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By PAUL BRENNER
Anchor Bay hoists up its sails for the massive seven disc The Carry On Collection, with twelve
films from the phenomenally popular British "Carry On" series. The collection features "Carry On" films from the best
years of the series -- 1958 to 1966. The double feature discs include the films "Carry On Nurse," "Carry On Sergeant,"
"Carry On Teacher," "Carry On Constable," "Carry On Regardless," "Carry On Cruising," "Carry On Spying," "Carry On
Cabby," "Carry On Cleo," "Carry On Jack," "Carry On Cowboy," and "Carry On Screaming."
The bunglers are Sid James, Joan Sims, Peter Butterworth, Kenneth Williams, Barbara Windsor, Jim Dale, Kenneth Connor,
Charles Hawtrey, Bernard Bresslaw, Hattie Jacques, Bernard Cribbens, and many more second bananas -- including Shirley
Eaton before she was spray-painted gold in "Goldfinger." At the beginning of the series, a few British comic stalwarts
played the ringmaster -- Bob Monkhouse, Ted Ray -- before Sid James became the unofficial lightening rod of strength for
all of the shenanigans. Produced by Peter Rogers and directed by Gerald Thomas, the series represents both the best and
worst of British comedy circa late '50s -- and frequently at the same instance. The earlier films (scripted by Norman
Hudis) take on British institutions and are burlesques of the decline of the British Empire (excepting "Carry On Cabby,"
a dreadful foray into situation comedy).
Later films become tiresome parodies of dead genres (like a presage of the worst of Mel Brooks, although a case can be
made that "Carry On Cowboy" is a better, much more sustained film than "Blazing Saddles"); the best of the parodies is
the fine romp "Carry On Jack." Although the series went on for years and years after "Carry On Screaming" in 1966, the
films had already become quaint relics, when Richard Lester and, later, Monty Python, came on the scene and rendered the
Carry On films obsolete. At their best, the Carry On films in the collection are excruciatingly funny. At their worst,
they are just excruciating.
And speaking of excruciating, the collection kicks off with a deadly feature clip film from 1977, "That's Carry On,"
with the film clips lumbering toward you like icebergs while Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor flutter around a
projection booth like doomed moths.
All the films feature theatrical trailers and the collection is presented in Dolby Mono. |
