| Carry On Up the Jungle | |
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film poster by Renato Fratini |
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| Directed by | Gerald Thomas |
| Produced by | Peter Rogers |
| Written by | Talbot Rothwell |
| Starring | Frankie Howerd Sid James Charles Hawtrey Joan Sims Terry Scott Kenneth Connor Bernard Bresslaw Jacki Piper |
| Music by | Eric Rogers |
| Cinematography | Ernest Steward |
| Editing by | Alfred Roome |
| Distributed by | The Rank Organisation |
| Release date(s) | March 1970 (UK) |
| Running time | 89 mins |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | £210,000 |
Carry On Up the Jungle is the nineteenth Carry On film, released in 1970. The film marked Frankie Howerd's second and final appearance in the series. He stars alongside regular players Sid James, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Terry Scott and Bernard Bresslaw. Kenneth Williams is unusually absent. Kenneth Connor returns to the series for the first time since Carry On Cleo six years earlier and would now feature in almost every entry up to Carry On Emmannuelle in 1978. Jacki Piper makes the first of her four appearances in the series. This movie is a send-up of the classic Tarzan movies.
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Lady Evelyn Bagley (Joan Sims) finances an ornithology expedition to the darkest, most barren regions of the African wilds to find her long-lost husband and baby son. The team are led by the fearless (and lecherous) Bill Boosey (Sid James) and his African guide, Upsidaisi (Bernard Bresslaw). Camp ornithologist Professor Inigo Tinkle (Frankie Howerd) and his idiotic assistant, Claude Chumley (Kenneth Connor) are in search for the legendary Oozlum bird, which is said to fly in ever decreasing circles until it disappears up its own rear end. Meanwhile June (Jacki Piper), Lady Bagley's unappreciated maidservant encounters the bungling yet compassionate Tarzan-like jungle dweller named Ug (Terry Scott) and the two begin to fall in love.
Some way into the mission, the travellers are kidnapped by a tribe of bloodthirsty cannibals known as the Noshas. With the help of Ug (later revealed to be Lady Bagley's lost son, Cecil) June and Upsidaisi manage to escape. Bill Boosey, Prof. Tinkle and Chumley are suddenly "rescued" by the all-female Lubby Dubby Tribe led by the stunning Leda (Valerie Leon) from the Lost World of Aphrodisia. They are taken to Aphrodisia and meet the king of the tribe Tonka who turns out to be Walter Bagley (Charles Hawtrey), Lady Bagley's missing husband, who was taken by the Noshas years ago but saved and brought to Aphrodisia by the tribal women. It transpires that these bikinied beauties need the menfolk to save themselves from extinction, as no males have been born in Aphrodisia for over a century. The men think their dreams have come true... until Leda makes it clear that the Lubby-Dubby women have no intention of letting them go.
Pinewood Studios was used for both interior and exterior filming.
Carry On Up the Jungle is, in part, a parody of Hammer films' "Cavegirl" series: One Million Years B.C. (1966), Slave Girls (1968) [1] and more particularly Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan series of books and films.
Bernard Bresslaw learned all his native orders in Swahili; however, the "African" extras were of Caribbean origin and didn't understand. But Sid James, who was born in South Africa, recognised it and congratulated him.[2]
The storyline is partly referenced in the Christmas Special Carry On, when all the characters sit down for Christmas Dinner and eat the Oozlum bird instead of a traditional Turkey.
Charles Hawtrey (born November 1914) as Walter Bagley plays the father of Ugg/Cecil Bagley Terry Scott (born May 1927) despite being merely twelve and a half years his senior. Joan Sims (born May 1930) as Lady Bagley plays his mother though she is three years his junior.
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