Carry on Up the Jungle

RANKING Definitely in the top tier of the series but only just. With Carry On Screaming ranked as number 1 and Carry on England as number 30, this is a reasonably good episode although it is a bit of a thoughtless rehash of what they've done before.

TYPICAL "Predictability" is the essence of Carry On films and this epitomises this. Change the costumes and you've got FOLLOW THAT CAMEL UP THE KHYBER but without being quite as funny and with a less clever story. Frankie Howerd does the Kenneth Williams role and although he's less likeable, he does a reasonable job.

SEXY LADIES The other essential of a Carry On film is saucy, sexy ladies and this doesn't disappoint on that count. A tribe of scantily clad, sex-hungry young ladies provide that essential element as does Jacki Piper who certainly ticks that box as well. The saucy humour in this is still the naughty seaside postcard style before it evolved into something less innocent as the series progressed through the seventies. It's all good fun.

The Carry On team take on the whole idea of the noble savage, showing the escapades of a group of civilised nit-wits up the jungle. The horrors of an uncultivated life - snakes, gorillas, cannibals and matriarchy - are mercilessly exposed and, of course, in this situation the whole idea of human life boils down to the one sordid thing - sex. The plot, such as it is, tells of the search for the legendary Oozalum bird - a symbol which stands for the exotic Rousseau ideal but which, in the cold light of day out of the jungle, disappears like all pretentious nonsense up its own bum. The relationship between the jungle-boy and his woman is one of the best presentations of a nascent adolescent affair in the whole of cinema - every attempt to pursue a cultural or improving agenda collapses into another bout of rumpy-pumpy. The final joke is a great one - a place in civilisation is another tree house in the jungle and we realise that what has been satirised throughout is not a false ideal which is practised in the jungle but in our own backward and undeveloped urban lives.

The Carry On Gang get up to their usual monkey business, this time spoofing the Tarzan movies. This isn't their best effort...the script tries to fit in too many jungle cliches for its short running time, leading to a rather disjointed mishmosh of storylines. However, there are still many funny lines, and the Carry On regulars and semi-regulars (especially Frankie Howerd as the fussy professor) are in fine form. All in all, a very amusing way to spend 90 minutes.

The jokes keep coming, in true Carry On fashion, and most of them stand the test of time, even after all these years.

Loads of great moments. Joan Sims's performance as Lady Bagley is particularly memorable in the sequence where she gets a snake up her dress. Plenty of Carry On knob-gags, a wonderful mating ritual (Tonka! Tonka! Stick it up your honka!), and lots of lovely ladies.

Frankie Howerd is on fine form, camping it up like nobody's business. Sid guffaws his way through the proceedings and, more than halfway through, there's a whole new lease of life with the sudden and unexpected appearance of Charlie Hawtrey. Even Terry Scott's aggravating and not-particularly-funny Jungle Boy doesn't grate too much, as the whole film is full of such energy and fun that he barely even registers.

One of the very best of the Carry Ons. Some people may not feel this is a glowing compliment!

An okay film, not that funny really other than how you just can't believe what they could get away with back then. There isn't so much a story but a series of scenes, in typical fashion at one point everyone ends up in the wrong bed and so on. The film begins in the jungle mostly with a series of gags about the men and even a gorilla trying to catch a sight of the women on the expedition taking a shower. It's also introduced that there's some Tarzan like man who walks around in a giant nappy unable to speak any English. More misunderstandings and jealousy ensues. All this takes about 45 minutes to happen and the jokes are pretty laboured and just keep going on too long. The production design is pretty basic but that just adds to the comedy. The group are taken captive by a nearby tribe who want to put them all in their village cooking pot but are then rescheduled by some scantily clad young women from another nearby village. Things go on a bit longer and then it all kind of ends happily for everyone. The film has a few funny bits but misses lots of the comedy from Barbara Windsor and Kenneth Williams. Perhaps these went on a little too long. Still the fact they were willing to have some fun and do some of the things they did in this film is feels pretty fresh today. Again this isn't supposed to be anything other than a comedy.