The Star of … Carry On Cruising

I have decided to dedicate a new series of blogs to what I consider to be the very best performances in each of the thirty original Carry On films. As ever, it's a purely personal take on these films from yours truly and of course you are welcome to agree or disagree as you see fit! 

Since I started the blog in 2015 I have often championed the underdog or the under appreciated. The Carry On series employed hundreds of cracking comedy actors during their twenty year lifespan and while I've done my best to celebrate as many of them as possible, there is still much to do to preserve their legacy. Some of the actors featured in this new series will be household names and leading lights, others perhaps not so well known. Whoever they are, I hope you enjoy reading about my chosen few.

The first in this series saw me write about my love for Kenneth Connor's role as Horace Strong in Carry On Sergeant and then, moving forward to later in 1958, we focused on Kenneth Williams in Carry On Nurse. My star of Carry On Teacher, released in 1959, was that wonderful character actress Rosalind Knight, playing strict school inspector Felicity Wheeler and my star of Carry On Constable was the debuting Sidney James. Most recently I decided that my star turn from Carry On Regardless was that man Kenneth Connor again. Today we're moving on to the very first colour film in the series, Carry On Cruising.

I adore Carry On Cruising. It's not a typical Carry On classic in many ways as it is still fairly innocent and innuendo-light and although the cast are a joy, the film misses several key players audiences at the time would now be used to seeing. Charles Hawtrey was replaced by Lance Percival as the ship cook relatively late on due to a dispute about billing (which would rumble for years to come). Joan Sims was also absent and Cruising would mark the first of four early sixties Carry Ons that Joan would miss. Other notable faces such as Hattie Jacques and Leslie Phillips were also glaringly absent and this was the first of several Carry Ons of the era which would feature a smaller core cast of players. The big ensemble efforts of Nurse, Constable and Regardless were for now a thing of the past.

Having said all that, fewer competing big names allowed those who were present more room to manoeuvre. Most of the action is shared between Sid James, Kenneth Williams and Kenneth Connor and these three heavyweights of British comedy are given some priceless material and they all interact beautifully together. Liz Fraser is back again following her debut in Regardless however her role here is pretty much the foil to newcomer Dilys Laye. While that may seem odd, it is easily explained by the fact that Dilys took on the part at very short notice from her longtime friend and colleague Joan Sims. The role was written for Sims and you can therefore see why Dilys is so much to the fore. And of course she is brilliant at it and once again begs the question why wasn't she a more regular part of the team? Esma Cannon is also a familiar and welcome face as one of the cruise passengers and does a sterling job in a role that often sees her acting comedy on her own, not an easy task.

The basic premise of Cruising follows all the other Carry On plots devised by writer Norman Hudis, who's last screenplay for the series this was. Captain Crowther (Sid James) has five of his crew replaced at short notice before a new cruise voyage begins. Not only does he get the five most incompetent crew men ever to sail the seven seas, but the passengers turn out to be a rather strange bunch too. The SS Happy Wanderer is the cruise ship and after this voyage, Crowther hopes to get a job as captain on a transatlantic ship, promising the crew members their jobs will be safe under the new captain. Starting off from England, the Happy Wanderer calls at unnamed ports in Spain, Italy and North Africa before going home again.


So who is my favourite in Carry On Cruising?


Well it's not quite a no brainer as I had a bit of a tough choice between two of the ladies. While Esma Cannon puts in a superb performance, mainly on her own I might add, as mad little spinster Bridget, for me the knock out turn comes from the delightful Dilys Laye as Flo Castle. Dilys, as I've already mentioned, was catapulted into Cruising at very short notice due to Joan Sims being indisposed. Given the very short amount of time she had to get across the part, get her costumes together and meet her fellow cast mates, Dilys does a sublime job. Flo is a major starring role and her plot, looking for a husband on the ship, is the driving force of the entire film. Yes, Laye had been in films for several years by this point but mainly in supporting roles or eye-catching cameos. This is quite different, it's a starring role. 

I know it was meant for Joan and I could see Joan working so well once again with Liz Fraser and with Kenneth Connor as a love interest, however despite Joan being my ultimate heroine, I cannot imagine anyone other than Dilys in the part. This goes against some comments a few years ago by writer Norman Hudis and while he certainly knew his stuff, Dilys for me is the best thing in the film. She's quite simply never off. It's a hugely confident, brilliantly timed, hilarious and energetic performance and you can't help but get caught up in the magic and the glee of it all. I only wish Peter Rogers had made Dilys a permanent member of the team as the actress, many years later, admitted she'd have loved.

