Carry on Screaming!

If you are looking for a zombie film, this will not satisfy you. Sure, it has zombies, but they are too busy devising double entendres and references to Abbott and Costello bits or other films to be gnawing on flesh.

Speaking of flesh, Fenella Fielding was just about the hottest vampire I could imagine for the day.

Her brother, played by Kenneth Williams, was a hoot. He played the gayest Dr Frankenstein character I ever saw.

I had never seen Jim Dale before, and he was excellent. I only knew Dale as the reader of the Harry Potter books. I spent many hours with him as i listened to all of them many times over. Now, I find that he is an excellent actor to boot.

If you like British comedy, and I certainly do, then this is one film you should see. I can't wait to see more of them.

One of the better films of the Carry On series, the film spoofs the typical horror films of the 1960s quite well, and there is a great feel of the Gothic to it, thanks to apt costumes and sets. It is still overly silly as is usual for an entry in the series, and there are silly sound effects and some lame jokes that bring it down. However, there are quite a few good gags to make up for those that do not work, and the team receives great assistance from Fenella Fielding this time, who is perfectly cast as a vampire like seductress. The film also has some good makeup work, and the title song, sung by Jim Dale, fits in well.

This one was my favourite Carry On when a kid, it's one of a few I can force myself to watch nowadays. I think I could stick with Khyber and Cleo but the rest forget it. Throughout the series from '58 to '70 there were some good moments, some ace smart-ass one-liners but a lot of swamp to crawl through, the humour eventually ending up in the gutter from '70 on. I left them all to it there and then.

Harry Corbett and Kenneth Williams have some great lines, in this version of Frankenstein - stealing women to "vitrify" into shop dummies. Williams: "I wish I was dead"; Fielding: "Don't you remember, you are"; Williams: "Oh yes. What a life!" And on and on, knockabout Music Hall and Variety stuff, some original but plenty borrowed from all sources from Abbott and Costello, the Addams Family, Will Hay etc. But in COS it generally works: therefore I admit I must still like it. I wish that Sid James had been in it as well, but I'm glad Barbara Windsor wasn't.

Maybe it's my rose-tinted spectacles kicking in with this one, but why on Earth do the Carry On films generally seem more popular now in the Noughties UK than 30 years ago?

This delightful spoof on the contemporaneous – and equally popular – Hammer Horror style is undeniably a highlight of the "Carry On" series: the film is remarkably evocative with respect to color scheme, sets, lighting, even the score (though the rock'n'roll title track is somewhat unwarranted)...but, then, it's regrettably neglected whenever genre parodies are discussed (in my opinion, it's a must for any Hammer devotee)!

The presence of series stalwarts Sidney James and Kenneth Connor is missed here; however, atypical 'recruits' Harry H. Corbett (in his one and only "Carry On") and Fenella Fielding (as a Morticia Addams-type nymphomaniac – she had appeared in CARRY ON REGARDLESS [1961] as well as Hammer's own spoof, THE OLD DARK HOUSE [1963]) more than make up for this. Among the typical horror elements we find here are Kenneth Williams as Mad Scientist, Zombie and Invisible Man all rolled into one, two Frankenstein Monsters named Oddbod and Oddbod Jr. (a nod, no doubt, to Oddjob from the James Bond adventure GOLDFINGER [1964] – it's interesting that the second creature is generated when electricity is applied merely to the missing finger of the first), two separate Hydes, a Mummy, plenty of wax figures, a sinister-looking butler, etc. Incidentally, the police investigation is redolent of a Holmes/Watson mystery (after all, Hammer themselves had filmed a version of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES [1959]) – with Corbett and Peter Butterworth making for a great bumbling pair of sleuths.

Series regular Charles Hawtrey only has a bit part here as a tell-tale lavatory attendant/gardener, but his messy death is hilarious; ditto future Dr. Who Jon Pertwee as an eccentric police-lab technician – ironically, there's a "Who's On First?"-type routine concerning Williams' character (called Dr. Watt)! Jim Dale and Angela Douglas are again the young lovers, while Joan Sims' role is practically a repeat of her nagging wife from CARRY ON CLEO (1964). By the way, the flustered mannequin shop owner is played by Frank Thornton, later of the ARE YOU BEING SERVED? (1972) TV series. As expected, Talbot Rothwell's script contains a lot of unsubtle puns – but the film itself is capped by quite a terrific (if hysterical) climax to rival Hammer's best efforts.

Possibly the finest of the Carry On series, this film benefits hugely from the acting talents of the late, great Harry H. Corbett and the fabulously sexy Fenella Fielding. These two provide the usual Sid James / Barbara Windsor roles but play them with far more subtlety and aplomb than usual. Talbot Rothwell delivers a fine screenplay that beautifully lampoons Hammer Horror films while Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale and Peter Butterworth serve up great supporting performances. Jim Dale is worth a special mention here as a great physical comedian who never really received the recognition he deserved for his 'full body' comedy – he could teach the over rated Jim Carey a thing or two. 'Screaming', along with 'Khyber' and 'Cleo' remain great British comedies that have outlived the contempt and snobbery that was initially hurled against them to emerge as fine examples British cinema and humour. 7/10.