Reviews

At Your Convenience is the 22nd of the Carry On Series, at the time of its release, the film was deemed as controversial seeing as the plot circled around problems with the trade unions at the time. Many carry on fans choose to boycott this film.

Cause of all that At Your Convenience was the first financial flop at the box office. It's hard to believe that now this is rated one of the best Carry On films in entire series.

Why is it one of the best? Well lets start with the plot, is film is set at a local toilet making factory called W.C. Boggs & Son. Which is run by W.C. Boggs played by Kenneth Williams and his son Lewis played by Richard O'Callaghan.

The company is going through a bad patch and loosing money fast, due to the amount of strikes that the company has suffering. Which is Mainly caused by the lazy union representative Vic Spanner played by Kenneth Cope, who complains about the littlest thing in the factory and causes a strike.

The story also shows how the lives of our lead characters are having due to all the strikes, Sid Plummer played by Sid James who is repeatedly fed up of listening to his wife Beattie talking to her pet budgie all day. Sid is also very keen on the next door neighbour and fellow colleague Chloe played by Joan Sims. Chloe is also got problems at home with her husband, who is often away on business and if he is home he normally rejects any sort of affection she gives him.

Sid and Beattie also have a daughter Mrytle played by the always gorgeous Jacki Piper, who works in the factory as one of the canteen staff. Meryle is permanently being pursued by both Vic Spanner and Lewis Boggs. Which at times can be annoying for her, mainly because the both of them are just as bad as each other.

While Vic Spanner despite him being in his late 20's-early 30's... is still living with his mam, who is permanently having a go at him for the amount of lack of money he brings into the house and all the strikes he causes. His Mum who is played by Renee Houston, has been forced to take in a lodger who is the jolly Charles Coote played by Charles Hawtrey, who also works at the factory as a toilet designer. Vic's mother seems to treat Charles a lot better than Vic by being more polite and generous.

Vic also has a mate and a fellow colleague Bernie played Bernard Bresslaw, Bernie comes across as a bit daft and allows himself to be bossed about by Vic too much.

The plot isn't spectacular but its simple and the script is fantastic. The casting is 100% cast and all the regular faces are present, though Terry Scott had a deleted scene playing the part of a union big wig.

Everybody involved looked to be enjoying themselves which helps with there performance, they probably all looked forward to the trip to Brighton!

I found at times the film does take a couple of serious moments, one being there is a nice scene between Sid and Chloe who during a night shoot. Showing that both of them have got more feelings about each other, sadly the only thing missing about this scene was a nice kiss at the end. Anyhow the scene is well acted by both Sid James and Joan Sims. For this movie Sid is taken away from his usual dirty old man character and many of the cast have said this probably the closest how Sid was like in real life. To be honest its the same for Kenneth Williams who I find less camp in this film, this time round he is playing the straight guy.

At Your Convenience is probably the most Carry On I've watched the most. It's a nice gentle Carry On and shows what the Carry On's were all about... family friendly comedy.

If you haven't watched At Your Convenience then you must, I can only describe it as a beautiful looking Carry On and comedy. I give Carry On At Your Convenience a 8/10.

Carry On Girls was the beginning of when over the top smut entertained the Carry On's, what probably killed off the Carry On series in the end. There's nothing wrong with a bit innuendo however you can go too far with it, the Carry On's were made for a family audience. It was like a pantomime on screen and in pantomime you don't see many extremely crude gags or even nudity. Now I am fan of what they call alternative comedy like "Bottom" but of course there not something I'd probably watch in front of the whole family, however like I said the Carry On's are made for family viewing.

Anyway Carry On Girls is set in the fictional broken down seaside town of Firecombe, which is having problems luring tourists to its town. One of the Councillors Sid Fidler played by of course Sid James, as come up with idea of having a beauty contest based in there town. Sid has already managed to convince the Mayor to go with this idea played by Kenneth Connor, while a rival Councillor Ms Prodworthy played by June Whitfield is complete up against this idea who happens to be running a women's right campaign.

Eventually the contest is given the green light and Sid manages to convince his Girlfriend Connie played by Joan Sims to base the competition within her hotel, though she's got to give away the rooms free to the contestants much to her anger.

Sid later on calls down his mate Peter Potter played by Bernard Bresslaw to help arrange the competition. Eventually all the contestants turn up, one of them being Hope Springs played by Barbara Windsor a previous beauty queen winner who somewhat catches the eye of Sid. The three them all come up with different schemes to make the contest more controversial to get more publicity for the contest. While at the same time Ms Prodworthy and her women's right's group also come up with different schemes to sabotage the contest.

Okay it's not one of the greatest of Carry On plots, the directing of this film looks dirty and seems to be directing in the same style of the other comedy British franchise films which was the Confession films, which at this time was becoming a rival to the Carry On's, and it appears for some reason the Carry On's wanted to start copying. Which if you haven't seen a basically not a comedy for the family put it that way.