Dilys also works so well with the rest of the cast, it's not just her own performance which makes her my star. Dilys works really well with Liz Fraser as the two best friends enjoying a luxurious cruise. Liz was definitely the more experienced film actor of the pair but here she's pretty much second fiddle to Dilys. Yet it still works. Dilys is also superb in her scenes with a rather naive, innocent Sid James as Captain Crowther. Dilys is the stronger of the two in their very mild flirtation scenes and it's great to see Sid playing a gentler character than the kind he became famous for later on in the series. And who can forget Dilys and Esma Cannon and their glorious drinking session! Two ladies comedically having a few too many is ahead of its time and really very modern for a film made in 1962 at a time when men were the stars and given the better parts.

Dilys is also amazingly good in her romantic interludes with one of my other favourite actors, the brilliant Kenneth Connor. Many years later Dilys admitted she was often mistaken for Kenneth's real life wife, so convincing were the pair in that film. I love the gentle, bumbling romance as Flo does her utmost to spurn Dr Binn's advances. Of course, as with the best of these scenarios, the audience is completely on Kenneth's side and rooting for him throughout. And of course they get there in the end. It's funny, honest, real and very sweet without being over the top. Qualities I so admire about the early Carry Ons and of Norman Hudis' scripts and aspects that were perhaps lacking from the films later in the run.

So there you have it, Dilys Laye, in her first Carry On appearance, is my star turn in Carry On Cruising. Let me know if you agree! 

You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and on Instagram

The Star of … Carry On Regardless

I have decided to dedicate a new series of blogs to what I consider to be the very best performances in each of the thirty original Carry On films. As ever, it's a purely personal take on these films from yours truly and of course you are welcome to agree or disagree as you see fit! 

Since I started the blog in 2015 I have often championed the underdog or the under appreciated. The Carry On series employed hundreds of cracking comedy actors during their twenty year lifespan and while I've done my best to celebrate as many of them as possible, there is still much to do to preserve their legacy. Some of the actors featured in this new series will be household names and leading lights, others perhaps not so well known. Whoever they are, I hope you enjoy reading about my chosen few.

The first in this series saw me write about my love for Kenneth Connor's role as Horace Strong in Carry On Sergeant and then, moving forward to later in 1958, we focused on Kenneth Williams in Carry On Nurse. My star of Carry On Teacher, released in 1959, was that wonderful character actress Rosalind Knight, playing strict school inspector Felicity Wheeler and my star of Carry On Constable was the debuting Sidney James. Today I'm moving on to look at the 1960 film, Carry On Regardless. 

 

The basic premise of Regardless is the Helping Hands Agency with Sid James and Esma Cannon at the helm. They employed the regular gang of goons to undertake all kinds off odd jobs and the film that results is really just a collection of loose sketches. It works really well but at some points, because the cast is so big, you forget they are all in it!  Kenneth Connor gets the majority of the film and is superb throughout although this means actors like Bill Owen, Charles Hawtrey and Terence Longdon are criminally underused.

So who is the star of the film for me? 

In many ways I think Regardless is probably Kenneth Connor's finest hour. Yes Sid James had got his feet under the Carry On table but at this stage of the game Sid was still the Norman Hudis authority figure that all the maniacs caused chaos around. Norman obviously enjoyed writing for Connor and most of the very best sequences star Kenneth. Whether it be misunderstandings with the voluptuous, bored housewife Penny Panting (seductively played by Fenella Fielding), getting confused amongst a bunch of animated Chinese people expecting a translator, attempting to stay silent in a reading room full of elderly gents or demonstrating the "Bed of the Century" at the Ideal Home Exhibition, Kenneth is on sparkling form and gets to display is full set of joyous comic gifts. 

 

My favourite scene featuring Kenneth is the fairly long sketch that sees Esma Cannon get the wrong end of the stick following a rather confusing phone call with the imposing Eric Pohlmann (who would return as The Fat Man in Carry On Spying of course). Eric is after a forth at bridge however in a very clever Hudis bit of business, this is misunderstood by Cannon and Connor as a meeting at the Forth Bridge in what becomes Gerald Thomas' tribute to The 39 Steps. Don't forget there had been a version of this famous story produced at Pinewood and starring Kenneth More only the year before Regardless went into production, so it was fairly fresh in the minds of the audience. As an aside, that film was directed by Gerald's brother Ralph, produced by Peter's wife Betty Box and featured such familiar Pinewood faces as Joan Hickson, Sid James and Brian Oulton. 

