Carry on Screaming!

This Film is one of the films which has got everything. There is no Sid in this one but Harry H Corbert steps into his shoes with the same name Sidney Bung. The film is great as is Fenella Fielding as Veleria. Kenneth Williams is superb as Dr Watt in one of his best ever carry on roles. Charles and Joan are wasted. Jim Dale and Angela Douglas are very good. Butterworth is excellent as Slobotham. Jon Pertwee makes a carry on appearance as Doctor Fettle. The film remains one of my favourites. Bernard Bresslaw is good but not brilliant as in Cowboy. The locations are top notch, the house of Dr Watt is still there as a private language school. Odd Bodd is very funny when Valeria sees the reconstructed Odd Bodd and thinks that is the real one. "Put some cloths on you filthy beast" classic!!.

A series of films carried on, with perpetual double entendre, loved to finger an organ, unleash melons to gorge on, baps, flaps, jugs, bazookas went ding dong. Though it's not quite so funny today, Fanny plays with her balls in new ways, Dick's choppers been cut, Kitty's curtains are shut, the clams gone from splayed to being spayed.

Desperate,desperate stuff I'm afraid.Only the enchanting Miss Fielding enhances her reputation,making - like Mr Williams before her - the difficult step from Revue to Film Comedy seem sublimely simple.Sadly the comedy is unworthy of her rather strange talents as subtlety is hardly the byword for the "Carry On" series.Not normally a handicap,as most of them involve the participants running round and shouting a lot,but Miss Fielding's forte is in the huskily whispered aside and the slight twitching of an upper lip and in "Cary on Screaming" she is as a beautiful butterfly caught up in a herd of stampeding rhino. And then there's Mr Sid James.Or rather,there isn't.So we get Mr Harry H. Corbett,and good as he was as Harold Steptoe,Mr Corbett is totally anonymous here.Instantly forgettable,when he leaves a scene it is like a hand withdrawn from a bucket of water,he leaves no trace and one is surprised to see him reappear a couple of minutes later. Mr Jim Dale behaves as if his day job is dishing out "Crackerjack" pencils and pens.He has the uncontrolled manic energy of the children's entertainer on daytime TV but none of the talent. Mr Williams, with his bete noir Mr James usually the brightest star in the "Carry On" firmament,is very poor,squealing his lines as if to get the whole thing over as quickly as possible.You get the feeling he would have liked to have arrived on the set with a paper bag over his head to avoid recognition. "Carry on Screaming" has a very bad script,actors who don't appear to believe in what they're doing and generally carries the air of a series that had already gone on too long.Fortunately for its admirers,rumours of its imminent demise proved to be exaggerated,but "Screaming" was definitely a symptom of its mid - life crisis.

