Carry On Screaming

Despite its vaguely historical setting, apparently Edwardian, Carry On Screaming is not a historical satire but rather a parody of the horror genre, and in particular of Hammer Films' contributions to that genre, most of which had a broadly Victorian setting. Although Hammer's true classics with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee were already behind them in 1966, Bray Studios were still turning out the highly effective, and generally profitable, shockers that defined the genre until a new generation of American directors took it over from the Seventies on. While the Carry On spoof includes references to Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Mummy, it does not attempt a direct satire of any of them but instead comes up with an original plot that owes more to the earlier Vincent Price blockbuster House of Wax than to any specific Hammer offering, and that is, on its own terms, quite scary.

Indeed, the greatest compliment one can pay Carry On Screaming is to point out that, had it been played straight, it might have been solid mid rank Hammer Film in its own right. It is suitably atmospheric and the script is actually very dark in places.

It is most notable as Harry H. Corbett's only Carry On film and probably his most successful attempt to move on from his Steptoe image. The desire to do so may have been his motivation in accepting the role and playing it very much as a leading man. By this point the classical formula of splitting the lead between a comedic lead (usually Sid James) and a heroic juvenile lead (usually Jim Dale) was well established in the franchise. James being unavailable, Corbett took over the comedic lead, but to an extent he also took over the heroic lead, relegating Dale to a sort of Deputy or Associate Hero. Both perform well in their respective roles, but one cannot shake off the feeling that one of them is redundant.

Corbett is Police Sergeant Sidney Bung, married, unhappily (this is a Carry On), to the standard Carry On nagging wife, played predictably by Joan Sims. His Assistant, as opposed to Deputy or Associate, is Detective Constable Slobotham, the first of several bumbling sidekicks played expertly by Peter Butterworth - even if his appearance in drag at one point is arguably the most frightening thing in the film.

When Dale's girlfriend, played by the lovely Angela Douglas, is kidnapped, investigations lead to the strange home of an even stranger brother and sister played by the odd couple of Kenneth Williams and Fenella Fielding. Apparently the original plan was to have them play father and daughter but Williams objected that he was not old enough, Fielding being only a year younger.

Bernard Bresslaw is rather underused as a butler who is obviously based on Lurch from The Addams Family. Boxer Tom Clegg, who played the big, menacing chap in several films in the franchise (most memorably Sosages the bodyguard in Carry On Cleo), and Billy Cornelius play Neanderthal type creatures referencing Frankenstein's monster. Director Gerald Thomas himself is said to have provided the vocals, described as "appealing squeaks" by one critic, for Cornelius' character. This, and the voice of a mynah bird, were his only roles in his films.

Other familiar faces include Jon Pertwee, Frank Thornton, and Norman Mitchell. Sally Douglas, no relation to Angela, is listed simply as "Girl" on the cast list, as tended to be her lot.

Charles Hawtrey gets full billing for a relatively minor role as a lavatory attendant. The part is so small that the less well known Sydney Bromley was initially considered more appropriate, and Hawtrey was not even in the cast at all until, the story goes, the American distributor asked that he be included somewhere because he was very popular "across the pond." Given that Carry On never really cracked the American market at all, one has every right to question this, but, if there is any truth to it, one can only speculate on the reason for Hawtrey's relative popularity in the States: is this how Americans like to visualise the British?

The casting seems to have involved a complicated game of musical chairs even before Hawtrey's late inclusion. The original plan suggests that Carry On Screaming was something of a prestige project, the franchise's first truly serious attempt at its long cherished dream of breaking into America. The producers had hoped to attract the star of House of Wax, Vincent Price himself, to play the part eventually played by Kenneth Williams, but Price knew his own value and asked for £25,000, a vast sum beyond the imagination of the famously cost conscious Carry On franchise at that point (although they later paid more for Phil Silvers in Carry On Follow That Camel). His daughter was to have been played by no less than Deborah Kerr of The King and I fame, a strangely highbrow choice for a character remembered primarily for her tight fitting dress. It was Williams who recommended his personal friend Fielding, the perfect fit for both the part and her dress. Williams himself had originally been slated to play the butler eventually played by Bresslaw, who in turn had been intended to play the part eventually played by Clegg. That Sergeant Bung's Christian name is Sidney, as was usually the case with Carry On characters played by Sid James, rather gives away for whom the part was written.

In the event, it is Fielding who steals the film, channelling Morticia, also from The Addams Family, and leaving your reviewer at a loss to understand why she never became a bigger star. One might wonder the same about Corbett. While it is fair to say that Carry On Screaming represents the highlight of his cinematic career, this is only because his subsequent work was something of a disappointment, given his undoubted gifts. He never did escape Steptoe.

Another disappointment is that Angela Douglas is reduced to little more than a damsel in distress to be rescued, a step down after her protofeminist turn in Carry On Cowboy, the plot literally immobilising her for much of the time.

Williams goes completely over the top and has a memorable exit, even if one cannot help thinking a character with greater depth and menace might have added more to the proceedings. It would certainly have been a more compelling film, perhaps even one capable of succeeding Stateside, had the producers agreed to Price's price.

Fans tend to disagree about where Carry On Screaming should be ranked in the series. Much depends on how one feels about Corbett's performance. This reviewer felt much as he did about Phil Silvers' in Carry On Follow That Camel, that it was a fine turn it its own right but it was still impossible to stop thinking about how Sid James might have played the same part.

On the principle that even Shakespeare has his off days, it has to be said that Carry On Screaming is not one of Talbot Rothwell's most amusing scripts nor one of his best structured. On the other hand, it is one of the franchise's best produced and best directed projects. Director Thomas was able to borrow a couple of beautiful vintage cars from the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu, having served with Lord Montagu in the Army, and there is in general a commendable attention to detail missing in later films. Overall, it probably belongs in the same category as Carry On Jack and Carry On Follow That Camel, as highly entertaining films on their own terms but not among the Carry On greats like Carry On Cleo and Carry On Up the Khyber. That it does not feel particularly "Carry On" does nothing the diminish the affection in which it is held by most fans of the franchise, which is a tribute in itself.

John Winterson Richards