Truly Dreadful Film

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Having had a hit with 'Carry on Camping', the team cover similar ground here; this time at a caravan park. Kenneth Williams plays Professor Ronald Crump, an archaeologist who is accompanied by Russian expert Professor Anna Vooshka, played by Elke Sommer, when Roman remains are found near the caravan park. Also present at the park are a couple of married men who have told their wives they are going fishing but spend the film trying to chat up the girls next door; a couple accompanied by the woman's mother and her myna bird and another couple with their huge dog. Over the course of the film we get the expected shenanigans; the myna bird keeps saying 'show us your knickers' whenever a girl is near and she naturally thinks it is one of the men, Crump constantly misunderstands Vooshka, thinking she is saying something rude; and the two 'fishermen' fail to get anywhere with the girls… over all a typical late entry to the Carry On series.This isn't the worst entry in the series but it is one of the weaker ones; where once we had gentle humour just about every joke was smutty; that isn't bad in itself but the jokes felt too predictable. The opening scene where Crump accidentally showed a film of a stripper rather than an archaeological dig let us know what to expect early on. The film certainly suffered from not having a full compliment of Carry On veterans; Williams was amusing as Crump and Kenneth Connor wasn't bad as the site owner but Joan Sims was reduced to playing the battleaxe of a mother in law. The story was okay and there were some (in)decent laughs, however the nature of the jokes meant the film probably isn't suitable for younger viewers while many of the jokes will seen puerile to older viewers.

Elke Sommer and Kenneth Williams play archeologist's. They go to an archaeological site to study some artifacts. They run into a bunch of campers with crazy lives. Windsor Davies makes his first appearance in a Carry On film. He is funny as always. I love the way he talks. He was also great in Carry on England. I also enjoyed Bernard Bresselaw. He gets to play a character without wearing costume or a lot of make-up for once. I do miss Sid James. This is the first film they did after he retired from the Carry on series. This to me is not one of the funniest Carry On's. A lot of people say this is the last great Carry On. I like Carry on England slightly better. The last great Carry On for me was Carry on Matron. That really had some funny moments and it was my favorite, Jacki Piper's last appearance.

In spite of Sid James and Barbara Windsor missing, Bernie Bresslaw, Peter Butterworth, Kenneth Connor, Joan Sims and Kenny Williams powered this, the last of the best 'Carry Ons', as when 'England' came after it, the series never recovered. Aided strangely, but welcome, by the talented German actress, Elke Sommer playing a sexy Russian archaeologist. It's much like 'Camping' but with added features of Ms Sommer's character of Professor Vooshka, bawdily going through the usual motions with some standard but effective gags. Prof. Vooshka was ripe for getting her English mixed up among the campers - when stating her caravan was filthy and looking for a brush to clean it: "I am lookings for scrubbers - I am keeping how you say, a dirty caravan!" much to the chagrin of Bernie Bresslaw! The latter unfortunately, is at odds with his battleaxe mother-in-law along with him, (Joan Sims) and his wife played by Patsy Rowlands.Good to see Ian Lavender as another camper with his wife, dotty Adrienne Posta, doting on the beast of a pet dog 'Ollie'.The assistant archaeologists are getting the girls (Sherrie Hewson and Carol Hawkins), instead of the usual middle-aged 'crumpet-chasers' played by Windsor Davies and Jack Douglas.Peter Butterworth is the minging aide to Major Leap (Kenneth Connor) who owns the campsite. Butterworth actually turns out to be the long-estranged husband to Joan Sims who rekindle their love a little after Butterworth informs her he's a reformed character after being away from her for ten years. He buys her affection somewhat by telling her he's saved hard over the years - £20,000 in that time - after winning £19,950 on the football pools only a few months' ago! Kenneth Williams plays a straight-laced assistant archaeologist to Prof. Vooshka, trying to correct her English, mostly, when it happens to be sexually imparted. "Hitting it off," says Prof. Vooshka, "is like 'HAVING it off', no?" Williams is constantly hampered, even thinking he's dying when he knocks his head and sees blood (Actually tomato sauce which poured out of a bottle on to his nut!). Right from the start of the film, he's showing a film of an archaeological dig, only oblivious whilst reading the narrative with it, that it's been substituted with a film of a stripper. "The lower reaches of the area, tend to be be swampy"!.The campsite is the focus of course and the archaeologists are examining the site for Roman remains - all the campers find it when their caravans fall down holes caused by the Romans' mining operations!Quite a good one from the gang and as I've said, it was definitely the last of the best and enjoyable in the true fashion of 'Carry On' films.

I've ticked the spoiler box just in case, but anyone familiar with the 'Carry On' series knows there's never any plot to spoil. If a geriatric Sid James going on a camping holiday to try to 'get off' with his 33-year-old girlfriend in 'Carry On Camping' seemed out of date for 1969, then watch this desperate rehash with your thumb poised above the fast forward button: Swedish stunner Elke Sommer sets off with fellow archaeologist Kenneth Williams (passable, but the same) on a hunt for missing pieces to a naughty Roman mosaic buried underneath a caravan site in the summer season. Flaccid 'jokes', laboured slapstick and bad editing abound with a foul-mouthed flyaway mynah bird, a runaway Irish wolfhound, midnight pratfalls in nightdresses and pyjamas, and the inevitable shower stall scenes.As with Hammer's formula-into-film, how could any of them, scriptwriter, crew, players or audience, not have realized that it was all old hat, so very, very flogged to death and utterly and irrevocably over? Offensive not just to all women everywhere, but to every sentient creature in the universe, this arrant nonsense will serve its best ever purpose by keeping a date with the recycling bin.