Carry On Camping

Carry On Camping

Directed by Gerald Thomas
Produced by Peter Rogers
Written by Talbot Rothwell
Starring Sid James
Kenneth Williams
Charles Hawtrey
Joan Sims
Terry Scott
Hattie Jacques
Barbara Windsor
Bernard Bresslaw
Peter Butterworth
Dilys Laye
Music by Eric Rogers
Cinematography Ernest Steward
Edited by Alfred Roome
Distributed by The Rank Organisation
Release dates
29 May 1969
Running time
88 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Budget £208,354

Carry On Camping is a 1969 comedy film and the seventeenth in the series of Carry On films to be made. It features series regulars Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Terry Scott, Hattie Jacques, Barbara Windsor, Bernard Bresslaw and Peter Butterworth.

Plot

Sid Boggle (Sid James) and his friend Bernie Lugg (Bernard Bresslaw) are partners in a plumbing business. They take their girlfriends, the prudish Joan Fussey (Joan Sims) and meek Anthea Meeks (Dilys Laye), to the cinema to see the film Paradise about a nudist camp. Sid has the idea of the foursome holidaying there, reasoning that in the environment their heretofore chaste girlfriends will relax their strict moral standards. Sid easily gains Bernie's co-operation in the scheme, which they bravely attempt to keep secret from the girls. (This scene is usually cut back drastically in most modern showings, with the Cinema being shown and the part after the film (when Sid James and Bernard Bresslaw are both carrying ice-lollies) and the actual film itself removed completely.

They travel to the campsite named Paradise. After paying the fees to the owner, money-grabbing farmer Josh Fiddler (Peter Butterworth), Sid realises it is not the camp of the film but a standard family campsite. Furthermore, it's not a paradise but a damp field with the only facilities being a basic ablutions block. They reluctantly agree to stay after Fiddler refuses a refund and the girls approve of the place. There is further disappointment when the girls won't share a tent with the boys.

Sid and Bernie soon set their sights on a bunch of young ladies on holiday from the Chayste Place finishing school. The ringleader of the girls is blonde and bouncy Babs (Barbara Windsor). In charge of the girls is Dr Soaper (Kenneth Williams), who is fervently pursued by his lovelorn colleague, the school's matron, Miss Haggard (Hattie Jacques). During an outdoor aerobics session led by Dr Soaper, Babs' bikini top flies off and is caught by Soaper. (The effect was achieved with a fishing rod and line attached to the garment.)

Other campers are Peter Potter (Terry Scott), who hates camping but must endure a jolly yet domineering wife Harriet (Betty Marsden), who has a hideous braying cackle. Naive first-time camper Charlie Muggins (Charles Hawtrey), completes the mismatched trio.

Chaos ensues when a group of hippies arrive in the next field for a noisy all-night rave – a live concert by band "The Flowerbuds". The campers club together and successfully drive the ravers away, but all the girls leave with them. However, there is a happy ending for Bernie and Sid when their girlfriends finally agree to sleep with them. Their joy is short-lived when Joan's mother turns up but Anthea lets a goat loose which chases Mrs Fussey away.

Cast

  • Michael Nightingale as Man in cinema
  • Sandra Caron as Fanny
  • George Moon as Scrawny man
  • Valerie Shute as Pat
  • Elizabeth Knight as Jane
  • Georgina Moon as Joy
  • Vivien Lloyd as Verna
  • Jennifer Pyle as Hilda
  • Lesley Duff as Norma
  • Jackie Pool as Betty
  • Anna Karen as Hefty girl
  • Sally Kemp as Girl with cow
  • Valerie Leon as Store assistant
  • Peter Cockburn as Commentator
  • Gilly Grant as Sally G-string
  • Michael Low as Lusty youth
  • Mike Lucas as Lusty youth

Crew

Filming and locations

Interiors:

Exteriors:

Reception

The film was the most popular movie at the UK box office in 1969.[1]

Bibliography

References

  1. "The World's Top Twenty Films." Sunday Times [London, England] 27 Sept. 1970: 27. The Sunday Times Digital Archive. accessed 5 Apr. 2014

External links