Carry on Cleo

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source: Carry on Cleo

The CARRY ON series is British humour at its most telegraphed , corny and groan inducing , but the films are often very funny . It`s a kind of humour that doesn`t travel well which is why the series in almost unknown abroad and CLEO probably personifies this best . Americans will no doubt understand " Infamy , infamy , they`ve all got it infamy " or " I`m feeling queer " . But how many people outside Britain will get " I could do with a good scrubber " or " You know where you are with an iron " or " Where did you capture her - Bristol " ?

I do love the Carry Ons,this is one of my favourites especially as it has Amanda Barrie playing Cleo,didn't she have such big eyes?i particularly like the way she portrays Cleo as a sort of hippie Groovy Chic,rather than a big boobed no personality bimbo as was portrayed in the Up Pompai series with Frankie Howard,which was about the same era.Warren Mitchell is particularly funny as Marcus & Spencius it makes you wonder why he was never part of the team,this is the only time you see him in a carry on and his time on set is memorable.For me the funniest thing about this film now is how skinny most of the stars legs are,whose are the skinniest would you say?Charles Hawtrys,Jim Dales,Kenneth Williams,Cleos even Sid James had thin legs,i think they should have all gone down the gym first.But then the Carry on team were always different,they could always raise a laugh in one way or another.

"Carry on Cleo" has the reputation of being the super de luxe Executive Limited Edition model of the series due to the fact that the producers made use of props,scenery and costumes from a recent epic made at the same studios.This attempt to lift the movie from its deliciously low and skanky roots was an act of cultural vandalism akin to touching up the "Mona Lisa" with "Day - Glo" because the paint is a bit faded.To connoisseurs of the cheap and tacky,the creaky scenery,indifferent lighting and hand - me - down clothes are,together with the eccentric and dodgy acting, part of the whole cheerily seaside postcard - ish wonderfully British "Spirit of the Amateur" ambiance that make the "Carry on"s huge fun. I don't care if Sid and Kenny got their schmutter from "Bermans",I much prefer their "Man at Help the Aged" look. Mind you,they both look rather fetching in their full metal jackets. Charles Hawtrey,fortunately,is incorrigibly scruffy in a robe that looks as if it was fashioned from a Salvation Army blanket.As Seneca,he yelps away happily,an unregenerate refugee from The Benny Hill Show". Jim Dale,well,here we have a pop singer so tame he makes Cliff Richard look like Curt Cobain.His carefully enunciated lines disrupt the flow and rhythm established by his fellow performers,his talent for comedy is meagre.What he is doing with these seasoned pros is a mystery. But not all is doom and gloom.Mr Williams is nothing short of wonderful as Caesar,gratefully seizing some of best lines ever written for him,and Mr James,more like Gene Hackman than ever,grumbling good - naturedly before letting loose the most famous laugh in the movies. Not the best of the "Carry on"s - that honour goes,in my opinion,to "Camping",with the scene in the tent with Terry Scott,Janet Brown and Charles Hawtrey being a contender for the funniest in British movies. Some may find - like an unexpected upgrade to Business Class by B.A.- "Carry on Cleo" a distinct improvement.Being made of sterner stuff,I beg to differ.

I've been attempting to watch the CARRY ON films in some kind of chronological order and have now reached CLEO, one of the most affectionately-remembered of the entire series. It was enjoyable to watch once, but I for one didn't find it as funny as earlier entries as the humour is markedly more puerile here. Only a few of the gags (like the asp scene) really reach the highs of earlier instalments and much of the humour seems over-obvious and laboured. Physically, it's one of the best-looking of the entire series, using left-over sets and costumes from CLEOPATRA, but the script comes up short and is too involved in attempting to get characters from one location to the next. Take, for instance, the handling of the actors. Only Sid James and Kenneth Williams stand out as Antony and Caesar, the former settling into his famous lecherous character and the latter a complete nitwit. Kenneth Connor, so good in the likes of CARRY ON SERGEANT, plays an idiot character and the script never shows him to his best advantage. Charles Hawtrey and Joan Sims are similarly wasted. And don't get me started on the 'history' - this is a film where the Celtic inhabitants of England are depicted as cavemen, referring to dinosaurs and the like. Only a few hundred thousand years out!

