Don't Lose Your Head

CARRY ON DON'T LOSE YOUR HEAD was made at the peak of the popularity of the Carry On films, where they could afford to splash out on lavish sets, costumes and locations in movies set in various historical eras. It's a pretty typical entry in the film series, and not the most appealing one I've seen; by now, at least half of the jokes were feeling quite stale, to me, and not a patch on the CARRY ONs of seven, eight years before.

That being said, there's still much to enjoy here, and aficionados of the films will be in their element. A delightfully weaselly Kenneth Williams camps it up as Citizen Camembert, Robespierre's right-hand man whose job it is to outwit the Black Fingernail, a masked folk hero who keeps on freeing aristocrats from the guillotine.

Sid James bags the role of the Fingernail and appears to be in his element, with plenty of his trademark dirty laughter and energy to spare. He's supported by a virtually wasted Jim Dale, whose role seems to be entirely redundant, and Joan Sims in one of those nagging wife type roles she always seemed to occupy in later years. The best cast members are Charles Hawtrey as the fey Duc de Pommfrit and Peter Butterworth as the befuddled Citizen Bidet.

The gags set in and around the guillotine are by far my favourite parts of this movie, although there's a rousing and elaborate sword-fight at the climax to get your teeth into. CARRY ON DON'T LOSE YOUR HEAD also contains one of my favourite gags of all time: Hawtrey is brought a letter just as he's about to be beheaded, and he tells the messenger to drop it into the basket where he'll "read it later". Class stuff.

Misfiring Carry On (the 'Carry On' name was dropped during a spat with a distributor), with plenty of good moments that don't quite add up to a top-rank whole. The plot leans heavily on Barry K. Barnes' 1937 offering The Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel, with Sid James in the Barnes role, Jim Dale in Anthony Bushell's, Kenneth Williams in Francis Lister's, Joan Sims in Margaretta Scott's, Charles Hawtrey in O. B. Clarence's, and Dany Robin in Sophie Stewart's. Most of them have a great time, especially Williams, Sims and Hawtrey, while Sid James dominates the plot.

Jim Dale has a thankless unmemorable supporting role, and the wheeze of casting a sexy French actress (her career was drawing to a close at this point), like that of casting Phil Silvers in the previous entry Follow That Camel, was a mistake, failing to generate international interest while diluting the very English comedy. Like Silvers, Robin wanders through the film gamely with a strong sense that she has no idea what is really happening, but, hey, a job's a job.

Plenty of good moments and lines, usually delivered by Hawtrey or Sims ("Come my dear, shall we take a walk in the arbour?" "Oh, I 'ad no idea we were so close to the sea"), and lots of great character names and puns, while Williams' sharp intakes of breath get more and more exaggerated as the film goes on. Watch out for a good ad lib from Williams when Peter Butterworth accidentally knocks his hat off. There is a strong sense that the English may be less stylish and clever than the French, but they are more easygoing and fun, and generally better - in a strong tradition of lampoons of Napoleon and French centralisation that also reaches forward to the Brexit debate.

But the plot is quite tiresome, and the climax, with a huge sword fight in which various stuntmen gradually ruin Camembert's ill-gotten art collection is extraordinarily tedious. Moments stay in the memory, but the film as a whole does not.

Having been replaced by Harry H. Corbett for Carry On Screaming following a heart attack, Sid James rejoins the Carry On line-up for Don't Lose Your Head and puts in one of his funniest performances ever as British dandy Sir Rodney Ffing, who, along with his good friend Lord Darcy Pue (Jim Dale), travels to France to rescue French aristocrats from the guillotine. Whether camping it up in powdered wig and make up while affecting a lisp as the effete Ffing, or cutting a dash as his daring alter ego The Black Fingernail, James can do no wrong, milking every gag for all its worth, wringing laughs from even the corniest double entendre. Sid's most definitely back and he's loving every minute!

The rest of the regulars are also on fine form: Dale is delightful as Ffing's foppish pal Darcy, Williams plays the part of French Chief of Secret Police Camembert with gusto, Hawtrey is hilarious as wimpish aristocrat Duc de Pommfrit, Peter Butterworth does bumbling brilliantly as Citizen Bidet, and the lovely Joan Sims (my favourite Carry On performer) is utterly charming as ample-bosomed Désirée Dubarry. Of course, it doesn't hurt that they're working with such a wonderful script, which is sharper than the blade on Madame la Guillotine: the gags flow thick and fast, with fantastic puns, impeccable innuendo, cheesy one-liners, and even a couple of wonderful moments where the characters break the fourth wall to address the audience.

After much hilarity, viewers are treated to a rousing finale featuring a surprisingly well choreographed sword-fight scene involving James, Hawtree and Dale (Sid seems remarkably sprightly for a man whose recently had a heart attack!) and lots of knockabout stunts, including copious chandelier swinging. It's a great way to conclude what proves to be one of the most enjoyable entries in the series.

Marking a distinct production change from the first twelve and originally released without the iconic prefix, Don't Lose Your Head sees the team raising a hearty two-fingered salute to Madame Guillotine and the entire kingdom of France. A gloriously vulgar romp, the script is rife with iconic wordplay, puns, one-liners and patented double entendres. The film is easily one of the most lavish of the series, a trait that tends to be shared with most historical Carry Ons, with some excellent production values; the sets and costumes belie the low budget. More plot-heavy than most the story drives the narrative rather than the gags, in this sense, it is a more specific parody than the broader joke-led scripts of many other films. Bolstered by a unique style of swordplay in a prolonged swashbuckling finale amongst the general saucy mayhem, Don't Lose Your Head benefits from a cast on top form having the best of times as they carry on chopping their way through history, almost playing like a feature-length episode of Blackadder the Third.

The plot should have made this one of the better Carry on films, especially when you hear the premise. Unfortunately, I found a lot of the jokes to be unsatisfactory and not very memorable along with the rather one dimensional characters who all seem the same. It was fun to see Sid James along with Kenneth Williams playing the baddie but apart from that it's only a below average film.

4/10: Could have been great, but isn't and it is dull.