| Carry On Screaming! | |
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Film poster by Tom Chantrell |
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| Directed by | Gerald Thomas |
| Produced by | Peter Rogers |
| Written by | Talbot Rothwell |
| Starring | Harry H. Corbett Kenneth Williams Jim Dale Charles Hawtrey Fenella Fielding Joan Sims Angela Douglas |
| Music by | Eric Rogers |
| Cinematography | Alan Hume |
| Editing by | Rod Keys |
| Distributed by | Anglo-Amalgamated |
| Release date(s) | August 16, 1966 |
| Running time | 97 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | £197,500 |
Carry On Screaming! is the twelfth Carry On film and was released in 1966. It was the last of the series to be distributed by Anglo-Amalgamated before the series moved to The Rank Organisation. It was originally rated in the UK as an 'A' (adult), it is currently rated 'PG' (parental guidance). Of the regular cast, it features Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Charles Hawtrey and Joan Sims. It also features Harry H. Corbett in his only Carry On and Fenella Fielding making her second and final appearance. Angela Douglas makes the second of her four Carry On appearances. Carry On Screaming is a parody of the Hammer horror films, which were also popular at the time, and follows a plot similar to that of the 1953 film House of Wax.
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The film, set in Edwardian London, begins with a young couple courting in the woods. Doris Mann (Angela Douglas) is insistent that there is a peeping tom watching them from the bushes. Her boyfriend, Albert Potter (Jim Dale), while grumbling that he's been dating her for a year and there's been nothing worth watching thus far, reluctantly leaves to scout the area, leaving Doris on her own. Suddenly, a hideous creature appears from behind a tree and abducts Doris. When Albert returns he is horrified to find Doris gone, and a hairy, clawed finger in her place. Terrified, he flees to the police.
The bungling Constable Slobotham (Peter Butterworth) takes the details of the case and phones his superior, the henpecked Sergeant Sidney Bung (Harry H. Corbett). Bung gets an earful from his nagging wife, Emily (Joan Sims), about the noise the telephone is making as it is preventing her from sleeping. Slobotham reports the disappearance of Doris Mann, and Bung notes that she is the sixth woman to have vanished in Hocombe Woods within a year. After ordering Slobotham to keep Albert there, the long-suffering Bung hangs up and prepares to leave for the police station. As he does, Emily screams at him more.
After interviewing Albert and seeing the strange finger the monster left behind, Bung, Slobotham, and Albert search the woods. The creature is searching for his finger but is disturbed by the arrival of Bung and Albert; Slobotham is guarding the sergeant's car. Albert and Bung notice a horrible stench in the air, and Slobotham faints with horror at the monster's appearance. As he lies unconscious, the creature tears the car apart then leaves. Bung and Albert find Slobotham and drive to an eerie manor house named Bide-A-Wee Rest Home.
Inside a tall, Lurch-like butler, Sockett (Bernard Bresslaw) greets them. When they inquire to see the master of the house, Sockett deadpans that the master has been dead for fifteen years, yet still persists in asking him if he can see them. Bemused, the three men enter the gothic manor and wait in the lounge. Watching them through the eyes of a portrait is the voluptuous lady of the manor, Valeria (Fenella Fielding).
After Sockett explains that the policemen want to see the master, Valeria reluctantly goes to wake her brother. She creeps through a secret passage to an underground laboratory and uses electricity to reanimate her brother, zombie Dr. Orlando Watt (Kenneth Williams). Dr. Watt stumbles to greet the three men, and explains to them his dreams of reanimating his mummified Egyptian pharaoh, King Rubatitti. After getting a statement, Bung makes to leave but Watt collapses and his face begins to dissolve into the air. Albert wires Watt up to an electric plug and restores him. Bung refuses to acknowledge anything odd has happened, but is still unwilling to revisit the house.
After they leave, Valeria is about to regenerate the monster who kidnapped Doris, the creature is named Oddbod, and it transpires that Dr. Watt and Valeria and Oddbod are responsible for the missing women, as they kidnap innocent women and turn them into mannequins. When Bung returns home, he receives another nagging from his wife, yet manages to escape to the lab as they have a report on Oddbod's finger. The scientist describes it as coming off an extinct species of ape-man, but says he will wire it up to an electrical charge to see if it was a living membrane. Suddenly Albert turns up with a note from someone saying they know what happened to Doris. They go to the public washing house and meet Dan Dann, (Charles Hawtrey), who dilly-dallies about what happened to the girls. Unknown to them, Watt and Valeria have sent Oddbod to follow them, and Oddbod kills Dan by drowning him in a toilet.
Back at the lab, the scientist has accidentally managed to recreate another Oddbod, which kills him and goes to Bide-A-Wee, where he is adopted by the Watt family. Later that night, after Watt and Valeria have finished vitrifying another victim, Bung arrives at the manor and becomes infatuated with Valeria, who returns his love. After a wild night with Valeria, Bung is in a good mood, which is ruined after Albert has been caught breaking into a shop, claiming one of dummies is his Doris. Obviously no one believes him. Bung returns to Valeria, as he cannot stop thinking about her. He lets slip about the confusion with Doris and the dummy, and she becomes worried. Valeria confides in Orlando and they scheme to get Doris back. Valeria poisons Bung and thus turns him into Mr. Hyde, and sends him out to collect the dummy.
Next morning Bung and Slobotham arrest Albert on suspicion of theft, but fail to prove anything as he has merely five toes, whilst the footprints in the shop had six. Albert leaves and Bung and Slobotham hatch a plan to set a trap for the monster that is abducting the women. Slobotham is disguised in drag and made to sit in the woods. Emily Bung follows them, thinking her husband is having an affair with this "woman" and Albert also follows wanting to catch the creature. Emily and Slobotham are captured by the Oddbods, and taken to the manor. Albert and Bung find Oddbod's ear and go to see if Valeria is safe.
Valeria and Orlando plot to rid themselves of Bung and his friends, by starting a new line of male dummies for tailors. Valeria persuades Bung and Albert to spend the night at the manor, and slips a viper into their bed as they sleep. Emily Bung is turned into a dummy, and they prepare to start on Slobotham. Bung kills the snake with a gun and Orlando sets the monsters on them. Bung and Albert attempt to escape through a secret passage and save Slobotham and discover the dummy of Doris. Albert manages to reanimate her and Bung finally accepts that there is something odd going on.
As they try to escape, they are cornered by the Oddbods and are trapped in the lounge. As the monsters advance on them, Albert downs the poisoned brandy Valeria gave Bung earlier. Albert turns into Mr. Hyde and defeats the Oddbods. Just as he returns to normal, Orlando and Valeria burst in and Orlando threatens to petrify them with a special formula. Before he can, lightning strikes a plug and brings the Egyptian mummy to life. Watt is delighted, yet the mummy turns on him and drags him into a boiling vat, with Watt screaming "Frying Tonight!".
Albert and Doris are married and visit Bung in his home. They are surprised to find that Mrs. Bung is still a dummy, and that Valeria is now living with Sergeant Bung. The film ends with the dummy of Mrs. Bung winking slyly at the camera.
Production of the film ran from 10 January 1966 to 25 February 1966; it was shot at Pinewood Studios and on location in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.
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