Everybody in this is playing there usual role, Sid of course his the scheming dirty old man whose after chasing birds and earning a buck or two. Bernie is of course is Sid's mate who is somewhat a bit more panicky and doubting most of Sid's ideas but of course is somewhat still lured into his ideas, Babs of course eye candy and is forming a relationship with Sid and Joan of course is Sid's girlfriend who owns the hotel who is becoming more jealous of Sid's and Babs relationship and getting more angry of Sid ruining her business.

Sounds like a normal Carry On whats wrong with that? Yeah it is, it's funny places there's some good gags but it just seems to be too crude for a Carry On, especially for a family audience. There is moments in this where it goes to far, especially during a fight scene between Babs and the gorgeous Margaret Nolan, where we see a little bit too much! wow Maggie as certainly got a big pair! anyway that scene does go a little too far, it's a funny scene yeah but as I keep mentioning for a family flick it shouldn't be there, when your watching it with family it becomes quite an awkward scene.

Okay I'm being a bit too negative about this, okay this a funny Carry On. It is crude but it is watchable, it's not maybe quite as crude as say Emmannuellle or England but of course they are simply un watchable. Carry On Girls is probably a right Carry On to watch to a much mature audience, so I wouldn't say this quite a family flick.

As I mentioned it is funny, this is a good British comedy but as a Carry On not the greatest. I admit I've watched Carry On Girls a few times being as it is funny and a perfect film for the lads ;)

Most of the Carry On gang are present though I've got to say absents of both Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey is quite noticeable. Kenneth Williams was unavailable working on a another project, while Hawtrey of course had been sacked from this series, which was probably biggest mistake the series had made.

Anyway as I said Girls is a good comedy, give it a look in as Carry On not it's finest hour. A five out of ten for me.

Follow That Camel is the fourteenth of Carry On Series, which sees the Carry On gang join the French Foreign Legion. With Sid James being unavailable for the part of Sergeant Knocker, it was up to Peter Rodgers & Gerald Thomas to find a perfect lead. At this time Rodgers & Thomas thought this was a perfect opportunity to try & break the Carry On's into the American market by casting an American in the lead. Originally the first choice to play the lead was Woody Allen, however it was said Allen wanted to much money. Eventually producers managed to convince Sgt Bilko star Phil Silvers to take the lead. The part of Knocker was tailored to the style of Bilko.

The rest of the Carry On regulars are present, Jim Dale as Bo West, Peter Butterworth as Simpson, Kenneth Williams as Commandant Burger, Angela Douglas as Lady Jane, Charles Hawtrey as Captain Le Pice, Joan Sims as Zig-Zig, Anita Harris as Corktip & Bernard Bresslaw as Abdul.

Finally the review, I have to say Follow That camel is not the greatest of Carry on's, in fact I'd go as far as calling it one of the forgotten Carry On's. When you mention to people the title to this one, people seem to say "Is that the one with Phil Silvers in?". And that's probably what I mean, because apart from Phil Silvers presents not a lot of things in this stick out.

The film feels a lot like Up The Khyber which we see a couple of films down the line, in fact a lot of things in this feels like it gets recycled in that, right from the plot to the actually scenery which you would probably recognize. The only thing you don't have in Up The Khyber is a Sgt Knocker character around.

One thing to mention about this is Kenneth Williams for once is playing a slightly less Campy role than usual. In fact he's playing a straight strict Commandant.

At times when you watch this, you get this feeling your not watching Carry On, its like watching Columbus but with gang present if you get my drift. The film is funny yes, there's is the odd good one liner, I did enjoy the desert bit which sees them on a long trek across the desert to Fort Zuassantneuf, oh and "Musthavealeak"

What about Phil Silvers? Silvers performance is okay, I think his presents was good for a one off, I do feel if he had appeared in a another one it wouldn't haven't worked, as mentioned he was playing Bilko in this with a different name and looking at the other Carry On's I don't know where he would have fit in plus people may got sick of his Bilko character keep popping up in the carry on's. His character in this is just right really. Another thing to mention is during production Silvers health wasn't particularly great and his mind was going, cause of this Silvers permanently kept forgetting his lines and it forced producers to hold up his lines alongside the camera.

Where does this film fail? I just feel there isn't a great deal to remember in this, yeah the regulars put in a good performance and can't fault that but as mentioned it doesn't feel like a Carry On.

The film is watchable and far from the worst, yeah of course give it a look in. It's not one of the carry on's where you'd probably watch it again and again, you'd probably need a few years gap.

If Sid had been here would it have been different? I dunno maybe if Sid was present it would have felt more like a Carry On, however put it this way if he was in this then Up The Khyber probably wouldn't have been so great.