That's Carry On!

That's Carry On! Barely qualifies as a film, more a glorified clip show that gets occasionally interrupted by witty observations or general larking around from Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor hanging about the projection room of Pinewood Studios. It may have been a well-deserved anniversary, but this one also highlights how the series has steadily declined as the ensemble cast grew older and the gags began to wear thin. There's a definite mercenary feel to the production, the impossible-to-ignore realisation that this was purely made to wring a few more coins out of a by-then jaded movie-going public. The Carry On stable had long since been on the wane and the wraparound filler material is incredibly feeble compared to the good old days. The times had changed and That's Carry On! Feels more like a death knell than a cause for celebration. If anything it gave me time to reflect on why I enjoy watching these performers in increasingly absurdist circumstances during everyday or period settings come rain or shine. I wish ITV would bother to do a full Blu-ray release of the series given the DVD boxset I've been watching has been enormously hit-and-miss in terms of presentation.

This is not a documentary but a compilation of some of the best gags from the long running Carry On movie series. Introduced by Carry On veterans Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor, it takes you through what was then 28 films in the series. This is a fairly good way to get an idea of what the movies were, the slapstick, the double entendres, the silliness and sometimes crudeness, but like all compilations its missing some personal favorites. Its hard for you to go wrong to choose a film that had Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Joan Sims, Barbara Windsor and Charles Hawtrey in it, they are pretty much the best. I've not seen every Carry On film yet, but this is a good primer. Carry On!

THAT'S CARRY ON is a compilation film consisting of various and extensive clips from most of the CARRY ON flicks, linked together by returning actors Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor. The plot - if you can call it such - sees them sharing some time together in a projection booth while they reminisce over the old days and share plenty of saucy laughs.

There's a definite mercenary feel to this production, the impossible-to-ignore realisation that it was purely made just to wring a few more coins out of a by-then jaded movie-going public. The CARRY ON stable had long since been on the wane and the wraparound filler material is extremely feeble compared to the good old days.

I sometimes enjoy watching compilation movies, as they're good for both introducing worthwhile-but-unseen films to the viewer or for nostalgia purposes, sharing memorable moments like old friends. THAT'S CARRY ON doesn't really work in either respect, as at the end of it you just wish you'd watched one of the proper CARRY ONs instead...

Carrying On Inappropriately with That's Carry On! (1977).

A series of films carried on, with perpetual double entendre, loved to finger an organ, unleash melons to gorge on, baps, flaps, jugs, bazookas went ding dong.

Though it's not quite so funny today, Fanny plays with her balls in new ways, Dick's choppers been cut, Kitty's curtains are shut, the clams gone from splayed to being spayed.

What an awful sequence of films these were, revisited today, they demonstrate just how out of touch and offensive the so called humour of yesteryear was, and how a generation of inappropriate behaviour was considered acceptable.

Carrying On Inappropriately with That's Carry On! (1977).

Well, hardly the best of.

If I were wanting to introduce someone to Carry On, I wouldn't recommend this. It wasn't full or complete.

For some reason it showed more of Carry On Camping and the Khyber one. I thought I was watching the actual movie of one of them, so much scene was being shown.

But there were great moments from other movies that weren't shown, which was a shame.

Williams and Windsor did dish out their dialogue in the connecting bits very well.

I especially liked Williams talking about how he would only listen to or work with someone who was clearly more intelligent than he, he worded it much better than that, and the clip from "Carry On Regardless" when he was walking the monkey was shown.

Altho I now stand at having only seen half the series, the first half, that is, I do think there was more to the Carry On movies than what this hilight reel states.

But I was disappointed that the theme music from the first five Carry Ons was dismissed with Cruising. What a pity.

No idea how that music would have sounded with "Carry On Cowboy" or "Carry on Screaming" but I think someone who was half creative could have figured something out.

Carry on.