Carry On Faces in Different Places: No Kidding

Here we go with another in my series of blogs looking at some of the cream of British comedy film making from the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Although this blog is all about the Carry Ons, believe it or not, there were some other joyous comedy films made away from Peter Rogers Productions. However, given the quality of the actors Peter employed to make his series, it's no wonder that most of them popped up elsewhere.

So far I've looked at the wonderful 1959 crime caper Too Many Crooks , the 1954 domestic comedy starring Dirk Bogarde, For Better For Worse , the big screen spin off Please Sir! and the wonderful Up Pompeii and the brilliant John Gregson and Diana Dors vehicle, Value for Money. 
  
More recently I blogged about the Sid James and Kenneth Connor comedy horror What A Carve Up! and the the Gordon Jackson drama, Floodtide. 

I've also looked at the Carry On links with the wonderful film I'm All Right Jack

Recently I blogged about the Billy Fury and Amanda Barrie musical film I've Gotta Horse , the classic 1954 school comedy The Belles of St Trinian's and the 1959 romantic comedy from the Betty Box and Ralph Thomas stable, Upstairs and Downstairs. You can also check out my blog on the 1956 drama Lost. 

Today I am going to write about the 1960 British comedy, No Kidding. 

What's it about?

David and Catherine Robinson move into a rundown country house. After a number of failed ventures, they are looking to build a solid business. They strike upon the idea of setting up a summer home for the children of the wealthy. They attract a number of customers, and hire a matron and a cook, and immediately fall foul of a local councillor who does not believe they should be allowed to look after children.

The families arrive and drop off their children. They range from polite, scared and helpful to wild, spoilt, rebellious children led by an American brother and sister, and an English fantasist girl, who tries to insist that she has been maltreated by her in fact kindly family.

As the children grow increasingly ill-disciplined, the staff and owners battle to keep them under control. The father advocates a tough approach while his wife beliefs that the children's freedom should be allowed to flourish. They are undermined by an increasingly drunken cook, and the wild antics of the children.

When the children's families come to collect them, they refuse to come down - wishing they could stay. They insist that in future they are treated better by their parents, to which the parents agree. The children depart. The Robinsons, realising that they have now got financial security, decide to fulfil their dream of having more children of their own.

Who's in it?

The film stars Carry On favourite Leslie Phillips as David Robinson while Geraldine McEwan (who would much later star on television as Miss Marple) plays his wife Catherine. Also appearing in the film are Julia Lockwood as Fenella, Noel Purcell as Tandy and Cyril Raymond as Colonel Matthews.

Carry On Faces?

No Kidding was co-written by Norman Hudis, directed by Gerald Thomas and produced by Peter Rogers, so of course there are plenty of familiar Carry On names in the cast. Leslie Phillips takes the starring role and at the time Leslie had made his first three Carry On appearances in Nurse, Teacher and Constable. Carry On Nurse and Constable cameo actress Irene Handl plays irate local councillor Mrs Spicer while the Matron and cook the Robinson couple hire are played by June Jago and Joan Hickson respectively. June played a nurse in Carry On Regardless and Sister in Doctor six years later. Joan meanwhile co-starred in five Carry Ons - Nurse, Constable, Regardless, Loving and Girls.

Cyril Raymond, best known for playing Celia Johnson's husband in Brief Encounter, went on to play a cameo as an Army Officer in Carry On Regardless. American actor Alan Gifford meanwhile played the Commissioner in 1965's Carry On Cowboy. In No Kidding Alan plays Edgar Treadgold. 

Also look out for Carry On favourite Esma Cannon who plays a district nurse. Esma of course appeared in Carry On Constable, Regardless, Cruising and Cabby. Other Carry On semi-regulars to appear in No Kidding are Brian Oulton as the Vicar, Eric Pohlmann as King and Brian Rawlinson as Will. And Sydney Tafler crops up as Mr Rockbottom! Sydney was also about to pop in for scene with Charles Hawtrey in Carry On Regardless. And a regular face in the first seven Carry Ons, actor Cyril Chamberlain plays a cafe proprietor. 

Did you know?

