IAN c B
if you love slap stick post card british humour you will love this
we did.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/21/24
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Audience Member
Funny and original comedy-romance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/28/23
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Audience Member
Carry On Loving exploded onto British cinemas in 1970 and scored one of its biggest success stories in the series. Though variable in quality, Carry On Loving astutely hit contemporary times in this mildly risque offering, entering into the more liberal times which was something director Gerald Thomas and producer, Peter Rogers intended to loosely draw upon.
Carry On Loving is now, perharps, one of the more dated entries in the series, but fans of the series will undoubtedly lap up all this laughably innocent, old fashioned comedy that retains its ultimate feel-good factor that made the Carry On's such a winner in the first place. You know that there are better things out there than this but yet there's something about the cozy little world of the Carry On's that remains refreshingly amusing, timeless and often provides perfect escapism.
Carry On Loving is similar in content to an earlier addition in the series, Carry On Regardless (1959), with a series of sketches all connected to the same initial center of the plot. In this case the centreris a fraudulent dating agency, run by Sid James and Hattie Jacques. Their characters, Sid and Sophie Bliss, are a couple who pretend they're married as a ploy to make their shoddy dating agency look more genuine. They have a wide variation of clients on their database such as a bachelor who just so happens to be a marriage guidance counsellor whom seeks a girlfriend, and a young, niaeve man who's desperate to lose his virginity. Its all as daft as usual and character plot lines such as these could only have come from a Carry On film and even though this is not one of the best in the series, it still raises quite a few laughs with all the chaotic madness, fun and games to watch. This one is much the same as always and the formula at this point in the series was beginning to wear a little thin. Overall, though, it's is entertaining, ending with a great cake fight scene where the cast are all gathered together in one big mass ceremony finale that is just great fun and a classic ending.
Some of the regulars on show in this offering are looking noticeable older now, while some are unfairly restricted to minor supporting turns. Sid James is basically Sid James in this entry, beefing up his usual masculine, roguish charms on any woman that takes his fancy (mainly Joan Sims), while Hattie Jacques, who always bought a sense of grace with her inimitable characterisations, plays his pretend wife, Sophie, sharing some sparkling scenes with both Sid James and Kenneth Williams.
Joan Sims is unfairly pigeon holed in a supporting though effective role as the amorous spinster Esme Crowfoot, who lives in the constant shadow of her fierce partner, known as Gripper Burke (as he's a wrestler of course). Joan Sims shares some fun scenes with Sid James and has one hysterical one with Kenneth Williams towards the climax of the film.
Kenneth Williams is another stalwart of the series who is restricted to a background role, here playing a typically pompous, supercillious marriage guidance counsellor, Percival Snooper. His superior demands for him to become married after a series of complaints from his clients who all (correctly) believe he knows nothing about married life (which is evidently true). He quickly succumbs to the advances of the formidable Hattie Jacques.
Charles Hawtrey, turns up as a private investigator, hot on the trail of Sid James following Hattie Jacques suspicions of her husband's shady relationship with Joan Sims. He is as amusing as always but is given limited screen time and doesn't overly feel like a real participant in the film, having very little interaction with anyone of his fellow Carry On colleagues.
Terry Scott, who had appeared in various Carry On entries, plays Terence Philpot, an accident-prone man with a youthful innocence, resurrecting a role that was seemingly tailor-made for Jim Dale. He gets to play some great scenes opposite Imogen Hassall, whom is wonderfully transformed from a dowdy creature living with her in a large house with her snooty relatives and into a worldy luscious beauty. The scenes they share when Terry Scott goes to visit her for the first time at her family's stately home are of significant comic value and Joan Hickson turns up in a fantastic cameo here, playing the stern, no-nonsense mother of Imogen Hassall. There's also the fun sequence of the two trying to enjoy a quiet night in together but are continually disturbed by the rest of his girlfriends flatmates and their trivial domestic matters.
Jaki Piper, who had previously starred in 1969's Carry On Up The Jungle, turns up in a role that was possibly intended for Barbara Windsor, but Jaki Piper certainly has enough sparkle of her own, carrying off the part with aplomb and blending into the spirit of the Carry On madness brilliantly. She has plenty of screen time in this entry, playing a model who through a comic misunderstanding, ends up falling in love with the dopey and accident-prone Richard O' Callaghan. Their are some nice scenes between the two as their romance hastily builds up.
Other familiar Carry On players that show up include Bernard Bresslaw as a manic wrestler, Gripper Burke, who has a possessive hold over his straying girlfriend, Esme, played by Joan Sims. Also a great role here for Patsy Rolands, sparkling in all of her few number of scenes as the dowdy housekeeper to Percival Snooper (Kenneth Williams). Feeling threatened that her job will come to an end after Percival announces to her that he will be marrying Sophie Bliss (Hattie Jacqes), she hilariously does her very best to split the two up after it becomes blatantly obvious that she is in fact in love with him herself. The transformation of her from dowdy to glam is fantastically played by Patsy Rolands in possibly her best role in a Carry On here and deserved to have starred in many more in far bigger roles than she was ever actually given.
Worth a look for fans of the series, and really captures a certain era (the dawn of the swinging seventies) impeccably well.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/24/23
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Audience Member
Pure and simple constant innuendo. But still funny.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/01/23
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Audience Member
Ah Carry on movies. Slapstick, innuendo, and just such silliness :)
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/23/23
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Audience Member
One of the last, great Carry On films--This Film Is Fun!!
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/22/23
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