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Carry On Up the Khyber

“Mad! They’re all stark staring mad!” “Why have I been interrupted mid-tiffin?” “Rank stupidity!” “Fakir! Off!” Somewhere in the top five ‘Ons, without doubt – a shade above Cleo, clearly better written than Camping, but not as much fun as Screaming (and we’ll refrain from banging on about Cabby just this once). Extra-curricular turns from Roy Castle, Angela ‘Digby’ Douglas, Cardew ‘The Cad’ Robinson, Johnny Briggs, John ‘Mallens’ Hallam, Wanda ‘UFO’ Ventham, Valerie ‘It Might as Well be String’ Leon, plus a narration from good old Patrick ‘Air attack warning’ Allen.

9 Comments

9 Comments

  1. paulus

    May 30, 2010 at 2:30 am

    Good production values.
    Promoting the myth of British ‘ stiff upper lip’ abroad!

  2. Droogie

    September 9, 2020 at 12:54 am

    A gag I never got in this film was the Angela Douglas character called Princess Jehli. It’s sounds like it’s meant to be funny, but I don’t get the reference. Was there a leading brand of jelly called Princess around at this time? Anybody?

  3. George White

    September 9, 2020 at 7:35 pm

    the palace set exterior is actually the vulgarian palace set from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with some matte flourishes.
    A fair few costumes and props and interiors rpobably recycled from Rank Indian epic flop The Long Duel with Yul brynner as the Khasi, Trevor Howard as sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond, Andrew Keir as Bunghit Din.

  4. richardpd

    September 10, 2020 at 10:37 am

    The historial Carry On often used what was hanging around Pinewood Studios after other productions wrapped.

    Cleo used the abandoned sets from Cleopatra, which had moved to Italy.

    I presume Screaming managed to get the Hammer look so right by raiding the props store.

    Jack recycled sets & costumes from other nautical films.

    • Glenn Aylett

      September 11, 2020 at 4:19 pm

      @richardpd, Carry Ons were produced at a rate of three a year, the filming schedule was quite hectic, and cost cutting was a way of getting the films out to their adoring public quickly, so sets were reused from other films. Another form of cost cutting was the actors pay, with many of the stars leaving in the early seventies over the low fees they received for the Carry Ons, while Peter Rogers was raking in the money.

  5. THX 1139

    September 10, 2020 at 12:25 pm

    This recycled the plot of Khartoum, too, making it India instead of North Africa, which means Kenneth Williams is playing Sir Laurence Olivier. Try taking Khartoum seriously after watching Khyber.

  6. richardpd

    September 10, 2020 at 11:12 pm

    A few films are hard to take seriously these days because they have been spoofed over the years.

  7. Tom Ronson

    March 31, 2022 at 8:08 pm

    Pretty damn close to being a perfect Carry On, if you ask me.
    ‘I’ve never ridden in a cart pulled by cows before’
    ‘Bullocks, Mr. Belcher.’
    ‘I haven’t, honestly!’

  8. Richardpd

    March 31, 2022 at 10:42 pm

    A nice touch was to avoid the obvious to cast Kenneth Williams as a British officer, especially as he really gets into playing the Khazi well.

    Roy Castle does a nice guest turn, and adds to the “Been In Dr Who” score.

    I’ll have to see if The Long Duel & Khartoum turn up on Talking Pictures.

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