Well known actress Francesca Annis plays the role of Priscilla in this film. Francesca began acting as a teenager after training at the Corona Academy alongside the likes of Richard O'Sullivan, Larry Dann and Judy Geeson. Annis had even played a school girl in Carry On Teacher, the year before No Kidding went into production.

No Kidding is based on Verily Anderson's 1958 memoir, Beware of the Children. Anderson also co-wrote the screenplay. 

This was the first film on which Alan Hume worked as Director of Photography. Having started in the business as a clapper loader in the early 1940s, Hume had worked his way up to Camera Operator by the time he made Carry On Sergeant in 1958. Alan would go on to work on the majority of the Carry On series, as well as several Bond and Star Wars blockbusters.

You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and on Instagram

Nurse v Girls: How Times Changed

This weekend Film4 and ITV3 are showing two very different Carry Ons. While 4 are putting on the second film in the series, Carry On Nurse, written by Norman Hudis, ITV3 are showing Talbot Rothwell's penultimate effort, Girls. The two films, although part of the same comedy series, couldn't be more different. Yes, there are fifteen years between them and times had clearly changed, but the Carry On series had almost altered beyond recognition.

The 1959 release Carry On Nurse was a relatively coy, black and white film mixing social comment and real life medical scenarios with gentle comedy put across by a cast of seasoned pros. There is even a spot of tender romance for Kenneth Williams and Jill Ireland and a few tear jerking scenes featuring the likes of Kenneth Connor as down to earth boxer Bernie Bishop. Hudis was a master of blending all manner of thematic threads together and presenting a film of surprising depth. 

Carry On Girls was very much of a contrast. Made in 1973, all vestiges of sentimentality or gentle comedy were lost. It was panto humour all the way and while that's still very funny, Girls lacked a great deal of the old fashioned charm. It's clear, in retrospect, that Rogers and Thomas had instructed Rothwell to join the trend of more near the knuckle humour which matched changes in box office demands from a more liberal British audience. It's still relatively tame by today's standards but there's been a noticeable shift in content and tone.

The two films do have some things in common. Both are proudly British - I can't imagine another country producing films like these! They also feature a certain degree of social commentary with Nurse looking at the goings on in the National Health Service and Girls examining the tradition of the beauty contest. Girls touches on the politics of these contests as well as the rise of feminism and even features an albeit very broad, basic portrayal of a lesbian character. Despite this Sid is still very much Sid and Barbara still very much Babs. The two films also feature several actors who appeared in both the 1959 and 1973 films and I think the true picture of how the series had changed can be seen by the characters they played.

Joan Sims
(Carry On Nurse - Nurse Stella Dawson / Carry On Girls - Connie Philpotts) 

Joan, a stalwart of 24 Carry Ons, made her debut in Nurse in 1959. Stella Dawson was a young, accident prone junior nurse and pretty much a picture of innocence. She was keen but slightly gobby and learning the tricks of the trade as she went along. The bottom rung of the ladder, she was still a cheerful character full of hope. By 1973, Joan was on full on middle-aged harridan mode as frustrated hotelier Connie Philpotts. Forever being given the runaround by Sid's Councillor Fiddler, she's quickly passed over in favour of nubile Hope Springs (Barbara Windsor). Connie was a one dimensional character and one of Joan's weakest in the series.

Kenneth Connor
(Carry On Nurse - Bernie Bishop / Carry On Girls - Mayor Frederick Bumble)

An original cast member, Connor was the main star of the early Norman Hudis era films. He usually played bumbling working class men with big hearts and big dreams. In Nurse he was the everyman of the piece, brought in with a broken hand after a boxing match and separated from his wife and child (Susan Shaw and Jeremy Connor). He views all around him with gentle humour and bonds with upper class, well-educated Kenneth Williams. By Girls in 1973, Connor's characters were frustrated little men of middle years and middle management. Girls is possibly the finest example of this - head of a crumbling local council and stuck in a dreary loveless marriage, it's a portrayal full of quiet desperation that life hasn't turned out as he'd hoped.

