Thursday 14 February 2019

Carry On Advertising - Carry On Cruising


This blog is part of a new little series on Carry On Blogging, looking back at the changing face of the Carry On films during their original twenty year run. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the way the films were advertised to the cinema-going public of Great Britain over the years. These days when I do go to the cinema, I try to avoid the trailers as they tend to go on for rather too long, but of course, with Carry On it's a different story!

Thankfully most of the original trailers are now available to peruse on the internet and they provide a unique time capsule of British film history. The changing tastes of mores of the film-going public can easily be traced through these adverts as can the changing face of the British film industry and the social attitudes of the time. It's also fascinating to see how first Anglo Amalgamated and then later on, the Rank Organisation, chose to market and sell these low budget, knockabout comedies. 

Today we're continuing with the very first Carry On to be made in glorious technicolor and the very last to be written by the master of comedy pathos, Norman Hudis. Yes it's Carry On Cruising. Cruising remains a real favourite among fans despite it not featuring many of the core team - Joan Sims, Hattie Jacques and Charles Hawtrey are all absent. It does allow actors like Esma Cannon, Cyril Chamberlain and Dilys Laye to grab more screen time however and that's certainly not a bad thing. This trailer takes full advantage of the bright, colourful, carefree feeling of the film and really does capture the lovely light early 1960s optimism. I hope you enjoy it.





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