Carry On Screaming! starts in Oakham Woods as a young couple Albert Potter (Jim Dale) & Doris Mann (Angela Douglas) are out on a date. Albert disappears to investigate a strange noise & upon his return he finds Doris missing. Scotland Yard's finest Detective Sergeant Sidney Bung (Harry H. Corbett) & his trusty sidekick Detective Constable Slobotham (Peter Butterworth) are on the case & make the connection between this case the disappearance of several other young women in the same area within the past year. They search the woods but find nothing except a finger, they stumble across a large house belonging to Doctor Orlando Watt (Kenneth Williams) & his sister Valeria (Fenella Fielding) who are secretly using a hairy monster named Oddbod (Tom Clegg) to kidnap women which they then turn into shop dummies which they then sell to local stores, they are questioned but Bung finds nothing suspicious. Can Bung piece the clues together, figure out the truth & put a stop to the Watt's sinister plan? It's well worth a watch to find out... This British production was directed by Gerald Thomas & was the twelfth Carry On in a series that has produced over thirty films & Carry On Screaming! is surely one of (if not the) the best. The script by Carry On regular Talbot Rothwell has all the sexual innuendo, smutty gags, crude humour & puns that make these Carry On's so much fun to watch & thankfully it doesn't take itself too seriously. I have to admit that I find Carry On Screaming! hilarious even as a die-hard horror fan or perhaps even because I am. It parodies & makes fun of all the Hammer horror film so popular at the time this was made with great affection & it is never disrespectful towards it's inspiration. Director Thomas tires to take the mickey out of everything, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, mad scientists, a sexy vampire, old dark creepy mansions, a mummy, bringing the dead back to life, the sinister butler & plots involving the kidnapping of sexy young English maidens & adds plenty of humour to the proceedings so it never becomes too scary or frightening. It moves along like a rocket, it never becomes boring & is consistently funny, I love the interchanges between Bung & his dim-witted partner Slobotham, the hilarious rows Bung & his wife Emily (Joan Sims) have night after night as he comes out with sarcastic quips to her constant moaning, the silly dialogue & situations that crop up & I just think the entire film works extremely well at what it sets out to do. Another area where Carry On Screaming! succeeds so well is that it looks & feels like a horror film with wonderfully atmospheric period sets especially Dr. Watt's mansion & basement laboratory. The costumes are great with Bung wearing a Sherlock Holmes type cape & smoking from a pipe & how did Fielding get into that dress? The cinematography by veteran Alan Hume is great with a rich bright almost garish colour scheme, fantastic stuff. The over-the-top acting as everyone camps it up big time is worth watching the film for in itself, Corbett was a last minute replacement for Sid James when he couldn't take part due to illness & does a great job while Feilding makes for an incredibly sexy & hot looking villain, the other Carry On regulars like Williams who hams it up with the best of them, Sims, Dale, Butterworth, Charles Hawtrey as Dan Dann the gardening man, Bernard Bresslaw as Sockett the butler & future Dr. Who Jon Pertwee also turns up. I think Carry On Screaming! is a fantastic film from the catchy & funny opening theme song right down to the happy almost feel good ending, wholeheartedly recommended & an absolute must for Carry On & comedy fans.

I have to admit that this is the best Carry on Film of the series. It had me laughing throughout. There were great performances throughout and I particularly liked the late Harry H. Corbett's role as Detective Sergeant Bung in it. The plot was mad. The late Kenneth Williams played Dr. Watt who was the fiendish brains behind an evil plot. He had a huge Frankenstein-like henchman called Oddbod who would kidnap women for him. He would then turn the women into dummies and sell them to a local shop. Crazy eh? I won't spoil any of the scenes for you but they are all funny and there's some great dialogue throughout. As for the ending, it had me in stitches. I really believe this is the best Carry on Film in the series so I recommend checking it out.

In truth, though it manages quite successfully to emulate the visual style of Hammer horror, this is a pretty feeble pantomime which never really comes off (oo-er) at all. This is due mostly to a poor script, which delivers some atrocious dialogue and over laboured gags, punctuated by very occasional moments of wry amusement. Also, and maybe even more importantly, it lacks Sid James. I used to feel quite strongly that the only truly unifying actor in a Carry On film, someone who's presence tied all the situations and supporting roles together into a cohesive and recognisable whole, was Ken Williams. But here that brilliant revue artists performance is disappointingly flat, although admittedly he does his best with the material, resulting in a kind of strained camp which doesn't even begin to compare with his work on Round the Horne and Hancock. And without the counterpoint of a certain Mr James, there is no balance to the peice. Harry H. Corbett is a competent leading man, but his role is underwritten and is in itself little compensation for a missing lecherous 'ol' guvner'. Fenella Fielding looks very nice and also grapples hard with her flimsy lines, but doesn't seem to have much to do other than smoulder (literally at one point) seductively. The rest of the cast might as well be phoning in their performances. Jim Dale is the usual mug, Jon Pertwee hams it up as a mad scientist, Charlie Hawtrey slurs through a single, miserable scene and Peter Butterworth (my favourite of the supporting actors) plays the perennial stooge. Even the obligatory 'Bloke in a Dress', courtesy of Mr Butterworth, seems tacked on. Not too good at all. See Cleo or Khyber instead.

The Carry On films were at their best in the early days when they offered more than just saucy double entendres. Don't get me wrong, there *are* plenty of great double entendres here, but they're set against the backdrop of a horror spoof. The unusual setting gives it a freshness that the other Carry Ons lack. A changed cast helps too. Harry Corbett shines in the sort of role which normally goes to Sid James. He makes the part his own, only failing in the scenes where he argues with his wife. There's just no chemistry between him and Joan Sims to show why these people were once in love with each other. But there's chemistry between Corbett and Fenella Fielding, the other guest star. She makes a wonderful evil seductress. Of the regulars, Williams is best. His usual eccentric, camp performance takes on an edge of madness that grows as the film progresses. Recommended.

