‘There is something funny going on in this house...’
Other than some vague memories of them being on in the background on television as a child, I’ve never had much interest in the Carry On… films. Sure, they’re a British institution (there are 31 of the buggers), but I’ve always assumed the films are a cobbled-together collection of sexual innuendo, bad puns and slapstick. While it turns out that I wasn’t exactly wrong in this assertion, I must admit that Carry On Screaming! has a certain charm to it…
Dr Orlando Watt (Kenneth Williams) and his wife, Valeria (Fanella Fielding), plot a fiendish plan to kidnap beautiful young women to turn into mannequins to sell to local department stores. Meanwhile, Detective Sgt. Sidney Bung (Harry H. Corbett) investigates a series of disappearances whilst also trying his best to avoid his shrewish wife (Joan Sims).
Carry On Screaming, the twelfth film in the Carry On… franchise, uses the Hammer Horror films and The Addams Family for inspiration, but has no real ambition to satirise either. Director Gerald Thomas does a decent job in matching the aesthetic and tone of the Hammer films without offering anything in terms of insight. The jokes are mostly obvious and predictable, but they arrive at such frequency that if you don’t care for one joke, there are five more coming down the pipeline straight after. So yes, I did laugh out loud several times during Carry On Screaming! and I also found it to be a harmless enough snapshot into popular culture in Britain in the ’60s.
By all accounts, Carry On Screaming! isn’t a top-tier Carry On… film, but I watched it for its connection to the horror genre, and while it failed to contradict any of my preconceived notions about this franchise, I also didn’t hate it. Will I watch another one? Probably at some point. It’s a long, old life.
