Carry on Cowboy

When Judge Burke sends for help to rid Stodge City of The Rumpo Kid and his gang of trouble makers, he's delighted to hear that he is being sent a trained Marshall. Trouble is is that it's Marshall P. Knutt, a trained sanitary engineer.

In 1964 the "Carry On" team has ventured into their first parody of the movies with Carry On Cleo. A huge success, and arguably the best film of the lot to many fans, it prompted the Thomas/Rogers/Rothwell team to believe that movie pastiche's was the way forward for the franchise. Enter Carry On Cowboy a year later. With a knowing of the genre and all its conventions, screenwriter Talbot Rothwell produced one of the better parodies to have ever been made. The stock cartoon fervour and cheeky asides still exist, but Carry On Cowboy is a more leaner, even darker "Carry On" than any of the others film's in the series. In its own right, with out the "Carry On" name attached, it's a fine comedy, with dashes of violence and even a revenge thread running thru it (courtesy of the gorgeous Angela Douglas as Annie Oakley). It's also one of the few film's in the series to demand a bit more from its actors outside of guffaw jinx and innuendos. Sid James, Kenneth Williams and Joan Sims rise to the challenge, happy in the knowledge that Jim Dale and Charles Hawtrey were there to grab (and get) the laughs. 8/10

I have a weakness for western movies and maybe that's the reason why I enjoy this one so much when I find so many others in the series to be bland and boring. It predates Blazing Saddles and, to my mind, makes better use of genre clichés.

Sid James is superb as the Rumpo Kid. As are the rest of the regulars though Kenneth Williqams' accent takes some getting used to. The studio sets look suitably like the American frontier and the plot involves all the western conventions from cowardly sheriffs, Indians and the obligatory bar room brawl.

Carry on laughing indeed.

Not as good as the last one I saw, but it had it's moments. Jim Dale was funny as the Marshall, and Angela Douglas (The Four Feathers) really spiced up Annie Oakley.

Kenneth Williams was very funny as the judge, with Sid James as The Rumpo Kid. They all looked like they were having a real good time making this film.

Along with Angela Douglas, this was the first film for Bernard Bresslaw (Little Heap), Peter Butterworth Doc), and Playboy model Margaret Nolan (Dink in Goldfinger).

Not one of the best, but funny, nonetheless.

I wasn't sure if Carry On Cowboy was going to be English tourists to the American west or not.

Well, it wasn't. I wanted to compare it to the Doctor Who episode "The Gunfighters" but to tell the truth, that wouldn't be fair.

This was actually good. No reason why the American accent, western or otherwise, should be difficult for these skilled masters of the language to duplicate.

Kenneth Williams was lost however in his mayor. Shockingly interesting to see him delivering such a performance, but they should have done more like Carry On Cleo and allowed the caricatures they portrayed to still shine through.

Or better yet, do some mock-up of the dialects like "Allo, Allo" used to do.

Then it was extremely funny for Hawtrey to not attempt anything different when doing the native chief.

As an American, I can point out one cliche that was inaccurate. When Williams was shocked at the dancehall girls. That was always a man of the cloth, never a politician. But then I suppose he was sticking to the Kenneth Williams' Carry On persona, wasn't he?

Sid James really surprised me with his western speech. I was waiting for some "oy" or "look 'ere, mate" to slip out, but either it never did or I wasn't paying attention.

Jim Dale looks like Michael Palin. That was half who I thought it was when he was in "Carry On Spying".

And then there was that monster of a scene-stealer again, the soothsayer from "Carry On Cleo" this time as the sheriff. What a talent this underrated fellow, Jon Pertwee, was.

Best known for a sci fi tv show, a good one, yes, but still.

As I sit with just one more "Carry On" that I possess on DVD to review (I've already watched it), I can say that for some odd reason "Carry On Teaching" was my fave, perhaps because it was the first one that hit me funniest and raised my expectations, whether they were met or not, I can honestly say I didn't know what to expect here.

Well, on to the last Carry On film in this set: Carry On Screaming.

A sanitary inspector is mistaken for a law marshal in a slummy western town, and is expected to sweep away the gang terrorizing the habitants.

Unexpectedly clever, engagingly performed and enjoyably spirited western spoof that ranks among the best of the series.