What's the best Carry On film?

[Custard]

I caught Don't Lose Your Head on TV the other day, and parts really made me laff. Joan Sims is especially good

Camping is the one I always come back to. It's near perfect until the hippies turn up. So many great moments

I remember really liking Loving, too

Thinking of getting the box set, as the world is probably ending isn't it

What's your favourite(s)?

[Benjaminos]

Camping is probably the iconic one, defines what a Carry On film should be for me - classic gang all in attendance, lots of innuendo, Babs pops them out. Five stars.

Lots of other good (or, you know, as good as a Carry On film can be) ones though - Screaming, At Your Convenience, Matron, Up The Khyber, Girls, Abroad. I think those are my core favourites.

Edit: Is Don't Lose Your Head this one?

B: Oooh, you're only after one thing!
S: Why, what's wrong with the other one? Heurgh heurgh heurgh, etc

Belter.

[Absorb the anus burn]

One of the black and white ones probably...

Carry On Constable is fantastic fun and genuinely laugh out loud, but I think Regardless is an utterly charming 'sketch film' - it tones down the smut and has a great ensemble cast all who get memorable scenes. Joan Sims getting pissed at the wine tasting is a masterclass in comic acting - she elevates every Carry On film.

[neveragain]

Screaming, Cowboy or Cleo. Actually good films as well as full of in-your-end-o's.

[DrGreggles]

Screaming

[Mr Banlon]

Doctor
Camping
Screaming
Cleo
Up The Khyber

[Annie Labuntur]

One of the black and white ones probably...

Carry On Constable is fantastic fun and genuinely laugh out loud, but I think Regardless is an utterly charming 'sketch film' - it tones down the smut and has a great ensemble cast all who get memorable scenes. Joan Sims getting pissed at the wine tasting is a masterclass in comic acting - she elevates every Carry On film.

The first one, Carry on Sergeant, was obviously meant to be a one-off, and should probably get more attention as a fine 1950s British comedy than it seems to.
I prefer the dry and sarky Kenneth Williams to the self-hating caricature - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQlEnKoQv_8

[Blumf]

Loving is possibly my favourite, so many nice little bits to it, like the running gag of the young couple snogging everywhere. But Camping or Matron are the definitive main sequence Carry On's.

Although Columbus is a bit naff (although better than Emmannuelle and England, not that it's hard), Chris Langham's Aztec leader with a brash American accent worked really well, and in general it works as well as it could do, being so far detached from the 60s/70s environment.

Also worth noting Carry On in all but name, The Big Job (1965), which is as good as, if not better than, the other B&W Carry On's.

[Tony Tony Tony]

Always had Carry on at your Convenience as my fave one. Probably because I saw it first at around eight years old and thought the toilet gags were hilarious (W C Boggs anyone?) then when I re watched it in later years enjoyed the resonance of the bolshy union rep.

I found the very first one Carry on Sergeant a bit odd, possibly because by the time I watched it the 'regular' carry on cast were firmly established in my mind.

The billing on the poster for Sergeant makes interesting reading

       

[Dusty Substance]

They may not be the most iconic or best, but Girls & Abroad are the two defining Carry On films for me. When I think of what a Carry On film means and represents, I think of those two.

Up The Kyber, Screaming and Cabby are the three best.

[Ignatius_S]

..The billing on the poster for Sergeant makes interesting reading

     

Indeed.

Hartnell was co-starring in the massively popular sitcom, The Army Game as a sergeant, which Rogers and Thomas were exploiting by his casting. Monkhouse was very much a television personality by that time.

Barker was a big star thanks for wartime radio show Waterlogged Spa (and he gave Jon Pertwee his break on the show) and his solo show, Just Fancy before having very successful comedy series on television on the 1950s. Just before Sarageant, he had broken into films very sucessfully.

Connor has long been established, mainly through radio, such as supporting Ted Ray. Like Dora Bryan was a very well-known character actor. Eaton was an up and coming actor - IIRC, she was associated with both Bryan and Monkhouse.

Owen has rather a lot of film experience and at one stage, had been signed up as leading man but that didn't pan out but was well-known to audiences.

[Famous Mortimer]

Cleo or Cabby for me. But there aren't many duds before the 70s.

[Glebe]

Up the Khyber, come on.

[non capisco]

Britbox have Khyber and Camping in HD. Looking at Sid's mug in high definition is quite something, like a closeup of a bollock poking out of the bath with eyes. The topography of that man's nose is extraordinary.

[Gulftastic]

Up the Khyber, come on.