Joan Hickson
(Carry On Nurse - Sister / Carry On Girls - Mrs Dukes)

The Carry Ons were lucky to have Hickson in five eye catching supporting roles. A scene stealing actress who like many was above the material she was working with, Joan made her first appearance as the rather severe, yet fair Sister in Haven Hospital. Feared by the nurses beneath her, Sister in turn looked up to and was frightened of Hattie Jacques' bombastic, humourless Matron. Hickson's Sister did have a human side though when she encouraged Shirley Eaton's Nurse Denton to follow her heart with one of the male patients, recently discharged of course. Fast forward 15 years and Joan was back one final time to play a rather batty old dear staying in the hotel who ends up with her unmentionables flying from a flag pole…

June Whitfield
(Carry On Nurse - Meg / Carry On Girls - Augusta Prodworthy)

June was already a well-known voice by the time she made Carry On Nurse thanks to her radio work in Take It From Here. June's small role as Leslie Phillips' straight-laced girlfriend Meg was very 1950s post-war values. June really came into her own with her return to the Carry Ons in the early 1970s. And militant feminist Augusta Prodworthy was a pretty extreme version of her earlier character. And that sums up the change in the Carry Ons - all the characters were bigger, more extreme and more outlandish. 

So there you have it. A lot had changed during the making of the Carry Ons, that we know. Both in the country at large as well as in what film producers churned out and audiences demanded. Looking back nearly sixty years after Carry On Nurse and 45 years on from Carry On Girls, I know which I prefer. 

What about you?

You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and on Instagram

My Five Favourite Liz Fraser Performances

We lost a great talent this week with Liz Fraser passing away. I know my Twitter feed has been pretty focussed on this the last couple of days but I think Liz's contribution to the best of British film and television warrants this coverage. A big thank you to everyone out there who commented positively on my tribute to Liz, posted after I heard the sad news. It wasn't easy to write but I'm glad it was well received.

I thought, after the sad news, I would take some time to write a blog on my favourite Liz performances. As she was on our screens for seven decades and worked with just about everyone this is no easy feat. So what I've come up with is a purely personal list of favourites. Some are from the cinema, some the small screen. Some are starring roles, some are small yet important cameos. 

I hope you like my choices.


Cynthia Kite in I'm All Right Jack (1959)

I couldn't do this without including Liz's breakthrough role in this Boulting Brothers classic. Despite being almost sixty years old, I caught this film again recently and it made me laugh and kept me fully engaged throughout. Not only that, it also made my husband laugh and he has a very un-British, very American sense of humour. The tale of trouble at the works boasts a stellar cast, headed by Ian Carmichael and Peter Sellers. Liz shines as Peter's sexy young daughter Cynthia who flutters her false eyelashes at Ian's Stanley Windrush and dons many a tight sweater. This role saw Liz nominated for a BAFTA and her career as a British comedy icon and glamorous sex symbol began. In an interview with The Art Desk in 2015 Liz was still immensely proud of this film and rightly so. Her seduction of Ian Carmichael in his bubble car is a highlight with that knock out line: "Is them your own teeth?" Brilliant.

Delia King in Carry On Regardless (1961)

Liz joined the Carry On team for three adventures in the early 1960s followed up by a supporting turn in Carry On Behind in 1975. She brought a breath of fresh air to the established cast and although labelled another 'Carry On Blonde' she was always much more than that. Yes, she was blonde, busty and beautiful but she was also a damn fine comic actress. She brought something different to the films from other 'Carry On Blondes' such as Shirley Eaton or Barbara Windsor. I think my favourite of Liz's Carry On roles is her very first, as an eager member of the newly established Helping Hands Agency. Although a late addition to the cast following the withdrawal of Hattie Jacques due to illness, Liz fitted like a glove. She was acting with her Hancock co-star Sid James and alongside lifelong friend Joan Sims and everything just clicked. In a cast bursting with talent, Liz holds her own.  And in my eyes, she never looked lovelier. 

Sandra in Double Bunk (1961)

By all accounts, Liz's own personal favourite from all the films she made, Double Bunk is just a delight from start to finish. In many ways it's Genevieve by boat and that's not a bad thing. It's charming, innocent black and white fun with a touch of sauce. Starring alongside Sid James, Ian Carmichael and Janette Scott, Liz joins a rather unexpected voyage on a rusty old houseboat. Liz is again working closely with Sid and the pair share tremendous chemistry. She also provides the silver screen with one of the sexiest and yet most innocent strip teases in order to pinch some petrol from fiendish cad Dennis Price. Double Bunk is light and frothy and fairly inconsequential but it wins through on bright, breezy charm and the cosy familiarity of a bunch of actors who get on well in real life having a hoot together in the studio.