The Carry On version sees Kenneth Connor don a trenchcoat and hat and pretend to be a subtle super spy, complete with Connor's American-accented voice over and lots of Thomas attention to detail. Once aboard the train bound for Scotland, Kenneth encounters a pair of dodgy looking types played by Victor Maddern and Denis Shaw. It's a brief little vignette but in true Hudis style this underworld meet up turns out to be a simple game of cards in a train compartment. Moving to the buffet car, Connor meets the seductive Russian Betty Marsden, a mistress of accents and voices if ever there was one, thanks to her starring role in both Beyond Our Ken and Round The Horne on radio. More misunderstandings take place leading Kenneth to receive a good sound slap around the chops from Betty before crashing into a bowl full of Brown Windsor soup. This leads Connor to break deliciously from his spy persona to once again become the bumbling little man we know and love.

 

Of course there is no rendez-vous and when Kenneth jumps from the train on the bridge he ends up completely drenched in a muddy puddle full of goodness knows what. It's typical Carry On fare from the Hudis era but Connor plays it all beautifully and it's honestly one of his best ever sequences on film. The fact that Kenneth is billed above the likes of Sims, Williams and Hawtrey shows just what power and sway he held in the Carry Ons during the early 1960s. He's clearly a pivotal member of the team and an absolute joy to watch.

Connor simply has to be the star of the film as he grabs more screen time than anyone else and that's no mean feat given just how many class comedy character people appear across the 90 minutes. There is no doubting that Regardless is very much an ensemble piece featuring a stunning cast packed full of the very best of British comedy talent at the time, however it is Connor who rises above the rest and is, for me, the true star of Carry On Regardless. 

You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and on Instagram

Happy Birthday Sheila Hancock!

Many happy returns to the wonderful Sheila Hancock who celebrates her birthday today. Sheila is well known and often celebrated for her long and illustrious career on stage, film and television. 

Sheila has also become a successful author in more recent years, publishing two memoirs - one about her life with her late husband, the actor John Thaw and another on her life after his sad death in 2002. She has also written her first novel, Miss Carter's War and I was lucky enough to attend a Q&A on this back in 2014.

Sheila has featured in many classic films and television shows over the years but is mainly known to Carry On fans for her definitive performance as Senna Pod, wife of Hengist, inventor of the square wheel, in Carry On Cleo. Sheila was on wonderful form opposite Kenneth Connor. She also worked with Carry On favourite Esma Cannon in the early 1960s sitcom, The Rag Trade and several years later, alongside her life long friend Dilys Laye in My Digby Darling. 

In the early 1960s Sheila co-starred with Kenneth Williams in the West End revue, One Over The Eight. Unlike many of Kenneth's other leading ladies, Hancock took very little of his usual pranks and nonsense, stood up to Kenny and the two became close friends. Sheila even appeared on Just A Minute alongside Kenneth in the late 1960s. It wasn't until recently that I realised Sheila also shares a birthday with the great man.

So whatever Sheila is up to today, I hope she has a wonderful birthday!


You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan

The Star Of … Carry On Teacher

I have decided to dedicate a new series of blogs to what I consider to be the very best performances in each of the thirty original Carry On films. As ever, it's a purely personal take on these films from yours truly and of course you are welcome to agree or disagree as you see fit! 

Since I started the blog in 2015 I have often championed the underdog or the under appreciated. The Carry On series employed hundreds of cracking comedy actors during their twenty year lifespan and while I've done my best to celebrate as many of them as possible, there is still much to do to preserve their legacy. Some of the actors featured in this new series will be household names and leading lights, others perhaps not so well known. Whoever they are, I hope you enjoy reading about my chosen few.

The first in this series saw me write about my love for Kenneth Connor's role as Horace Strong in Carry On Sergeant and then, moving forward to later in 1958, we focus on Kenneth Williams in Carry On Nurse. With the series beginning to gather momentum a third film quickly followed in the spring of 1959. Carry On Teacher, probably the most innocent of all the films, takes its lead from the popular St Trinian's films with a dash of Ealing comedy for good measure. With a cast brim full of young actors, mostly plucked from the Corona Academy, Gerald Thomas showed his directorial skill by coaxing excellent comedy performances from the likes of Richard O'Sullivan, Carol White, Larry Dann et al. 