Indeed. If it wasn't part of the Carry On... series, it would be considered a British comedy classic. The dinner party scene is the high point of the whole lot of them, IMHO.

[beanheadmcginty]

.

Edit: Is Don't Lose Your Head this one?

B: Oooh, you're only after one thing!
S: Why, what's wrong with the other one? Heurgh heurgh heurgh, etc

Belter.

No that's Carry on Henry, with Sid as the king and Babs as, erm, presumably Anne Boleyn. Also my favourite joke of the series.
And chalk me up for W. C. Boggs as the best ever character name. Sid sgain.

[Ignatius_S]

No that's Carry on Henry, with Sid as the king and Babs as, erm, presumably Anne Boleyn. Also my favourite joke of the series.
And chalk me up for W. C. Boggs as the best ever character name. Sid sgain.

W.C. Boggs was played by Williams (also the name of company) - Sid plays a character called Sid.

[DrGreggles]

And chalk me up for W. C. Boggs as the best ever character name.

Nah. Vic Flange every time.

[paruses]

I just like seeing Bernard Bresslaw.

[Glebe]

Indeed. If it wasn't part of the Carry On... series, it would be considered a British comedy classic. The dinner party scene is the high point of the whole lot of them, IMHO.

Yeah. Didn't Joan Sims improvise "I'm plastered!"?

[Alternative Carpark]

No that's Carry on Henry, with Sid as the king and Babs as, erm, presumably Anne Boleyn.

Both the queens played by Joan Sims and Barbara Windsor in that film are fictional. It says at the start that he supposedly had eight wives rather than six, so it's a bit of Blackadder-style rewriting of history.

[George White]

Indeed.

Hartnell was co-starring in the massively popular sitcom, The Army Game as a sergeant, which Rogers and Thomas were exploiting by his casting. Monkhouse was very much a television personality by that time.

Barker was a big star thanks for wartime radio show Waterlogged Spa (and he gave Jon Pertwee his break on the show) and his solo show, Just Fancy before having very successful comedy series on television on the 1950s. Just before Sarageant, he had broken into films very sucessfully.

Connor has long been established, mainly through radio, such as supporting Ted Ray. Like Dora Bryan was a very well-known character actor. Eaton was an up and coming actor - IIRC, she was associated with both Bryan and Monkhouse.

Owen has rather a lot of film experience and at one stage, had been signed up as leading man but that didn't pan out but was well-known to audiences.

Both Owen and Hartnell at various stages had been kind of poised as the British James Cagney.

[the science eel]

They may not be the most iconic or best, but Girls & Abroad are the two defining Carry On films for me. When I think of what a Carry On film means and represents, I think of those two.

I came here to mention precisely those two. Kenneth Connor in Girls is phenomenal. And Hattie J and Peter Butterworth in Abroad are ridiculous, just great fun.

Matron is very good too. I like the early 70s ones, it seems.

[Cold Meat Platter]

Kenneth Connor in Girls is phenomenal.

You won't find a better PHWOOOOAAAAAARRR/CWOOOOAAAAAAARRRR in my opinion.

[imitationleather]

As a boy I used to watch the Carry On films basically on repeat. I like the 1970s ones in contemporary settings best. Although Emmanuelle is a bit shit, admittedly. The very worst is England, though. Unwatchable even to an idiot child.

Has anyone under the age of thirty even seen one now?

[the science eel]

You won't find a better PHWOOOOAAAAAARRR/CWOOOOAAAAAAARRRR in my opinion.

Yes! And yet...the most (fictionally) uptight man alive at that time.

KW loved KC, didn't he?

[Shaky]

Although Columbus is a bit naff (although better than Emmannuelle and England, not that it's hard), Chris Langham's Aztec leader with a brash American accent worked really well, and in general it works as well as it could do, being so far detached from the 60s/70s environment.

I rather like Columbus too. It's way better than it has any right to be. Plenty of groanworthy, silly gags and Jim Dale holds it all together well.

"I've seen his testimonials!"

[Ambient Sheep]

Screaming or Khyber.

[Sonny_Jim]

I've always been a bit partial to 'Matron' myself.  Which one would be good to show to a 12yr old as an example of Carry On that isn't going to bore the shit out of them?  Camping?

[thenoise]

Has anyone under the age of thirty even seen one now?

Yeah they were constant TV filler in the 90s,along with those TV compilations of best moments. I became extremely familiar with some of them.

I watched that bit of camping so much I noticed my first continuity error - wide shots of the exercising girls both include and exclude Babs, at random before and after her spectacular popping out.