Margery Harper in The Professionals: Backtrack (1979)

With the British film industry in severe decline by the late 1970s, actors like Liz were appearing more often on television. The Professionals, an action adventure crime fighting series featuring heightened violence and focussing on the negative aspects of Britain in the 1970s, may not immediately feel like the right home for an actress like Liz but her appearance is an utter joy. The Professionals, starring Gordon Jackson, Martin Shaw and Lewis Collins as leading members of CI5, although a hard-hitting drama, also featured many moments of surreal humour. As blowsy antiques dealer cum fence Margery Harper, Liz shines in an over the top performance of high camp, tight flared trousers and buckets of green chartreuse. Helping out agents Bodie and Doyle, Liz's Marge takes more than a shine to Shaw's Ray Doyle while making several hilariously snide asides to the brutish Bodie (Collins). It's camp, knowing and Fraser is obviously having a whale of a time. Where else can you find Liz Fraser screeching around Kensington in the middle of the night, dressed in furs in the back of a big American car? Wonderful stuff.

Mrs Brent in Miss Marple: Nemesis (1987)

Joan Hickson was the definitive Miss Marple. Her BBC adaptations from the 1980s and early 1990s are just the best. For me, they'll never be surpassed. They always boasted a superb cast of supporting actors and Nemesis is one of the best. Liz appears in just one scene in this feature length drama, playing a grief-stricken mother fond of a tipple. As Mrs Brent, Liz shares one small but powerful scene with actor John Horsley's Professor Wanstead. Mrs Brent's daughter Nora has disappeared and is presumed dead. Although initially bright and cheerful in her respectable 1950s semi, as Wanstead starts to ask questions, Mrs Brent's face slowly cracks and the emotion is palpable. Liz achieves this excellent emotion by completely underplaying it and the tears she sheds are very real. As her character sips her orange squash laced liberally with gin, the facade slips. This role remained a favourite of Liz's and you could tell she was very proud of it, even though it was the subject of two frequent quips. The first, that she loved it as it provided regular royalty cheques from the BBC and the second that the day after it was first broadcast a woman stopped her in the street to commend her saying, "I didn't know you could act!" 

That was Liz though. There was a spiky bluster to her but you could tell she had a heart of gold. She was proud of some of the roles she played, less so of others. She was a realist and took jobs because she both enjoyed the work and needed to work. I hope she would approve of my choices here and I hope you'll agree she was right to be proud of each and every one of them.

You can read my tribute to Liz Fraser here



You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and on Instagram

Carry On Nurse! Celebrating 70 years of the NHS

It's been all over the news for a while and rightly so. Today marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the National Health Service. Normally you can't mention the NHS without the conversation turning achingly political but we're going to keep it nice and light on the blog as we commemorate this wonderful milestone.

I listened to a discussion on the radio not long ago about a special BFI season of films looking at how television and film has portrayed the NHS. Well for me, you need look no further than the Carry On films. The Carry Ons have become synonymous with the National Health Service and some of the most famous, best loved films in the series have been set in hospitals. Peter Rogers, lauded producer of the series, once said the hospital comedies were so popular as everyone knows what it's like to be in hospital and it really does help to have a jolly good laugh.

Even now, more than half a century after Hattie Jacques first donned the famous Matron uniform, most newspapers can't resist using an image of the actress alongside articles calling for the return of Matron's discipline. Such is the strength of the Carry On brand and the imagery of Hattie, Kenneth, Barbara and that daffodil. The Carry Ons went behind the scenes and provided a humorous, touching and affectionate take on the health service which was never cruel or mocking. Thankfully they didn't go down to the gory Casualty route and medical procedures were relatively few and far between, apart from Leslie Phillips' pesky bunion! 

