Carry on Regardless

A bunch of out of work folk are delighted when several positions come onto the market at the Helping Hands Agency...

As most reviews attest to, this fifth Carry On film barely has a plot to get your hands on. Pic basically takes the seven members of the agency through a series of vignettes, the jobs they are assigned to do ranging from chimp walking to modelling underwear!

Each slot allows for some amiable comedic opportunity, the best of which finds Joan Sims getting sloshed at a wine tasting function, Charles Hawtrey landing in a boxing match with a hulking brute, Kenneth Connor involved in a 39 Steps parody, and all of the workers pitched into chaos during an Ideal Homes Exhibition. Back at the Helping Hands office Sid James and his secretary Esma Cannon are flummoxed by the continuous appearance of Stanley Unwin talking his gobbledygook, which all leads to the big finale as the whole cast get to have a grand old time of things. While as usual there's fun to be had spotting the future stars of British TV and film who pop up in cameos.

Carry On Regardless finds the creators on safe and amiable ground. It's no high point of the series but it's good fun and lets some under valued comic actors work their respective charms. 7/10

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 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.

The film centred around The Helping Hands business is full of laughs.Favourite sketch is Sam Twist (Kenneth Connor) in the club as steward and is told not to make a sound.You can't help but laugh as he gradually loses the plot when he sees an old man's fly undone on his trousers,an old man falling asleep reading a book and an old man sleeping as his wig slips down over his face.Top notch.A film (like all Carry On films)that I never get sick of watching with all the early Carry On regulars present.Typlical Carry On gags and double-entendre with the campness of Charles Hawtrey and Kenneth Williams always guaranteed to make me laugh.

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 € !!!