The last third of the Carry On series is not the best of the 31 film series. There are still a lot of jokes and stuff going on but the quality of the writing has sunk.
Carry On At Your Convenience came out December 1971. I couldn't find the whole movie on YouTube and I haven't seen it. I read ont he Wikipedia that it's put the Carry On gang in the world of plumbing. Kenneth Williams owns a factory that makes toilets. There's labor trouble with the local union leader who calls a strike for any little reason. Sid James is the factory foreman and he's trying to get everyone back to work. The company designer designs a bidet that causes a stir.
Carry On Matron came out in May 1972. We're back in the hospital again. Sid James and his gang of criminals want to steal some birth control pills from the local hospital. They plan to sell them overseas. They dress one of the gang up as a woman so he can get a job as a nurse. He then falls for the one of the nurses. Hattie Jacques is the matron.
Carry On Abroad came out in December 1972 and we've got Sid James as the owner of a pub. He's off to a holiday in Spain without his wife Joan Sims. She doesn't like flying, but when she finds out the naughty Barbara Windsor is going, she joins her husband on the trip. That doesn't make James very happy. The hotel in Spain is unfinished and that makes for something like comedy. People just seem to love comedy born of pain, don't they.
Carry On Girls came out in November of 1973. Sidney James is Councilor in a little seaside town. They have little or nothing to offer the tourist trade so he wants to put on a beauty contest. Not everyone one on the council is happy about it. There's a definite feminist rebellion to the pageant. Sid's girlfriend is Joan Sims and he treats her pretty sadly. He dumps all the contestants in her hotel which is already struggling to make any money and he's not coughing up any moola for the rooms. There are plenty of pretty girls in skimpy costumes so that's fun. Like most of the films there are some good jokes and some pretty terrible jokes. There's a lot of repeating jokes from film to film.
Carry On Dick came out in July 1974 and we find Sidney James as Dick Turpin. There was a real Dick Turpin, I remembered him from British history in high school. He was a famous highwayman who was hung by the neck for horse stealing. In the movie the King's men are trying to clean up a rash of highwaymen, including the legendary Big Dick. It doesn't get much better than that. This would be the last Carry On film for both Sidney and Hattie Jacques. Who can blame them. They would appear on the Carry On tv show.
Carry On Behind was released December 1975. Two couples are planning their holidays and the men are going one place the women another. The guys chase some other women but they're pretty stupid and fail to catch anything. It's got Elke Sommers as an expert on the Romans. Jokes are noticeably poorer, there's a new writer on this one, all the previous films were written by Talbot Rothwell.
Carry On England was released October 1976 and it's even worse than the last. The setting is WW2 and the army is trying a co-ed battery. It's not going so well for the army but all the troops are getting laid. The new commander wants to straighten things out and that means separate tents for the ladies and the lads. Pretty lame jokes abound.
That's Carry On! is a clip show that came out in November of 1977. It's got Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor watching clips of the Carry On movies. Many of the clips are ok but the framing story is weak. There's a lot of pee jokes.
Carry On Emmanuelle was released in November 1978. It's pretty awful. It scores a stunningly high 2.5 on the IMDb. With Emmanuale in the title you'd expect some nudity but not so much. That could have been salve to heal the rash from the script. Or something. It was the last of the run until...
Carry On Columbus appeared in Octorber 1992. It was the last film in the series. It was written by Dave Freeman and John Antrobus. Dave wrote Carry On Behind and worked on Benny Hill. Not a good recommendation, huh. John Antrobus wrote The Bed Sitting Room but the surreal odyssey of that unique film is nothing like the same old same old of the Carry On series. It too scores a 2.5 on the IMDb and that's about what it is. Jim Dine is Columbus in this costumed send up that was released during the 500th anniversary of the big C discovering America. The Santa Maria is the only ship. I suspect the budget wouldn't let them get the Nina and the Pinta. They spend a lot of time on the sea and there's some sabotage. The crew nearly hangs Chris but they spot land before he's left dangling. They meet Larry Miller and Charles Fleisher, the local native big wigs. It's all pretty dumb.
Not a group that I can feel good about linking too but there you go. Knock yourselves out. No, really, it will save you from seeing these films. Just trying to help.
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