It was writer Norman Hudis who first brought the idea of a medical comedy to the attentions of Peter Rogers. Norman was to produce a script as a follow up to his national service comedy Carry On Sergeant, so why not focus on yet another great British institution? The authentic feel to Carry On Nurse was provided by Norman's wife who was a nurse at the time. She provided some of the best set pieces and Norman gagged it all up gently. 

That first medical Carry On gave us some deliciously seductive nurses in Shirley Eaton, Ann Firbank and Susan Beaumont; Joan Sims as the accident prone junior nurse; fearsome authority in Hattie Jacques and Joan Hickson; a wide range of sneaky, awkward, down to earth patients in the likes of Kenneth Connor, Kenneth Williams, Cyril Chamberlain and Charles Hawtrey and some delightful hospital visitors in June Whitfield, Marianne Stone, Jill Ireland and Irene Handl. What a cast!

Almost ten years later Talbot Rothwell brought us a wonderful tribute to Norman's iconic Carry On when Carry On Doctor was released in 1967. A swinging sixties follow up to Nurse, all the familiar stereotypes are present and correct - Kenneth Williams' big headed surgeon, Hattie's bombastic Matron and Jim Dale's kindly, human and put upon doctor. Doctor also gave us Barbara Windsor's iconic Nurse Sandra May, wiggling her bottom and fancying a bit of Peter GIlmore's pear. The patients enjoying or enduring a stay in hospital eventually revolt against the hierarchy, headed by Bernard Bresslaw, Peter Butterworth, Sid James and the amazing guest star Frankie Howerd. It is Frankie's Francis Bigger who is subjected to the resurrection of the delicious Carry On Nurse sight gag involving that infamous daffodil. This time it's not Joan Sims and Wilfrid Hyde White, it's Frankie and the gorgeous nurse Valerie Van Ost. What confidence the series had to be so self-referential!

Two years later, we were Carrying On Again Doctor, which focussed less on the NHS, throwing in a trip to a tropical medical mission and a private weight loss clinic. Despite this, all the familiar characters are there - Jim Dale's handsome yet accident prone doctor (yes, that hospital trolley); Hattie Jacques' as a slightly more kindly Matron and Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey as rather conniving senior doctors. By now the Carry Ons were forever interlinked with the NHS, doctors and nurses. 

The final Carry On with a medical theme came along in 1971 when Talbot Rothwell scripted a tribute to Hattie's iconic character - Carry On Matron. Based around a Too Many Crooks attempt to rob vast quantities of the pill from Finisham Maternity Hospital, much of the action centres around the hospital misfits of Hattie, Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey (playing Dr F. A Goode!) Patients are few and far between this time apart from an ongoing side story of Joan Sims' never-ending pregnancy and never-satisfied appetites! Kenneth Connor is amazing as the put upon nervy father to be while the nursing staff are glamorously represented by Jacki Piper, Barbara Windsor again and Kenneth Cope in drag (it's a long story). And who can forget Terry Scott's rather grim, grotty Dr Prodd. An aptly named character if ever there was one.

Hospitals did feature in other Carry Ons, albeit to a lesser degree. In 1960 there was an extended sequence set in a hospital during Carry On Regardless. This involved Helping Hands boss Bert Handy (Sid James) being involved in a case of mistaken identity which caused much chaos in the wards. In a throwback to Nurse, Joan Hickson and Hattie Jacques were both present although this time Joan was the Matron and Hattie the Sister. June Jago is also there as a nurse, six years before she played Hattie's rather duplicitous Sister in Carry On Doctor. And in Carry On Loving ten years on from Regardless (indeed Loving was a modern tribute to the content and form of Regardless) we again return to the wards as Richard O'Callaghan's Bertie is knocked on the bonce by Bernard Bresslaw's Gripper Burke. When Jacki Piper goes hospital visiting Eric Rogers even resurrects his incidental music from Carry On Doctor. I just loved when the Carry Ons provided nods to the past.

The Carry Ons have become a part of British life. In many ways they presented a view of a Britain which never really existed. It was an inflated, stereotypical version of our beloved country, packed full of eccentrics. The series' treatment of the National Health Service was also far from reality - all jolly high jinks, sexy nurses and outlandish Matrons. True some of the stories stemmed from real events but us fans are happy with the Carry Ons staying clear of proper reality. I think we should be ever so proud of the Carry Ons' regular NHS tributes as that's what they were - affectionate, warm and full of appreciation. 

