CARRY ON SCREAMING! (1966)

The CARRY ON movies were made in England from the late 50s into the 70s. Aside from a kind of repertory cast of actors, the films had nothing in common except they were slapstick, slapdash comedies inspired by the British music hall tradition, and though Monty Python went off in a totally different direction, inspired more directly by the radio comedy The Goon Show, you can see some of the Carry On tradition kept alive in Python skits (bawdiness, a focus on breasts, coherent situations that go rapidly askew). In the sense that many of the Carry On films satirized specific film genres (Carry On Spying, Carry On Cowboy, Carry On Cleo—as in Cleopatra), you could say that this series influenced Mel Brooks (BLAZING SADDLES, etc.) and the Zucker brothers (AIRPLANE!). This is the only Carry On movie I've seen, and from what I've read, it seems to be a fairly typical example of the series.

One night, Albert and Doris are making out in the woods when Doris is freaked out by a strange noise. While Albert goes to investigate, a monster carts Doris off, but one of his fingers (more like a claw) breaks off. Albert finds it and takes it to the police. Sgt Bung and Detective Slobotham—pronounced "slowbottom"—tell him about a series of female abductions, and soon they are hot on the trail of some strange goings-on at the Bide-A-Wee Rest Home, in a huge spooky-looking mansion, run by the voluptuous Valeria Watt and her cadaverous associate Dr. Orlando Watt. We soon discover that Dr. Watt (yes, there's a Dr. Who reference made as part of a "Who's on first" routine) is literally a corpse who Valeria revives electrically now and then. The two kidnap women and turn them into mannequins which they sell to fashion shops.

In the beginning, this farce, which in part is parodying Hammer horror films (the sets look exactly like Hammer sets), is fun and energetic; they throw so many gags at you that some are bound to make you laugh. For example: Cop: "I warn you I'll take down anything that you say!" Suspect: "Alright then, trousers." When the monster, Oddbod, is discovered missing an ear, Dr. Watt says, "Oh well, ear today, gone tomorrow." I admit I was laughing or at least chuckling at a fairly high percentage of the jokes, puns and sight gags. But after half an hour or so, it gets a bit wearing as the pace increases but the quality of the humor does not. At 100 minutes, this should have been about 30 minutes shorter. There are lots of mildly smarmy sex gags and, being British comedy, a man in drag eventually crops up. In a cast where everyone is camping it up to one degree or another, standouts include Harry H. Corbett who provides a solid center as Sgt. Bung, Jim Dale as Albert, Fenella Fielding (above right) as Valeria, and Charles Hawtrey who has a funny bit as a men's room attendant. Kenneth Williams (above left with the monster) is a bit too much as Dr. Watt, but he's bearable. I don't know how many more Carry On movies I'd care to see, but I'm glad to have finally gotten one under my belt. [TCM]