Movies - Carry On Girls

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	Movies - Carry On Girls

Carry On Girls is the twenty-fifth Carry On
film, released in Britain in 1973. The film is notable for the absence of both Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey for the first time: Williams was appearing in a West End play, My Fat Friend, and Hawtrey had been sacked from the series the year before. The film takes place in the boring seaside resort of Fircombe, where district councillor Sid Fiddler (Sidney James) proposes a beauty contest to boost tourism. The incompetent mayor, Frederick Bumble (Kenneth Connor) agrees to the idea, but the duo face fierce opposition in the shape of Augusta Prodworthy (June Whitfield), an advocate of women's lib. As the beauty queens arrive in town, publicity man Peter Potter (Bernard Bresslaw) is prodded into action in a number of increasingly unlikely ways, and the mayhem escalates as the contest draws ever closer. But will Mrs Prodworthy win the day?

Critique

Carry On Girls was the penultimate Carry On film written by Talbot Rothwell, and it's his last outstanding screenplay for the series, a fast-moving, bawdy farce packed full of snappy banter, falling trousers, slamming doors, failing hotels, pratfalls, slapstick, cross-dressing, randy admirals, punch-drunk bellboys and scantily clad glamour girls. As most of the action takes place at Joan Sims' seafront hotel, comparisons with Fawlty Towers are inevitable - though this film predated that series by two years, many of the regular characters in John Cleese's classic sitcom seem to have their prototypes here, such as the elderly permanent residents played by Peter Butterworth and Joan Hickson. Girls is also rather cruder than previous series entries - still a model of restraint compared to the stupefyingly crass Carry On England or the singularly ill-advised Carry On Emmanuelle, but heavy on semi-nudity, catfights, double-entendres and close-ups of heaving cleavages all the same. But it remains an enjoyable, entertaining series romp, a nicely cheeky last gasp before the quality began to decline the following year.

Trivia

Fircombe is of course Brighton, the British seaside town that had previously featured in Carry On At Your Convenience.

Valerie Leon's voice was dubbed throughout by June Whitfield - the reasons for this have been lost to the mists of time.

The shoddy editing - particularly noticeable in the scene where Barbara Windsor and Valerie Leon discuss Bernard Bresslaw's latest publicity stunt - has been significantly cleared up in the 2003 Carlton DVD release. There are still several continuity botches, however.

Arnold Ridley, familiar as Godfrey from Dad's Army, has a memorable two-line cameo as Councillor Alderman Pratt.

Memorable quotes

HOPE SPRINGS : It's not her fault she has to wear a falsie.

SID FIDDLER : What d'you mean, a falsie?

HOPE SPRINGS : She's got one bigger than the other.

SID FIDDLER : Is that right?

HOPE SPRINGS : No, left.

----

LAWRENCE PRODWORTHY : I'm supposed to be covering the mayor's opening.

SID FIDDLER : You do get some unpleasant jobs, don't you!

----

ADMIRAL : This young woman molested me!

IDA DOWNS : Well, I like that!

ADMIRAL : Whether you like it or not, my dear...it's quite immaterial!

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