Carry on Abroad

The 24th film in the Carry On series finds the cast partaking in a package holiday to Els Bels. Once arriving they find their hotel still under construction and nobody much likes the company they are in!

This is actually one film that boasted the most regular Carry On cast members, something which carries the pic up above and through some choppy waters. Leaning heavily towards the more bawdy side of the franchise, it obviously couldn't appeal to everyone. This is the 1970s in Britain and it was becoming a place of decadent sexuality, which sees the makers earnest in their attempts to capture the zeitgeist of the time. Also one tends to think they had to be aware of the more openly sexual nature of some other comedy films of the era, thus they had to compete.

This is great fun for series fans, an absolute ramshackle holiday experience, the very definition of a cheap deal that "WAS" too good to be true. The makers bombard us purposely with stereotypes - the Brits abroad crassness, the bad food and excessive drinking, the undersexed and the oversexed clientèle, bad weather, nudity, a raucous set to at a red light establishment, sexual stimulants and on it goes - no sand pebble is left unturned.

Cast are great, reliable sorts with such cheeky material to work from. Peter Buterworth takes the leading honours as the hotel manager trying to convince everyone this hotel from hell is a paradise! and he is well supported by June Whitfield who makes one of her more expansive ventures into the series. The double entendre's flow, the chaotic scenes stack up and the corn is well and truly laid on a plate. Suffice to say this is not about pathos or intelligent meanings!

The finale is two-fold and great for fans, the drunken party on the last night at the hotel literally is crash bang and wallop, while the collective character closure at Sid and Joan's English bar has a warmness to it that fans can relate to. Charles Hawtrey, the legendary skeleton on legs, left the series here, playing an alcoholic rogue, the makers accepting his real life issues and incorporating it into his farewell performance for some poignant reflection. 7/10

One of my favourites and the last great Carry on film. All the gang is here for the last time Sid, Kenny, Charlie, Babs, Joan, Hattie and they all seem to be having a great time and go out with a bang. Its meant to be set in Spain but its pretty obvious the team haven't ventured further than Slough. Great lines, and set pieces through but for me its Peter Butterworth as hotel manager Pepe who steals the show never since Up the Khyber has Butterworth been given a more showy role and he plays it to the hilt, shame he wasn't more cherished as a regular and was and is still overlooked in favour of less funnier member's of the team such as Bresslaw, Douglas. Love the scenes between him and Williams' Farquar. A great pick me up if your feeling a bit fed up it never fails to make me laugh. Classic!

RANKING: one of the best of the modern-dress ones. The humour is a bit more smutty than in some but it's not dirty - it's still funny.

TYPICAL: Like all their non-historical films since CAMPING, they're all the exact same story but with different names. By 1972 when they made this, they'd got the recipe just right, it just clicks. Whilst hardly the height of sophisticated wit, every single line of the script seems to be a silly smutty double entendre. It's almost clever! One of the running gags is a local drink which makes you see the young ladies in their underwear - it's that sort of humour so if If you like this type of thing, this will be perfect for you. Unlike the last few films they did, this one's genuinely funny because it's silly and smutty rather than rude and offensive.

SEXY LADIES: The other essential of a Carry On film is saucy, sexy ladies and in this one we have them in abundance. The man (definitely a man) who did the casting must have particularly enjoyed that job. What's really surprising is how weirdly charming and innocent the gratuitous nudity is! Somewhere on set someone must have been told to ring a bell every five minutes signifying that whichever young lady was in frame at that moment they had to get their boobs out. The worthy winner of this 'adult' musical chairs game is usually Barbara Windsor. Her frequent toplessness is however never seedy and never vulgar, it's always done for laughs which makes her so endearing.

To begin with, I had previously caught a bit from this one on TV while channel-surfing when in London in September 1999! Like CARRY ON DOCTOR (1967), this is another multi-title offering: CARRY ON ABROAD, OR WHAT A PACKAGE, OR IT'S ALL IN OR, SWISS HOLS IN THE SNOW! While this is essentially a second-tier "Carry On", it proved to be consistently enjoyable – which is why I went for a higher rating than I had myself anticipated; even so, there are a bit too many gay stereotypes here and it's marred somewhat by the flat TV-style look.

Incidentally the hotel shenanigans which take up most of the running-time anticipate the FAWLTY TOWERS (1975) TV series. By the way, this turned out to be Charles Hawtrey's final "Carry On" – unfortunately, he doesn't get to do much…but, then, neither does Kenneth Williams as the tour leader (he's even given an unconvincing romance with a pretty young colleague). On the other hand, Peter Butterworth is at his best as the multi-purpose hotel manager who speaks in broken English (with Hattie Jacques as his massive and grumpy backwoods wife). Among the guests are Sidney James, who's married to Joan Sims but his eyes are constantly on Barbara Windsor!; Sims herself draws the attention of gallant but henpecked Kenneth Connor. There are also a number of youngsters thrown into the fray, as well as a manly Scot, and a group of monks (one of whom, Bernard Bresslaw, is allowed to strike a friendship with one of the girls – her companion, incidentally, is played by Sally Geeson from Norman Wisdom's WHAT'S GOOD FOR THE GOOSE [1969], which I watched recently).

As I said, many hilarious gags revolve around the run-down condition of the unfinished hotel – but the scene shifts halfway through to an outing in town (which turns into a massive scuffle and lands the group in jail); the climactic farewell party, then, sees the hotel – literally on its last legs – as it's flooded and crumbling around them. CARRY ON ABROAD (on which a certain Sun Tan Lo Tion served as technical adviser) is one of the more satisfying latter-day efforts from the gang – but, ultimately, it's a notch below classic series titles such as CARRY ON COWBOY (1965), CARRY ON SCREAMING! (1966) and CARRY ON...UP THE KHYBER (1968).

I've noticed that, in recent years, there has been a sudden serge in the amount of holiday complaints programmes appearing on television. When I watch these 'I went on holiday and when I got there my hotel had fallen down' I can only think of one film. Carry On Abroad brilliantly lampoons the 'package holiday'. Nobody does package holidays 'better' (I use that word tentatively) than the Brits. Which is why Abroad is perfect. The huge range of characters mix beautifully in the wonderfully dismal resort of 'Els Bells. All lead, of course, by Kenneth Williams' 'Stuart Farquhar' ("Stupid What"?). Peter Butterworth and Hattie Jacques make a supreme double-act. My sister and I constantly quote the "Ez's no good"/"Ez's good!" line to each other whilst slapping the other's face (which raises a few eyebrows among those who haven't had the pleasure of viewing this film). Five stars to the utter chaos and eventual collapse of the hotel in the final scenes. Fiercely true and frank about the seediness of the package holiday. A comedy great. P.S. Look out for the strategically placed balloons in the party scene!