Carry on England

Rubbish! Absolute rubbish! The Carry Ons were really running out of steam here, and all that can be said in favour of this one is that it isn't as bad as the next one, Carry On Emmannuelle. Too many new faces, the few remaining old hands completely wasted, too many actors known from TV appearing here in their TV roles. Too much nudity. The Carry Ons work best when they suggest and joke about sex. This is painful, and should be avoided.

Set in 1940 in England, this is a story about a particular military outfit made up of men and woman who were particularly inept, lazy and probably a bit oversexed. Sid James, who wasn't supposed to be here anyway, passed away before the film was done. He could have brought some life into this, he was a great comedian. This movie is very shrill, lots of yelling, lots of noise. Does the new general of this company whip these people into shape? Do you care? The jokes are very obvious here, and I was only semi-amused a few times. The movie seems labored, and that is not good for a Carry On film. I would only recommend this film for Carry On completists. Otherwise, there are other films in the series which are infinitely better (examples are Carry On Doctor, Carry On Abroad, Carry On-Don't Lose Your Head etc).

During WW II., a short but aggressive major tries to regulate an experimental "mixed" military team, consisting of both men and women.

One of the worst in the series that was really at the end of its tether, a dimly unamusing comedy with feeble and well-telegraphed jokes and very uncomfortable cast. An appalling and alarming sign that too many new faces appeared on both sides of the camera, none of which having much fun.

Unable to raise a few laughs, CARRY ON ENGLAND is the swan song of the serie. Even afterwards, CARRY ON EMMANUELLE or/and COLOMBUS made it too painful to live through.

The screenplay is simply non-existent, just a symptom of one. The lead characters are poor. The cinematography is plain Tv-movie like. The routine is based on trousers taken off, shoutings, lovemaking then trousers taken off, shoutings, lovemaking then, oh, I forgot, some breasts quickly shown. Simply NOT FUNNY.

Joan Sims has a ridiculous part and it's real shame, being the only decent actress all around. Judy Geeson is awfully bad, giving the worst performance of her career with Norman J Warren's INSEMINOID. Peter Rogers & Gerald Thomas were incapable of finding a new breath in the Carry On serie : the new actors just don't work together and the screenwriters (they were two!!!) just try to put some rehash of some stuff made years ago and way much better.

I really missed Hattie Jacques, Kenneth Williams, Barbara Windsor and the whole bunch. They were worth watching any Carry On even though the screenplays were really poor, like in CARRY ON AT YOUR CONVENIENCE. But I guess everything has an end, but this one is really painful to watch. My fast forward button still remember it!

If you want to try something really funny, then get CARRY ON MATRON or CARRY ON UP THE KHYBER, these are are true gems. But you can pass that one.

2/10

A slow-action and grimly humourless replay of Carry On Sergeant, Carry On England misjudges the saucy seaside charm of the franchise and, in an attempt to keep pace with comedy trends, replaces it with on-the-nose smut and low-level sex action playing out like a misguided, mash-up episode of Dad's Army and It Ain't Half Hot Mum. Even with the ever-enthusiastic Windsor Davies and Melvyn Hayes playing almost carbon copies of their respective characters from the latter sitcom, the paucity of the script and concept behind it is plain to see. The sexual frustration, constant innuendo and innocent banter have been completely abandoned and in its place is a more vulgar and arrogant style of comedy that struggles even with lavatorial humour; besieged by a steady stream of dreadful puns, single-handedly having to put across the worst selection of jokes in Carry On history with conviction. The more open-minded attitude to sex, with sequences featuring topless nudity only adds to the feeling that the series is, by now, clutching at straws. Even with a couple of funny moments and a clutch of actors always worth watching regardless of poor material, for a comedy, Carry On England is a pretty dismal affair as if the entire life force and humour have been drained from it by some vampiric entity. A shambolic mess consisting of the lowest hanging fruit when it comes to lewd humour and pathetic attempts at slapstick, it plays more like an obscene parody of a Carry On film than an actual Carry On film.