Rating: B
Dir: Gerald Thomas
Star: Frankie Howerd, Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Hattie Jacques
This was a throwback in a few ways. It was the first entry since the change in distributor to be released with the “Carry On” prefix from the start. After the previous two settings has been period pieces, this one returned to a contemporary setting. And it also went back to the medical profession, first visited eight years previously in Carry On Nurse. At one point, there was consideration given to it being the last film, but a massive box-office success dictated otherwise. For this reportedly became the biggest domestic hit of the year at the UK box-office, trailing only The Jungle Book and Barbarella. It remains top-five ranked by IMDb rating, and for good reason.
It is ensemble comedy at its most effective. While the four actors listed above may be top-billed, there’s a slew of memorable characters all the way down to even those who have a single scene. It takes place in a hospital where self-help guru Francis Biggar (Howerd) is taken after he discovers the limits of mind over matter. The facility is both populated and staffed by an array of eccentric characters, including malingerer Charlie Roper (James), snobby physician Doctor Tinkle (Williams), and in one of her finest roles, Jacques as ultra-starched matron Lavinia, who has a middle-aged crush on Dr. Tinkle. But that only scratches the surface. Hot doc Dr. James Kilmore (Jim Dale). Nurse totty Sandra May (Barbara Windsor). Sympathetically pregnant Mr. Biddle (Charles Hawtrey).
Given the lack of actual plot for the great bulk of this, it’s impressive how Talbot Rothwell’s script and Thomas’s punchy direction keep the comedy rolling. You’re rarely more than a few second from at least a smile, and often considerably more. Witness this glorious exchange between Mr. Biddle (Bernard Bresslaw) and Nurse Clarke (Anita Harris):
“Nurse, I dreamed about you last night.”
“Did you?”
“No, you wouldn’t let me.”
Forty-six years after its release, and having seen this film a dozen times at least over the years – albeit probably not for two decades – I still laughed out loud. I will be figuring out a way to work the line into my repertoire, going forward. It’s all vastly superior to the franchise’s previous hospital-based entry, without doubt.
It does perhaps run out of steam down the stretch, when an actual story shows up, concerning Tinkle’s bad faith efforts to fire Kilmore. This fires up the patients into a revolt against the inhuman treatment, with blanket baths and enemas as their weapons of choice. Frankly (pun not intended, for once!), it’s superfluous, though does provide a sense of justice, with the casual cruelty of Tinkle and his matron receiving its just deserts. I didn’t need it. I was perfectly happy just hanging out with this bunch of odd-balls, watching them function and scheme good-naturedly to achieve their personal ends. It feels like the kind of scenario which could easily have powered an entire sit-com series, such is the scope for comedy to be mined here.