Les cinglés partent en safari

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.

I can't believe that of all of the films I've reviewed to date, not one has been a Carry On caper; let's put that right...

In Carry On Up The Jungle, the 19th film in the long-running British comedy series, The Carry On team tackle one of my favourite genres, the jungle adventure, sending up the legend of Tarzan with their own inimitable style of 'seaside humour', whereby virtually every line uttered is a thinly veiled innuendo and crazy slapstick situations abound.

Craggy faced Sid James plays fearless hunter Bill Boosey (Boosey by name, boozy by nature), guide for an expedition in search of the legendary Oozlum bird (which supposedly flies in ever decreasing circles until it disappears up its own backside). While deep in the African jungle, the group come face to face with the cannibalistic Nosher tribe, meet Ugh (Terry Scott), the long lost son of Lady Bagley (Joan Sims), and are taken captive by a tribe of women who need men for mating, all of which allows for plenty of smut and general tomfoolery.

Up The Jungle sees the team on top form, the ribald humour and double entendres coming thick and fast (oo-errr!) and the silliness in overdrive. With a patently fake gorilla on the rampage, a tubby Scott as an unlikely ape-man, Frankie Howerd 'oohing' and 'aahing' for all he's worth, Bernard Bresslaw in black-face as native bearer Upsidaisi, the gorgeous Jacki Piper as Ugh's love interest June, and buxom babe Valerie Leon in a revealing jungle outfit, this is unashamedly unsophisticated and terribly un-PC, and as a result, hugely entertaining.

9/10 (it should be noted, however, that my rating is as a lifelong Carry On fan).

Speaking to an audience of keen bird watchers, Professor Ingio Tinkle tells the story of his latest exhibition into the African jungle. Part of a party led by adventurer Bill Boosey, Tinkle and his colleagues (including Lady Bagley and her maid) are on their quest to find the Oozalum bird when they come under threat from a ruthless tribe and their guides refuse to continue with them. However things become more complicated when the group are discovered by a man of the jungle who was raised by monkeys and has never seen other men (or women!) before.

As one would expect with a Carry On film, this is full of innuendo, sexist and occasionally racist humour with a very vague plot to set it all within. Needless to say this film continues the trend and it isn't long before the plot (something about finding the Oozalum bird) is lost in a sea of bed swapping, mistaken partners and innuendo. For fans it is funny but it is nowhere near the best of the series as none of it is really that clever – most of the gags are obvious and, although amusing, few made me laugh out loud and they didn't feel like there was any inspiration behind them. Modern audiences may find the sexist stuff a bit uncomfortable but to be honest, what did you expect from a Carry On film? There is a touch of racism although this too can be forgiven as a product of the period – although it is not as direct as you'd think, instead it is implied by the rubber lipped tribesmen and the fact that only white people are allowed to speak (the main 'black' character is Bresslaw!) or by having the women tribe be mostly white or light skinned – because 1970's audiences weren't ready for the sight of a white man having sex with a black woman (even implied). However the one racial joke I thought was clever was Sid James wondering why the same guide gets accidentally shot every time (the point being that it isn't the same one!).

The cast feature most of the regulars who are good enough comedians to be able to work with even this average material. Sid James does his usual stuff; Howerd has some very nice lines that hint at his sexual orientation although Connor is a bit flat when viewed next to him. Terry Scott is OK but has the least role of the film (although it is amusing that he stars with a character called June). The women have the usual short stick but both Sims and Piper are quite good. Hawtrey is funny in a late role that also plays with this physical appearance and sexual orientation. Bresslaw is stuck in yet another 'black face' role – why he is always picked I don't know. The support cast are mostly black clichés but, even 25 years on the Lubi tribe look very, very sexy!

Overall this is pretty much par for the course for Carry On films and it will only really please fans. The broad humour lacks actual wit even if it is funny in a crude fashion but it is far from being consistently funny and it is fairly average as the series goes. Those in the mood for this type of humour will enjoy it but the humour is too broad and too badly structured to really be funny or witty.

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.

Kind of a take on Tarzan films, this film stars a truncated version of the Carry On group, but it has Sid James, Joan Sims, Charles Hawtrey, Kenneth Connor, Bernard Bresslaw, Frankie Howerd and Jacki Piper, so thats fine. Its basically the adventures of an African safari and the crazy things which happen, such as mingling with the animals, tribesmen and each other. The only person I would have liked to see is Kenneth Williams, as they could have written a part for someone scared of his own shadow and he would have been perfect for it. That said, the film is full of the usual innuendos that the Carry On films all have and this one is fun. Not the best in the series but still worth watching.