Happy 70th birthday to the NHS. 

You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and on Instagram

Carrying On with … A Doctor in The House!

This is part of a brand new series of blogs looking back at the wonderful series of British comedy films - the Doctor … series. There were seven Doctor films produced at Pinewood Studios between 1954 and 1970, all with Betty Box and Ralph Thomas at the helm. With Betty being Peter Rogers' wife and Ralph the brother of Gerald Thomas, there were bound to be a fair few Carry On connections.

These medical comedy films were extremely popular at the time and while perhaps they do not have the lasting appeal of the Carry Ons, there is no doubting their classic status. Always looking more lavish than their sister films in the Pinewood stable, they did share a cosy ensemble feel with many familiar faces appearing again and again over the years.

So let's start off today by looking at the very first in the series, the brilliant, evergreen Doctor in The House from way back in 1954.

What's it about?

The story, based on the novel by Richard Gordon, follows the fortunes of Simon Sparrow, starting as a new medical student at the fictional St Swithin's Hospital in London. His five years of student life, involving drinking, dating women, and falling foul of the rigid hospital authorities, provide many humorous incidents.

Simon's friends cajole him into a series of disastrous dates, first with a placidly uninterested "Rigor Mortis", then with Isobel, a woman with very expensive tastes, and finally with Joy, a nurse at St Swithin's. After a rocky start, he finds he likes Joy a great deal.

The climax of the film is a rugby match with a rival medical school during Simon's fifth and final year. After St Swithin's wins, the other side tries to steal the school mascot, a stuffed gorilla, resulting in a riot and car chase through the streets of London. 

Who's in it?

This first film in the series introduced us to many characters who would appear throughout the run, on and off. It also confirmed the star status of its leading man, Dirk Bogarde, who played Simon Sparrow. Playing Simon's fellow students were Kenneth More, Donald Sinden and Donald Houston while the unforgettable James Robertson Justice took on the role of the fearsome Sir Lancelot Spratt, a character he'd become synonymous with for the rest of his life.

The film also boasted two delightful leading ladies in Muriel Pavlow, playing Joy and Kay Kendall, fresh from success in Genevieve, in the role of Isobel. 

Carry On faces?

Quite a few! Making the first of several appearances in the Doctor series is the wonderful Joan Sims, here playing the eye catching cameo role of Nurse Rigor Mortis! It was a small part but it really did help establish Joan in films and led to many more comedy roles for Betty and Peter at Pinewood. 

As I've already mentioned, future Carry On Jack star Donald Houston was one of the main stars of the film, playing Welsh rugby obsessed student Taffy Evans. Another actor making the first of several appearances in the series is Carry On semi-regular Harry Locke, here playing Jessup. Harry went on to play supporting roles in the first three Carry Ons with a medical theme.

The original Carry On leading lady, Shirley Eaton, makes the first of two appearances in the Doctor films with her role here as Milly Groaker. This marked one of Shirley's earliest film performances. And playing Shirley's mother in the film is another very familiar face, Joan Hickson.

Cyril Chamberlain, a reliable supporting actor in the first seven Carry Ons, plays a Policeman while Brian Oulton, a great addition to the casts of Carry On Nurse, Constable, Cleo and Camping, pops up as a Medical Equipment Salesman. Finally, playing another salesman is that instantly recognisable character actor and co-star in Carry On Spying, the superb Richard Wattis.

Did you know? 

The film was nominated for four BAFTAs in 1955, winning a Best Actor Award for star Kenneth More.

Nicholas Phipps, who wrote the screenplay based on Richard Gordon's book, also plays the role of the Magistrate in the film. Gordon also has an uncredited role as an Anaesthetist.

Apparently Robert Morley was first choice to play Sir Lancelot Spratt however Box and Thomas refused to pay the £15000 fee his agent demanded. The part then went to Robertson Justice for a fraction of this fee.

The film was a huge success, recouping its original budget within six weeks of initial release. Box Office receipts confirm that the film was seen by over 15 million people, a third of the entire British population at the time.

