Carry on Matron

Sid Carter (Sydney James) is a leader of a gang of thieves and he persuades his son Cyril (Kenneth Cope) to dress up as a female nurse and infiltrate the "Finisham Maternity Hospital" so that he can get the gang a plan of the place enabling them to steal vast quantities of "The Pill". "I know a couple of countries who'll go mad for the stuff" says Sid.

Occasionally funny entry in the long running series. The funniest moments include the scene where the Matron (Hattie Jacques) visits the registrar Sir Bernard Cutting (Kenneth Williams) in order to bring him his morning post. Sir Bernard is a proper hypochondriac who thinks he's on the verge of a sex change, "Your mail" says Matron handing him the letters, "I know and I can prove it do you hear prove it" screams Sir Bernard not aware of what she really meant. Another stand out moment is when Syd Carter and his gang arrive at the hospital to pull off the raid, Syd is disguised as a doctor sporting a laughable beard and dark glasses. "I am Dr Zhivago" he says. When the film isn't funny it gets by because it possesses a charm that many of the other less funny Carry On's have, a charm that one journalist described as "an England that never was" and besides that there is the assured presence of all the regulars including Charles Hawtery, Joan Sims, Barbara Windsor and Bernard Bresslaw, but Kenneth Williams, Hattie Jacques and Syd James ultimately steal the show.

I love most of the Carry on films, especially Cleo, Up the Khyber and my favourite Screaming. And I do admit I prefer in general the earlier entries, which had more fun and charm in alternative to the later entries some of which had an over-reliance on smut.

Carry on Matron may have some slow-moving scenes and a thin and predictable plot, with some odd moments of overly-smutty innuendos and crude slapstick. But thanks to the witty gags, sharp script and fun performances, even with its shortcomings it still manages to be one of the better and funnier later entries of the series.

The production values are pleasant, the music is suitably quirky and the direction is solid. What really drives the film are the performances. Hattie Jacques does a fine job in the title role and Charles Hawtrey is as good as ever. The wonderful Kenneth Williams is hilarious and has some of the best lines and scenes, and Sid James plays it straight in a somewhat atypical role. And I mustn't forget the lovely cameos of Kenneth Connor as the nervous dad-to-be and Joan Sims as the overdue mum either.

All in all, an entertaining film. 7/10 Bethany Cox

This is another madcap comedy from the Carry On group, this time set in a maternity hospital. The whole group is here and its a fun film. Kenneth Williams deftly plays the hospital administrator Sir Bernard Cutting, who is obsessed with his manliness, Kenneth Cope plays Cyril, who dresses as a nurse to try to find out where "the pill" is stored, while Sid James plays his father, who is the mastermind of the group looking to steal the pills to sell them on the black market. There are sight gags, mistaken notions etc, just what you would expect. Hattie Jacques deftly plays the matron of the title. Its a fun comedy, at a time when the Carry On films were hitting their stride. You should check it out.

A group of thieves plan to make a killing by stealing a large shipment of contraceptive pills that have been delivered to Finisham maternity hospital. Sending young Cyril in undercover, nobody planned that he would end up dressed as a nurse, living in the nurse's dorms and trying to convince everyone that he is a woman – rather too well in the case of amorous doctor Prodd. Cyril keeps trying to find the pills while being helped by his father Sid and the rest of the gang. Meanwhile the staff of the hospital carry on a collection of less-than-subtle and sordid affairs behind closed doors.

With the 1970's came the gradual end of the Carry On series of films that had run since the 1950's and, although the seventies had one or two that were genuinely good, it also had a couple that barely reached the standard set by the poor sex "comedies" that were being mass produced by the UK during this decade. While Matron is not one of the latter, it certainly is not one the stronger films of the decade – although there are moments that are very enjoyable. The plot is pretty terrible and the robbery of pills fails to engage simply because it is so damn stupid from start to finish; I know it is a comedy but if ever a man was a less convincing woman than Kenneth Cope then I don't know who it would be – it is a problem that the lynch pin of the narrative is him passing himself off as a nurse. The subplots are actually better and the best scenes feature great witty interplay between series legends Williams, Hawtrey and Jacques. There are also some nice little additions such as Connor's waiting station master and little throwaway gags such as one of the wards being known as "The Bunn Ward"! These aspects threw up the odd laugh but anytime it fell back to the central narrative it tended to be weak and just be a series of obvious jokes and clumsy chases/pratfalls.

The cast are pretty good if they have the material – in particular the trio of Jacques, Williams and Hawtrey. Scott has a basic role but is quite entertaining in his last appearance in the series but you do have to feel for Sid James who is dumped on the edge of the film with the weak plot to carry with little help from Bresslaw and Maynard. Windsor does her usual stuff but Cope is poor from the start to finish and cannot do anything with the silly narrative and pratfalls. Sims has little to do but it is nice to have as many of the faces as possible in the film.

Overall this is an average entry in the series; the plot is weak and can't provide much in the way of structure or laughs but the subplots provide some classic moments and some good material for the cast members lucky enough to get it. There are much worse films in the series than this one but there are much, much better ones as well; fans of the series will enjoy the classic moments and be patient with the rest, but it is unlikely that this film will be the one to win converts to the series.

CARRY ON MATRON is the fourth and last of the hospital-themed CARRY ON films. It's a must for fans as it assembles a huge number of the series regulars although the sheer quantity of talent involved invariably means that some of the performers only get to shine in a scene or two (I mean you, Charles Hawtrey). The plot is an odd mix of gentle comedy and knockabout crime story, involving a gang of robbers who somewhat unbelievably decide to steal a huge quantity of pills from a maternity ward. Sid James takes a backseat here with an old-fashioned turn as the head of the criminal gang, although his 'Dr Zhivago' gag is a highlight.

Elsewhere, the emphasis is on staff rather than patients for a change, although there are some nice roles for the female talent as you'd expect: Joan Sims, Valerie Leon, Madeline Smith, and Margaret Nolan all contribute efficient minor turns. Less impressive is Kenneth Cope in thankfully what was to be his last role in the series; his out of place pratfalls just serve to remind you how classy Jim Dale was in comparison. It's also disappointing that the likes of Kenneth Williams, Patsy Rowlands, and Hattie Jacques have to contend with broader (read: more lowbrow) humour than before, but the quantity of gags and fast pacing means that this is hard to dislike. Kenneth Connor is a real plus.