Featuring a smaller cast of character than previous entries, Teacher sees the first signs of a core team being pushed forward with familiar faces Kenneth Connor, Leslie Phillips, Hattie Jacques, Joan Sims, Charles Hawtrey and Kenneth Williams taking centre stage. With guest star Ted Ray putting in a sublime performance as head teacher William Wakefield and Cyril Chamberlain grabbing more screen time than usual, there is plenty to keep fans happy. The basic premise of Teacher sees a bunch of well-meaning if badly behaved children decide to take action to ensure their beloved head teacher doesn't leave for his dream school in a prestigious new town. Taking advantage of the arrival of two very contrasting school inspectors, the kids begin a campaign designed to create as much upheaval as possible. This provides plenty of slapstick moments and delightfully childish set pieces which, in the hands of anyone other than this band of seasoned pros, might have fallen flat.

Teacher is the sweetest, softest and most gentle of all the Carry Ons. It's a lovely Sunday afternoon film and I have a deep affection for it. As for my star of the film, well it's the only actor involved who hasn't been named checked yet - the glorious Rosalind Knight, here playing snooty school inspector Felicity Wheeler.

Rosalind debuted in the series with a cameo in the previous film, as Nurse Nightingale in Carry On Nurse. In a cast bursting with familiar and well-loved actors, Rosalind pops in for a few scenes as the earnest but accident prone Nightingale and is absolutely wonderful. Her scenes with Ann Firbank and Susan Beaumont are a delight and it's clear to see she'd be back for more fun with the gang. And less than six months later she was. Felicity is a much bigger, starring role and Rosalind grabs it with both hands. In the 2015 Carry On Forever documentary Rosalind spoke about the part and even went back to the school used for Maudlin Street. It was great to hear how much she relished the part of Miss Wheeler and how much she enjoyed working with Kenneth Connor as bumbling Science master Mr Adams.

Rosalind Knight came from a theatrical family, with her father being the renowned actor Esmond Knight, her mother Frances Clare and her step mother Nora Swinburne. She had started to appear in films a couple of years before Nurse and Teacher with an eye-catching role as a glamorous six former alongside Dilys Laye in the 1957 film Blue Murder at St Trinian's. It's easy to see why Peter Rogers and Gerald Thomas cast her in two of the early Carry Ons and she plays her roles with aplomb for an actress who was so young and relatively inexperienced in film making.

The strength of Rosalind's role in Teacher comes from two onscreen partnerships. The first, with fellow inspector Alistair Grigg, played with wolfish glee by Leslie Phillips. The two characters are polls apart and Leslie's louche, relaxed approach to discipline amongst teenagers contrasts vividly with Rosalind's strict and uncompromising Miss Wheeler. We always need contrasts in comedy and these two actors provide it in spades. At the heart of Teacher for me though is the comedic romance between Felicity and Gregory Adams (Connor). Ray's William Wakefield quickly spots the spark between the pair and decides to push them together mainly for his own ends.

What follows is a delightful collection of set pieces where Connor's bumbles, prat falls and jumbles his words with glorious comedic nervous energy. Rosalind proves to be the perfect comic foil and as the film progresses, Connor's character slowly cracks her tough exterior. Their on screen romance is the perfect example of the tender side to the early Norman Hudis Carry Ons. Before the films were wall to wall innuendo, slapstick and over playing, there were moments of genuine romance and social comment. Following on from Kenneth Williams playing it for real in Nurse with Jill Ireland, here we have almost serious dramatics from Connor, himself a very serious proper actor, falling for Rosalind's strict inspector. When they finally admit their feelings for each other, the audience is right behind them. Knight and Connor obviously got on well and their partnership on screen is simply wonderful. I only wish they had worked together more often.

In Carry On Land, everyone gets a happy ending. Couples get together or reunite, Williams, Jacques and Hawtrey camp about and the kids win the day as William Wakefield decides to stay put at Maudlin Street. As the music swells and the children cheer in the playground, it's quite hard not to be caught up in the moment. For me Rosalind Knight is the star of Carry On Teacher, thanks to her brilliant performance as Felicity Wheeler. Her partnership with Connor is superb and my only complaint is that Rosalind didn't return for more Carry On adventures. However given the depth and variety of her subsequent career, she probably made the right decision!

Stay tuned for the next instalment of this series when I write about my own personal favourite 'star' of Carry On Constable.


You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and on Instagram