To correct an earlier comment on this site, the glorious Fenella Fielding is NO relation to Marty Feldman, and has stated many times how she is tired of this untruth being repeated. Her real name is Fenella Feldman but she is not related to Marty in any way. Back to Carry on Screaming, the very best of the Carry On films - if you have never seen it, buy the DVD today. The performances are top notch, especially those of Kenneth Williams and Fenella Fielding as the villainous brother/sister act, and Harry H. Corbett as the befuddled police sergeant. It is curious that Peter Butterworth, who plays a major role, and Bernard Bresslaw, as the Lurch-type butler, receive minor billing and are not mentioned on the poster for the film. Anyway - enjoy!

This one was my favourite Carry On when a kid, it's one of a few I can force myself to watch nowadays. I think I could stick with Khyber and Cleo but the rest forget it. Throughout the series from '58 to '70 there were some good moments, some ace smart-ass one-liners but a lot of swamp to crawl through, the humour eventually ending up in the gutter from '70 on. I left them all to it there and then. Harry Corbett and Kenneth Williams have some great lines, in this version of Frankenstein - stealing women to "vitrify" into shop dummies. Williams: "I wish I was dead"; Fielding: "Don't you remember, you are"; Williams: "Oh yes. What a life!" And on and on, knockabout Music Hall and Variety stuff, some original but plenty borrowed from all sources from Abbott and Costello, the Addams Family, Will Hay etc. But in COS it generally works: therefore I admit I must still like it. I wish that Sid James had been in it as well, but I'm glad Barbara Windsor wasn't. Maybe it's my rose-tinted spectacles kicking in with this one, but why on Earth do the Carry On films generally seem more popular now in the Noughties UK than 30 years ago?

Carry On Screaming is the 12th film of the popular Carry On series of film's that began in 1958 and ended in 1992. Behind it are the usual team with Gerald Thomas directing, Peter Rogers producing and Talbot Rothwell writing the screenplay. There's no Sid James, Barbara Windsor or Hattie Jacques for this one, but most of the regular actors appear, with Harry H. Corbett joining the cast for the first and only time. The film is a parody of the Hammer Horror film's that were also massively popular during the 50s and 60s. Fresh from spoofing the historical epic with Carry On Cleo (1964), and the western with Carry On Cowboy (1965), the Carry On team were well into their stride and hitting a purple patch. One that was arguably their best run of film's that culminated with Carry On Up the Khyber in (1968). "Screaming" is a delight, one of the franchise's most fondly remembered offerings. The standard sexy innuendo and nudge nudge nudgery so befitting the series is still there, but as with the previous two outings, it's quality satire enveloped. With the makers showing no little amount of skill and knowing of the genre they spoof. Plot wise it's an amalgamation of classic horror, it basically uses House Of Wax as its starting point and runs with it. Taking in anything from Frankenstein and Dr Jeykll & Mr Hyde along the way; all cloaked in a Gothic, fog bound Edwardian England sheen. The sets (particularly the riotous Dr Watt's (Williams) laboratory) and effects are suitably Hammer like, as is the colour; where Alan Hume's photography nails the lurid tone required. Of course none of the production value matters if a horror/comedy isn't funny. Thankfully "Screaming" is, be it the wonderfully alluring Fenella Fileding vamping it up, or the lovable twin menace of Oddbod and Oddbod Jr, the visual joys equal the sharpness in the script. There's also in jokes to be sampled too, while the film is not without a creepy vibe to accentuate the sheepish blend of sex and murder. Sid James was unavailable due to commitments to work with Tony Hancock, so in came Corbett, who delivers a blast of a turn, with his "change" sequence a laugh out loud moment. Carry On Screaming doesn't feature three of its most well known stars, with even Charles Hawtrey only cameoing here after being shoe horned in at the request of the American distributors. That it's one of the best in the series is quite a feat. Frying Tonight indeed. 8/10