Carry on Screaming!

I have to admit that this is the best Carry on Film of the series. It had me laughing throughout.

There were great performances throughout and I particularly liked the late Harry H. Corbett's role as Detective Sergeant Bung in it.

The plot was mad. The late Kenneth Williams played Dr. Watt who was the fiendish brains behind an evil plot. He had a huge Frankenstein-like henchman called Oddbod who would kidnap women for him. He would then turn the women into dummies and sell them to a local shop. Crazy eh?

I won't spoil any of the scenes for you but they are all funny and there's some great dialogue throughout. As for the ending, it had me in stitches.

I really believe this is the best Carry on Film in the series so I recommend checking it out.

Possibly the finest of the Carry On series, this film benefits hugely from the acting talents of the late, great Harry H. Corbett and the fabulously sexy Fenella Fielding. These two provide the usual Sid James / Barbara Windsor roles but play them with far more subtlety and aplomb than usual. Talbot Rothwell delivers a fine screenplay that beautifully lampoons Hammer Horror films while Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale and Peter Butterworth serve up great supporting performances. Jim Dale is worth a special mention here as a great physical comedian who never really received the recognition he deserved for his 'full body' comedy – he could teach the over rated Jim Carey a thing or two. 'Screaming', along with 'Khyber' and 'Cleo' remain great British comedies that have outlived the contempt and snobbery that was initially hurled against them to emerge as fine examples British cinema and humour. 7/10.

The Carry On films were at their best in the early days when they offered more than just saucy double entendres. Don't get me wrong, there *are* plenty of great double entendres here, but they're set against the backdrop of a horror spoof. The unusual setting gives it a freshness that the other Carry Ons lack.

A changed cast helps too. Harry Corbett shines in the sort of role which normally goes to Sid James. He makes the part his own, only failing in the scenes where he argues with his wife. There's just no chemistry between him and Joan Sims to show why these people were once in love with each other.

But there's chemistry between Corbett and Fenella Fielding, the other guest star. She makes a wonderful evil seductress. Of the regulars, Williams is best. His usual eccentric, camp performance takes on an edge of madness that grows as the film progresses.

Recommended.

Carry On Screaming is the 12th film of the popular Carry On series of film's that began in 1958 and ended in 1992. Behind it are the usual team with Gerald Thomas directing, Peter Rogers producing and Talbot Rothwell writing the screenplay. There's no Sid James, Barbara Windsor or Hattie Jacques for this one, but most of the regular actors appear, with Harry H. Corbett joining the cast for the first and only time. The film is a parody of the Hammer Horror film's that were also massively popular during the 50s and 60s.

Fresh from spoofing the historical epic with Carry On Cleo (1964), and the western with Carry On Cowboy (1965), the Carry On team were well into their stride and hitting a purple patch. One that was arguably their best run of film's that culminated with Carry On Up the Khyber in (1968). "Screaming" is a delight, one of the franchise's most fondly remembered offerings. The standard sexy innuendo and nudge nudge nudgery so befitting the series is still there, but as with the previous two outings, it's quality satire enveloped. With the makers showing no little amount of skill and knowing of the genre they spoof.

Plot wise it's an amalgamation of classic horror, it basically uses House Of Wax as its starting point and runs with it. Taking in anything from Frankenstein and Dr Jeykll & Mr Hyde along the way; all cloaked in a Gothic, fog bound Edwardian England sheen. The sets (particularly the riotous Dr Watt's (Williams) laboratory) and effects are suitably Hammer like, as is the colour; where Alan Hume's photography nails the lurid tone required.

Of course none of the production value matters if a horror/comedy isn't funny. Thankfully "Screaming" is, be it the wonderfully alluring Fenella Fileding vamping it up, or the lovable twin menace of Oddbod and Oddbod Jr, the visual joys equal the sharpness in the script. There's also in jokes to be sampled too, while the film is not without a creepy vibe to accentuate the sheepish blend of sex and murder. Sid James was unavailable due to commitments to work with Tony Hancock, so in came Corbett, who delivers a blast of a turn, with his "change" sequence a laugh out loud moment. Carry On Screaming doesn't feature three of its most well known stars, with even Charles Hawtrey only cameoing here after being shoe horned in at the request of the American distributors. That it's one of the best in the series is quite a feat. Frying Tonight indeed. 8/10

This delightful spoof on the contemporaneous – and equally popular – Hammer Horror style is undeniably a highlight of the "Carry On" series: the film is remarkably evocative with respect to color scheme, sets, lighting, even the score (though the rock'n'roll title track is somewhat unwarranted)...but, then, it's regrettably neglected whenever genre parodies are discussed (in my opinion, it's a must for any Hammer devotee)!

The presence of series stalwarts Sidney James and Kenneth Connor is missed here; however, atypical 'recruits' Harry H. Corbett (in his one and only "Carry On") and Fenella Fielding (as a Morticia Addams-type nymphomaniac – she had appeared in CARRY ON REGARDLESS [1961] as well as Hammer's own spoof, THE OLD DARK HOUSE [1963]) more than make up for this. Among the typical horror elements we find here are Kenneth Williams as Mad Scientist, Zombie and Invisible Man all rolled into one, two Frankenstein Monsters named Oddbod and Oddbod Jr. (a nod, no doubt, to Oddjob from the James Bond adventure GOLDFINGER [1964] – it's interesting that the second creature is generated when electricity is applied merely to the missing finger of the first), two separate Hydes, a Mummy, plenty of wax figures, a sinister-looking butler, etc. Incidentally, the police investigation is redolent of a Holmes/Watson mystery (after all, Hammer themselves had filmed a version of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES [1959]) – with Corbett and Peter Butterworth making for a great bumbling pair of sleuths.

Series regular Charles Hawtrey only has a bit part here as a tell-tale lavatory attendant/gardener, but his messy death is hilarious; ditto future Dr. Who Jon Pertwee as an eccentric police-lab technician – ironically, there's a "Who's On First?"-type routine concerning Williams' character (called Dr. Watt)! Jim Dale and Angela Douglas are again the young lovers, while Joan Sims' role is practically a repeat of her nagging wife from CARRY ON CLEO (1964). By the way, the flustered mannequin shop owner is played by Frank Thornton, later of the ARE YOU BEING SERVED? (1972) TV series. As expected, Talbot Rothwell's script contains a lot of unsubtle puns – but the film itself is capped by quite a terrific (if hysterical) climax to rival Hammer's best efforts.