You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and on Instagram

Carry On Faces in Different Places: Lost

Here we go with another in my series of blogs looking at some of the cream of British comedy film making from the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Although this blog is all about the Carry Ons, believe it or not, there were some other joyous comedy films made away from Peter Rogers Productions. However, given the quality of the actors Peter employed to make his series, it's no wonder that most of them popped up elsewhere.

So far I've looked at the wonderful 1959 crime caper Too Many Crooks , the 1954 domestic comedy starring Dirk Bogarde, For Better For Worse , the big screen spin off Please Sir! and the wonderful Up Pompeii and the brilliant John Gregson and Diana Dors vehicle, Value for Money. 
  
More recently I blogged about the Sid James and Kenneth Connor comedy horror What A Carve Up! and the the Gordon Jackson drama, Floodtide. 

I've also looked at the Carry On links with the wonderful film I'm All Right Jack

Recently I blogged about the Billy Fury and Amanda Barrie musical film I've Gotta Horse , the classic 1954 school comedy The Belles of St Trinian's and the 1959 romantic comedy from the Betty Box and Ralph Thomas stable, Upstairs and Downstairs

Today I am going to write about a rather dramatic British thriller from 1956 which featured an astonishing supporting cast of well known and up and coming character actors: Lost.

What's it about?

Directed by Guy Green, the film is set in 1950s London and revolves around the kidnapping of an American couple's baby. US embassy employee Lee Cochrane and his wife discover their 18-month-old son Simon has been abducted, when their nanny leaves the child unattended outside a chemist's shop. London Detective Inspector Craig pledges to find the child, though clues are thin on the ground.

Who's in it?

Lost stars David Farrar as Detective Inspector Craig while the young couple at the centre of the drama are played by David Knight and Julia Arnall. Other well-known names in the supporting cast include Thora Hird, Meredith Edwards, Marjorie Rhodes, Shirley Anne Field and Mona Washbourne.

Carry On Faces?

There is a major starring role for the aforementioned Julia Arnall playing Sue Cochrane. Julia had a cameo opposite Terence Alexander in the 1961 film, Carry On Regardless. There is also a supporting role for the well-known comedy actress Eleanor Summerfield, playing Sergeant Cook. Eleanor also filmed a cameo for Regardless - with Charles Hawtrey - however the entire performance was sadly cut from the final film.

The great thing about Lost is the bulging cast of often uncredited British character actors. Cyril Chamberlain pops up as a Uniformed Police Officer. Cyril had supporting roles in the first seven Carry Ons. The instantly recognisable Peggy Ann Clifford appears in the role of a Shop Keeper. Peggy Ann had a small role as Willa Claudia (WC) in the slave auction scenes in Carry On Cleo.

And of course you couldn't make a film at the time without employing the services of Fred Griffiths. In Lost he plays the role of Gamble. Fred had small supporting roles in the likes of Carry On Nurse, Carry On Regardless and Carry On Loving. Cast as Fred's wife in the film is Carry On Doctor cameo player Dandy Nichols. Playing a Police Constable in a Phone Box is Carry On Jack and Carry On Cowboy supporting player Percy Herbert. Another very familiar face is that of Joan Hickson, playing a Pharmacist. Joan had supporting roles in five Carry Ons - Nurse, Constable, Regardless, Loving and Girls. And playing a young girl in the very same Chemist's Shop is none other than Barbara Windsor in one of her earliest screen appearances.

My own personal favourite Carry On actor, the wonderful Joan Sims, also appears in Lost, in the uncredited role of an Ice Cream Seller in the Park. In the role of Mrs Marley is Joan's Carry On At Your Convenience co-star Marianne Stone. Marianne popped in several Carry Ons between 1958 and 1975. Michael Ward, another familiar face of British film, also pops up in Lost playing Mantilla. Michael had several roles in the Carry On series, beginning with that of a Photographer in Carry On Regardless. He also appeared in Carry On Cabby, Carry On Cleo, Carry On Screaming and Carry On Don't Lose Your Head. And finally, playing a Taxi Driver is Carry On Jack actor George Woodbridge.

Did you know?

The film was also known by the alternative title of Tears for Simon.


You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and on Instagram