particularly in a modern context. This is the film all over, then: commendable, if not actually all that funny.

Great film and a good start to the most successful and longest lived film comedy series in history. Unlike the later films this film and all Carry On's till about 1965/66 relied less on the trademark bawdy humour but on comedy scenario, which in someways makes the early Carry on's more endearing than their successors. Kenneth Connor as Hypocondriac Horace Strong is gut-wrenchingly funny. Other regulars also make their Carry On debuts in this first movie such as Kenneth Williams, Hattie Jacques, Charles Hawtrey and Terry Scott, (Although 10 years would elapse before Scott would make his next Carry On appearance). The early films had their own set of regulars, and Eric Barker, Bill Owen, (Yes THE Bill Owen), and Terence Longden, would make regular appearences thoughout these formative years. The Romantic Leads were played by The late, great Bob Monkhouse, (Yes! THE Bob Monkhouse), and Shirley Eaton, (Yes! Goldfinger's Shirley Eaton), and it's a shame that Bob Monkhouse never made another Carry on movie, but he decided to become a household name on British TV as Mr Gameshow himself. The Title role is wonderfully played by William Hartnell (Yes! Dr Who William Hartnell). Watch this movie it's funny as hell.

Approaching retirement, Sergeant Grimshawe wants to go out on a high of sorts and agrees to a bet that he can train his squad of new recruits to win the Star Squad prize. Sadly for him he had not reckoned on the hand that fate would deal him with a terrible motley crew. His squad includes hypochondriac Horace Strong, newly wed Charlie Sage, stuck up James Bailey and the, well, light-footed Peter Golightly. Can he turn them into the platoon of his career using the softly softly approach of will they just be a pathetic shower.

Now I'm not sure if the series of films was always going to be "Carry On" or if it just seemed a good link from this film, which uses the line "carry on Sergeant" several times – that may be the source of the title or it may have been as a result of the title; chicken or egg to me I'm afraid. Either way this is the first of what we now know to be the long running series of British humour that was Carry On and, as a starting point it is amusing and lightly enjoyable as it lacks the crude excesses of the later films. Here the plot is simple – there are a load of new recruits and they are all useless and fall around a lot to the dismay of their platoon sergeant. The jokes are all fairly obvious and none of them ever made me laugh out loud even if they just about did enough to keep me amused. Fans of the series will notice some aspects missing from the usual Carry On mix but for my money the things that were missing in terms of tone were not too badly missed.

With a more "normal" approach from the film (very much of its time) the cast have less excessive touches to their character but they still do well with what they have. Monkhouse is a surprising straightman, driving the main narrative but he is still pretty good. The regulars are all enjoyable with lower-key performances than we would get later. Kenneth Williams is nicely restrained but isn't as funny as he was later on; Kenneth Moore is very funny with his character and Charles Hawtrey does his usual stuff to good effect. Hartnell adds a sense of class to the film and people like Jacques and Scott are effective.

Overall, fans of the series might not like this more restrained opener but it is light and amusing fare if you're in the mood and as long as you don't expect too many belly laughs. Fun in a low-key sort of way – surprising considering the direction the series then took.

In 1960 Britain was the first European country to scrap conscription . This is not to be confused by the American style draft system because with very few exceptions all able bodied men who turned 18 had to serve two years in the forces regardless of social and educational background . The scrapping of conscription was a good thing because there's nothing more dangerously useless to an army than a soldier who doesn't want to be a soldier

I'm pointing this out because that's the concept behind CARRY ON SERGEANT - A professional NCO who receives the worst possible raw recruits into his platoon and you find yourself questioning who you're supposed to feel sorry for the most , the recruits who don't want to be there or the sergeant who doesn't want them there but that wouldn't have been the case when this film was made , a 1958 audience would have related more to the recruits than to the sergeant . This sort of idea will go above the heads of a modern day audience and the film has dated very badly not least because it's the very first in CARRY ON franchise . Anyone expecting sexual innuendos will be very upset to see they're more or less conspicuous by their absence . In fact with the exception of a few cast members like Kenneth Connor , Charles Hawthrey and Terry Scott a lot of people would with hindsight have trouble believing that this was in fact part of the CARRY ON franchise

I've got to be honest and say the lack of the CARRY ON trademarks is no bad thing because if double entredes is the selling point of a comedy then 1958 censorship rules would have meant the innuendo would have been curtailed and that would have meant no humour full stop . Instead this is a gentle but ultimately heart warming English comedy featuring a typecast but impressive enough William Hartnell training a platoon he thinks is destined for failure