Carry on Regardless

This Carry On does not seem to have a story line- it is more of a series of sketches linked together only by "Helping Hands". However this is a good one, NOT quite what the tagline suggests, but a good one. Most of the main stars (to date) are here, and they all get their own sketches. My fav being the Kenneth Williams/Chimp one (But this could be because KW is the best "Carry On-er"!). Other highlights are the Joan Sims' sketch at a wine tasting party and the end scene whare all the gang demolish a house. Apart from Stanley Unwin (I can't stand the way he talks) this is a good-un.

This is a great Carry On. The unemployed group together (under Sid James aka Mr Handy) to provide 'services' to various people for a fee. Special treat is Stanley Unwin who is desperately trying to warn them of their impending eviction, but due to his gobbldygook language, they don't understand. Until Kenneth Williams (an equally skilled orator) comes to the rescue. Best bit definitely Kenneth Connor in the Gentlemans club. Almost as good - Kenneth Williams walking the Chimp, Kenneth Williams interpreting for the German Woman, Kenneth Connor and Joan Simms (No sweets, no draws), Stanley Unwin all the time, Charles Hawtrey boxing ..... no, there's too many good bits to recount.

This film is definitely in the top three of Carry On films.

Alongside the early line-up of usual players - Kenneth Williams, Joan Sims, Charles Hawtrey, Kenneth Connor and Sid James - this film is notable for its host of cameo roles by other comedy greats. Some, such as Hattie Jacques and Fenella Fielding, had greater prominence in other Carry On films. Some, such as Betty Marsden, became famous elsewhere in comedy. Further familiar faces in cameo roles here include Molly Weir, Terence Alexander, Joan Hickson and Nicholas Parsons.

The five main actors listed above are ably assisted by Liz Frazer, Bill Owen, Esma Cannon, Terence Longdon and Stanley Unwin, all united around an agency that aims to help customers in whatever way they can. Hence the great range of cameo roles available.

Joan Sims performs one of her greatest drunk roles; Kenneth Connor does his best tongue-tied shy man, both in the company of temptress Fenella Fielding and when he's attempting to give up smoking; Charles Hawtrey wins a boxing match; and Kenneth Williams gets to walk a very unusual pet.

The humour in this film is far superior to the sex and toilet jokes that later filled (and possibly destroyed) this great series of films. This is a film that the family can watch time and time again.

With work sparse in England, the labour exchanges have become almost a social club with so many men hanging around without joy. It is in this environment that Bert Handy spots an opening for a firm carrying out any odd-jobs on request and thus the "Helping Hands Agency" is born. Recruiting a gang of odds and sods, Bert quickly finds that there are all manner of jobs out there to be done that don't fit anywhere. However can his men all cope with the sheer range of jobs thrown at them? About 10 minutes into this film I started to realise that this had no plot. At regular intervals from then on this view was reinforced as the film just became a series of sketches using the odd-job company as a frame for setting each one up. This sounds like a criticism because it is but surprisingly it was not a real problem because the sketches are mostly pretty funny and the amusement they make up for the total lack of any actual narrative drive. The sketches mostly stand alone but are not that contrived or forced – only the mixed up jobs part is a little forced; the wine tasting, the translated argument, the home improvement show and others are all consistently amusing even if none of them had me rolling in the aisles.

The cast all take to the sketch format with their comedy background. James has the least role since he has to act as the glue holding the funny bits together but he does get some laughs and he is rarely less than interesting and amusing. Connor, Williams and Hawtrey all do the characters they had done in the previous four films – all of them are funny and they do well in their various sketches. Owen joins the male cast in a minor role while Sims and Fraser are stuck with "pretty young girl" roles which minimise their comic impact a little bit. Support from Jacques, Hickson, Cannon, Alexander and others is good and they make the film feel fuller than it would have done with only the main roles filled with well known faces.

Overall on the surface of things this is a plot less mess that has no rhyme or reason to it; however it does set up a series of sketches that are mostly pretty amusing. It won't be remember as fondly as the later Carry On films that produced laughs with a fuller plot and costumes but it is still an enjoyable film that shows how good the group were as comics. Not quite what you think of when you think Carry On but an entertaining collection of sketches nonetheless.

Despite their being much decried at the time of their release, the Carry on Films are, and will become even more so with time, an integral part of English Comedy Culture. Most of the protagonists of these films are as of today, dead, and nothing as side-splitting has unfortunately come to replace them. They are films you can watch over and over again, when you are feeling down in the mouth, even when you know the stories. In France, the equivalent is called ' L'Equipe du Splendide " who made films of the "Les Bronzés" series during the seventies, but their output was far less prolific and the protagonists are still alive today as far as I know. As for the carry-ons, there are so many of them, that one is never short of a good laugh, and today, there is none of the good light hearted humour of those fifties and sixties. Unfortunately, the late twentieth century plague called "political correctness" has seen to that and what a shame it is too ! Carry on regardless is one of the funniest carry-ons, unfortunately in Black and White, but with the added attraction of Stanley Unwin speaking "gobbledygook" (charabia) and this had me reeling in fits of laughter. Mind you, I'd already seen Stanley several times on English TV years ago but I can't remember in what context. Anyway, carry on watching ..............they're nearly all now available on DVD for about £10 or 15 € !!!