Perhaps the best of the entire CARRY ON cycle, notable for its reuse of the sets and costumes originally conceived for Joseph L. Mankiewicz's monumental folly CLEOPPATRA (1963), CARRY ON CLEO contains its fair share of innuendo - so thick and intricate, in fact, that viewers can only tease out the brilliance of Talbot Rothwell's script after repeated viewings. Yet perhaps uniquely among the cycle, this film contains memorable performances too. Amanda Barrie has never been more seductive as Cleopatra she she lolls in her bath of asses' milk tempting Mark Antony (Sidney James) to join her. She remains gloriously empty- headed when faced with any schemes to enact, but certainly knows how to deal with men, especially the duffer Julius Caesar (Kenneth Williams). It is only when she gives Briton Hengist Pod (Kenneth Connor) a love-potion, transforming him from a mouse into a sexual Lothario that she meets her match. What perhaps distinguishes this film, however, is its metatheatrical awareness. Director Gerald Thomas makes no bones about tracing its origins in music-hall and variety; jokes are delivered as separate lines direct to camera with little concern for dramatic verisimilitude. The cast have no need to; they know that the viewers are waiting for the next innuendo, and they are prepared to glance briefly at the camera before delivering it, taking us into their confidence as they do so. This makes for both a liberating yet a lasting experience; we feel that we are somehow complicit with the actors in a ritual that we all know and love. It doesn't really matter what the film's subject might be; as if going to pantomime or a variety show, we are there to see our favorite actors doing what they are best at, and participating in a community experience of cathartic laughter. It is this unique quality, shared only by a few films (others might include Abbott and Costello or the Marx Brothers) that invests them with their timeless qualities.

An excellent script helps make this film one of the best Carry On films. Full of memorable moments, and acted by a superbly casted group of actors.

I don't think it is as funny as Carry on Screaming, Kenneth Williams's "Frying Tonight" is one of the best lines of the whole series. But it is still a hilarious film nonetheless. The film does look very nice, maybe a little dated, but lovely costumes and sets. The sparkling script is full of innuendos and one liners("Infamy Infamy They all have it in for me!"), not to mention a scatter of sex references. I don't think the beginning is the best beginning in the series, but once we are introduced to the likes of Amanda Barrie, looking gloriously dippy as Cleopatra, it picks up quite considerably. Some of the scenes, like the scene of the Eunuchs, are very silly. Jim Dale impresses in his role, but the acting honours go to Sidney James as Mark Anthony and Kenneth Williams as Julius Caesar. All in all, well recommended for fans of the series. 8/10 Bethany Cox.

The 'Carry On' franchise was never likely to be regarded as the best of Britiah humour, but the earlier outings seemed wittier than those that came later. Dating from 1964, 'Carry On Cleo' was right in the middle of the franchise that incorporated 'the gang', or at least a worthy cluster of its members. That crumpled old lecher Sid James was a staple of the genre, as was Hattie Jaques, the latter not scripted here. A spineless Ceasar played by that lost national treasure Kenneth Williams, mistakenly employs an equally spineless bodyguard in the form of Kenneth Connor. In the meantime, a conspiracy is gathering to kill-off Ceasar, led by Sid James as Anthony. All of the usual innuendo and double-entendres feature, with some nice little sight gags and puns. This movie features one of the best and corniest lines in British comedy: Ceasar, fleeing from what he suspects to be an attempt on his life shouts 'Infamy, infamy - they've all got it in for me.' Yes. By the late 1960's the concept was wearing a bit thin. And by the 1970's the gang began dying-off, only to be replaced by inadequate stooges. The formula didn't translate. This one is still worth a watch. But any outing that lacks the two Kenneths, Sid, and Hattie, is a busted flush.