Carry on Spying

Carry On Spying was the one where the Carry On team mocked the James Bond movies and also Barbara Windsor's Carry On debut.

After a top secret formula is stolen by organisation STENCH, a group of agents are sent to investigate, resulting in many chaotic and funny situations. The investigation takes them over the world and back to their workplace...

As well as Babs Windsor, this also stars the excellent Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey and Jim Dale who are joined by Bernard Cribbins and Eric Barker. Not so many of the regular team in this one.

Have a good laugh at Carry On Spying. Brilliant and very funny.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

RANKING: The only "old style" black and white one to be in the top ten. What makes this stand out is it's got an actual plot. Unlike the later ones which relyied on our familiarity with the characters so much so that they could be just a series of smutty jokes, this one has a proper story - albeit a very, very silly one. Although it is a black and white one, it is NOT from the early batch of Norman Hudis films (which are not funny). No, this is a proper Talbot Rothwell picture who wrote virtually all of them from 1963 onwards...and being one of his first, the jokes are fresh!

TYPICAL: Kenneth Williams plays the role Kenneth Williams always played in the early sixties whether in film, TV or radio, particularly in HANCOCK'S HALF HOUR - and he's never been better or funnier than in this.

But is it a typical Carry On Film? No, definitely not. This is more of a James Bond spoof than what people would consider to be a Carry On film. The humour isn't that bawdy seaside postcard style which developed later on but there are a few saucy double entendres to give us a taste of things to come. The humour in this is more akin to the type of silly schoolboy humour you would have heard in the radio comedies of the late fifties and early sixties so if you're a fan of Hancock, Round The Horn and all that sort of stuff, you will definitely love this.

Don't however expect a parody in the classy style of CASINO ROYALE (1967) or AUSTIN POWERS, this makes AUSTIN POWERS seem like Chekhov.

SEXY LADIES: This was made before that factor became an absolute essential ingredient. Nevertheless, Barbara Windsor is quite cute and it doesn't matter in something like this that she hadn't really learned how to act yet.

This is yet another popular (and good) entry in the "Carry On" series. Like JACK, CLEO and SCREAMING, it's a parody of a current film or fad – in its case the box-office sensation that were the James Bond extravaganzas (in fact, it was the first of innumerable spoofs/imitations of that long-running franchise). Kenneth Williams (complete with funny accent) is more or less at his best here; accompanying him are Barbara Windsor (this proved to be her series debut), Bernard Cribbins, Charles Hawtrey, Dilys Laye (as a femme fatale), Jim Dale (playing the gang's long-suffering contact man) and Eric Barker (as, what else, their superior).

While it cleverly features an androgynous villain (played by Judith Furse and voiced by John Bluthal), the film also lampoons earlier classic British thrillers – such as Hitchcock's 1930s efforts and THE THIRD MAN (1949). The action takes place in a variety of locales from a Viennese café to an Algerian harem; typical espionage elements are the gang's donning of various disguises to follow or elude enemy agents and the perilous train journey. By the way, the villains' headquarters are amusingly accessed via a public convenience – which also pays off with an inspired surreal ending. In a direct nod to the Bond model, we get silly acronyms for the various organizations involved (such as S.T.E.N.C.H., S.M.U.T., S.N.O.G., etc).

After "Carry On Cabby", I expected "Carry On Spying" to descend into the campy sixties, but truthfully, this one was entertaining. Without regulars Sid James, Hattie Jacques (I suspect she was offered the villianess role) and Kenneth Conner, I expected this one to focus entirely on Williams buffoonery.

He was more of a nitwit here than a snotty know-it-all, but he was given the spotlight this time.

So this was Barbara Windsor! She truly was entertaining and not just because of her physique. She's not boring to watch or listen to.

Obviously Bernard Cribbins was filling in the Kenneth Conner spot, and quite honestly, Cribbins (whom I only know from the Doctor Who movies with Peter Cushing) he wasn't as Jim Carrey-esque as Conner has been in the previous films.

What an entertaining series this is, watching the transition from "Carry On Sergeant" to "Carry On Spying" thus far. I do look forward to what I have left to see of these films.

After this, it is on to "Carry On Cleo"!

I cannot believe at the time of writing this review this film has an average of 6.2, this is a 9 surely. Over 50 years on this remains a hilarious James Bond spoof. Banned from using characters from the James Bond franchise, Gerald Thomas creates Agent Charlie bind, 00-0. Kenneth Williams leads a team of British spies who must take on the STENCH criminals and capture the stolen formula of Professor Stark, who was blown up by the Milk man at the start. Spying stands out from the other early Carry on films by being very camp, Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey are on fine form. Barbara Windsor has just finished playing Gloria in the Rag Trade, she makes a great start to her legendary Carry on career, by playing Daphne Honeybutt, although it would be 3 years before she'd return as Sandra May in Carry on Doctor. Dilys Laye is gorgeous in this film and is uncredited for singing The Magic of love, but it was actually her voice. A real feel good film, and one that will make all the family smile.