Title: Carry On Screaming

Year of Release: 1966

Director: Gerald Thomas

Length: 97 mins

Starring: Harry H. Corbett, Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Angela Douglas, Joan Sims, Charles Hawtrey, Bernard Bresslaw, Jon Pertwee

Apparently, not that many people outside Britain have heard of the legendary Carry On films. Quite frankly, this appals me. The films (all 30-plus of them, including such gems as Carry On Teacher, Carry On Behind and Carry On Doctor) are a British institution. Where else are you going to get fart jokes and edgy one-liners about hard-ons and big knockers on terrestrial telly at Sunday tea times? That particular brand of humour perhaps belongs in the past but it was expertly done, not least because almost every gag worked on multiple levels.

This particular outing is a parody of the Hammer Horror films, which were peaking in popularity at the time, and is similar in style and tone to What A Carve Up (1961). It tells the story of a series of mysterious disappearances deep in the English countryside, which ultimately leads police to a mad, electrically-charged Dr. Watt (Williams) in a castle and a monster called Oddbod (Clegg), who are quite obviously based on Dr Frankenstein and his monster. There’s also a butler called Sprockett (Bresslaw) who is a dead ringer for Lurch of the Addam’s Family. Not-very-subtle references are also made to Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde. The bumbling coppers are led by DC Slowbotham (Butterworth) who, it turns out, has been investigating the disappearances for yonks. Through a convoluted process of trial and error, he eventually discovers that Dr. Watt and his sister are behind the crimes and have been using Oddbod to abduct people and turn them into mannequins, House of Wax-style, which they sell to the public. During the movie Dr. Watt alludes to the fact that he is Dr Who’s nephew and, coincidendally, John Pertwee (who played Doctor Who from 1970-74) also has a part in Carry on Screaming!

Production of Carry on Screaming ran from 10 January 1966 to 25 February 1966, and it was filmed at Pinewood Studios and on location in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. It was only the second film in the ‘Carry On’ series to have a theme song with lyrics. The vocal duties were credited as “Anon” and were first thought to have been sung by Jim Dale, who appears in the film. However, the singer is actually Ray Pilgrim, a session musician who worked for the Embassy label. A vinyl 45 rpm version was also released in 1966 (Columbia DB 7972) by Boz Burrell, before he became bassist for King Crimson and Bad Company. According to the website What a Carry On, Charles Hawtrey was added at the eleventh hour, after American distributors specifically requested him, as he was such a crowd-pleaser with audiences there. His character Dan Dann is a play on the popular phrase “Dan, Dan the …(name of trade, e.g. “baker”)… man.” Since he works as the attendant in a public toilet, he always cuts people off when they start saying the phrase.

Carry on Screaming is often seen as one of the best of the Carry On series, with Ian Nathan of Empire magazine pointing out that, “This 12th of the franchise shows that the series could also tackle satire, as well as the tits and bum humour.” On Rotten Tomatoes it has accumulated a Tomatometer score of 71% and an audience score of 72% based on over 2,500 ratings. It was the only instalment in the franchise to ever make it onto Time Out magazine’s list of the top 100 comedy films of all time. Andy Davidson, author of the book “Carry On Confidential,” said, “The Carry On films are the epitome of British film comedy [and] were never better than when they cocked a knowing snook at popular genres of the time. With the Hammer Horror films very much at the height of their popularity in the mid-1960s, it was inevitable that the team would turn their attentions to Bray’s finest before too long.”

With its tongue firmly in cheek, Carry On Screaming still strikes the perfect balance between comedy and horror.

Trivia Corner:

Veteran Sid James is replaced by Harry H. Corbett due to James being committed to appearing as one of the robbers in the pantomime “Babes in the Wood” at the London Palladium, which ran until June 1966. In total, James appeared in 19 Carry On films, receiving top billing in 17 of them. In 1976 he suffered a heart attack and died on stage at Sunderland Empire Theatre at the age of 62.