So for some reason I've been going through a bit of Carry On phase this year. This is the sixth one I've seen this month. Not the best of the series it has to be said, although not the worst either. After all it's the only Carry On to have a horror theme, with a plot reminiscent (for that read half inched) of that Vincent Price camp classic House of Wax.
'On paper that actually sounds quite good, so why wasn't it?' I hear you almost sob into you computer screen. Well the answer for that lies in just what makes the Carry On series work, which is almost always (at least for me) the cast and what they get to do/say. Let's face it no one watches these films for direction or editing. So with no Sid James, Hattie Jacques, Kenneth Connor or even Babs Windsor, it's already onto a bit of a loser. As for the people that are in the film Harry H. Corbett is great as Sidney Bung, although it is hard to watch knowing just how good Sid James would have been in the role. Kenneth Williams is wasted as is Bernard Bresslaw, and I think that plays a role in this being not quite up there with something like Carry On Abroad. Plus Charles Hawtrey has far too little screen time for my liking.
So there you go, it seems a little pointless to over analyse a film that was shot in a little over a month and was probably written in half of that time. Actually that's one other little niggle, the script is quite weak with a fair few opportunities for double entendres not taken. Oo er. If I didn't know better I'd swear it couldn't be by Talbot Rothwell, but sadly it is. Anyway a slightly above average Carry On looks wise, but slightly under par script wise means that this is just an average Carry On, the best years were just around the corner though.
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