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Carry On – Don’t Lose Your Head

Phase one of the doomed attempt by Rank to market the Carry Ons abroad, hence the detachable “Carry On” in the title. It’s better than the Phil Silvers wasting ‘…Follow That Camel”, and there are some great bits of the usual business (in particular between Williams and Butterworth as Citizens Camembert and Bidet) but we still sentimentally look on this film as marking the end of the truly vintage period that spawned Cabby, Cleo, Screaming and Cruising, and the magic (yep, we’re using the phrase ‘the magic’ here) only returned sporadically thereafter. It developed a kinky runner, to use the vernacular. Unless of course, you know different. Anyway, you know the score with this one – the Black Fingernail (James, aided by Dale) rescues Charles Hawtrey from the chopper. Marianne Stone features and Patrick ‘cover yourself with leaves and earth’ Allen narrates.

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Richardpd

    July 5, 2023 at 10:55 pm

    It’s interesting the this & Follow That Camel were oddities in the middle of a run of good Carry On, but things returned almost to normal for the next few films until the rot started to set in.

    • David Smith

      July 8, 2023 at 7:27 am

      Weren’t these two just regular films that had the “Carry On” prefix bolted on afterwards?

  2. Richardpd

    July 8, 2023 at 10:23 am

    A few Carry Ons were initially developed as standalone films, Cabby being one which was branded a Carry On late in the day.

    Mind Your Stern & The Big Job get close to being Carry Ons but didn’t get the branding.

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