At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

CARRY ON UP THE JUNGLE had the misfortune to follow on from one of the widely acknowledged highlights of the Carry On franchise, the excellence that is CARRY ON CAMPING. That was a very funny comedy with non-stop jokes, whereas this film just isn't funny at all. The main problem with it is that it feels very dated indeed, even for its era.This was the dawn of the 1970s, yet CARRY ON UP THE JUNGLE is a film that contains white actors in blackface, black actors playing jungle porters, a guy in a gorilla suit who runs around like in an old Bela Lugosi movie from the 1940s, and most offensively, Terry Scott playing a version of Tarzan. Scott's constant mugging is one of the reasons I remember disliking the actor, which isn't really fair as he was decent in CAMPING.Elsewhere, the film misses the presence Kenneth Williams, with Frankie Howerd coming across way too over the top as his replacement. Howerd mugs for all his worth in a performance far removed from his one in CARRY ON DOCTOR. Sid James is better, but even he can do little to salvage the film from the plethora of repetitive and sexist jokes. It's doubly disappointing because one of my favourite Carry On stars, Kenneth Connor, returns after a six-year hiatus, but to be frank his role here is an embarrassment and a far cry from what you'd expect given his earlier turns in CARRY ON CONSTABLE and the like. Whatever way you look at it, CARRY ON UP THE JUNGLE is a right mess.

I have to admit before I started watching this I thought it was going to be two stars out of five, if I'm honest it looked like it might be terrible, but at three stars I can agree with that. Basically at the same time as Professor Inigo Tinkle (Frankie Howerd) is searching for the legendary Oozlum bird, Lady Evelyn Bagley (Joan Sims) joins an expedition in the jungles of Africa looking for her long lost son who disappeared as a baby. They are led by fearless hunter and also lovingly dirty minded Bill Boosey (Sid James) and his African guide Upsidaisi (Bernard Bresslaw), and also joining them are Tinkle's daft assistant Claude Chumley (Kenneth Connor) and Lady Bagley's almost unnoticed maidservant June (Jacki Piper). As the search for the son and the legendary bird goes on the trackers are constantly on the lookout for the animals and dangerous tribes people who roam the jungles. We also eventually find out that the jungle boy swinging around the vines, Ug (Terry Scott) is in fact Lady Bagley's son Cecil grown up, and falling in love and learning English from the now happy June. Soon enough the explorers are captured by a tribe called the Noshas, who are cannibals and plan to eat them all, but they are "rescued" by another tribe, the all beautiful bikini wearing women Lubby Dubby. They are taken to meet the leader of the tribe, and the only man they know living amongst them, Tonka the Great aka the long missing Walter Bagley (Charles Hawtrey), and hearing the tribe plan for all the men his wife Evelyn demands to be part of the leadership. Their plan for them is to have all the men, i.e. Boosey, Tinkle and Chumley perform their jobs every day until death, and that is to mate with the women, of course at first they are up for this because they are all beautiful, well, not all. In the end, after almost mating at last with beautiful women everyone is saved by Upsidaisi and his men, Tinkle gets his Oozlum bird which somehow disappears when returning home, and Ug and June live in their own hut house in the suburbs. Also starring The Spy Who Loved Me's Valerie Leon as Leda and Reuben Martin as Gorilla. I should be said that I can't see Barbara Windsor fitting into this film even I wanted her, anyway, this blatantly spoofs the Tarzan and The Jungle Book style films we have come to enjoy, and jam packed with innuendos, double entendres, slapstick and dialogue jokes, and sexy girls in not much clothing this is certainly comedy you will not dislike. Worth watching!

Speaking to an audience of keen bird watchers, Professor Ingio Tinkle tells the story of his latest exhibition into the African jungle. Part of a party led by adventurer Bill Boosey, Tinkle and his colleagues (including Lady Bagley and her maid) are on their quest to find the Oozalum bird when they come under threat from a ruthless tribe and their guides refuse to continue with them. However things become more complicated when the group are discovered by a man of the jungle who was raised by monkeys and has never seen other men (or women!) before.As one would expect with a Carry On film, this is full of innuendo, sexist and occasionally racist humour with a very vague plot to set it all within. Needless to say this film continues the trend and it isn't long before the plot (something about finding the Oozalum bird) is lost in a sea of bed swapping, mistaken partners and innuendo. For fans it is funny but it is nowhere near the best of the series as none of it is really that clever – most of the gags are obvious and, although amusing, few made me laugh out loud and they didn't feel like there was any inspiration behind them. Modern audiences may find the sexist stuff a bit uncomfortable but to be honest, what did you expect from a Carry On film? There is a touch of racism although this too can be forgiven as a product of the period – although it is not as direct as you'd think, instead it is implied by the rubber lipped tribesmen and the fact that only white people are allowed to speak (the main 'black' character is Bresslaw!) or by having the women tribe be mostly white or light skinned – because 1970's audiences weren't ready for the sight of a white man having sex with a black woman (even implied). However the one racial joke I thought was clever was Sid James wondering why the same guide gets accidentally shot every time (the point being that it isn't the same one!).The cast feature most of the regulars who are good enough comedians to be able to work with even this average material. Sid James does his usual stuff; Howerd has some very nice lines that hint at his sexual orientation although Connor is a bit flat when viewed next to him. Terry Scott is OK but has the least role of the film (although it is amusing that he stars with a character called June). The women have the usual short stick but both Sims and Piper are quite good. Hawtrey is funny in a late role that also plays with this physical appearance and sexual orientation. Bresslaw is stuck in yet another 'black face' role – why he is always picked I don't know. The support cast are mostly black clichés but, even 25 years on the Lubi tribe look very, very sexy!Overall this is pretty much par for the course for Carry On films and it will only really please fans. The broad humour lacks actual wit even if it is funny in a crude fashion but it is far from being consistently funny and it is fairly average as the series goes. Those in the mood for this type of humour will enjoy it but the humour is too broad and too badly structured to really be funny or witty.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhh. Carry on up the jungle is another fantastic comedy movie in the carry on movie series. This movie was made in 1970. Terry Scott played the Jungle Boy and i think he played that part well. Sadly he died in 1994, as he was diagnosed with Cancer. He will be sadly missed but his movies he made and starred in will not be forgotten as they will be on tv whenever they come on. He had great peformances and great characters he had as part of a role for him. I give Carry on up the jungle 10 out of 10 because i think it is a fantastic movie. If you all like Jungel films, there is other jungle films such as Tarzan, Tarzan and Jane, george of the jungle, george of the jungle 2, Mighty Joe Young etc: