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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 85256" data-attributes="member: 23">In recent evenings I've caught up with the final Anglo-Amalagamated Carry On and the first two Rank films which were retroactively given the Carry On titles for a re-release after Rank initially baulked at using the title.Screaming! is a favourite of mine. It looks wonderfully rich and dark and has some really nice moments. It's struck me that many of the main cast in this one -  Fenella Fielding, Peter Butterworth, Angela Douglas, Bernard Bresslaw - are only making their second Carry On appearance, and it's a credit to the casting that the team gels so well. It always feels like Fenella appeared in more than she did, such a splash did she make. Butterworth's drag scenes are some of my favourite contributions of his to the series and after his low key role in Cowboy, I think Screaming! is where he really made his mark on the Carry Ons.Fielding aside, it occurs to me that the women in the team get a bit of a raw deal here. Angela Douglas's character is kidnapped at the beginning, spends most of the film absent and returns towards the end.  Thankless as it may be compared with Cowboy, there are still some nice little moments that make me glad she was along for the ride. I always enjoy her awkward look away as she confesses to never having thought of Jim Dale as flesh and blood. If memory serves, Joan Sims's character is the most unpleasant she played during the entire series, screeching and nagging her way through every scene she's in. It's the one film where I feel relived she never had more screen time. Trouper that she is, Joan adds some nice touches in terms of her facial expressions and delivery. And it certainly can't be said that she's not getting some varied roles at this point.Compared with the previous films, I found the pacing in Screaming! a little slow at times. It's deliberate, I imagine. Done to match the atmosphere building scenes of the Hammer Horrors. But I still wouldn't miss some of the skulking around outdoors scenes if they were cut down a bit.Screaming!'s dialogue has a lot of perfect back and forth between characters delivering some very cheesy lines with such energy they feel new each time. It happens each time the "human" characters interact with the more gothic elements. The initial confusion between Kenneth Williams's twitching Dr Watt over his name and the name builds nicely. And then there's a nice quickfire example when Bung shows Valeria an ear he's found. "This ear?" she asks. "Yes - that there" is the response. It's so corny but I'm smiling just thinking about it.Don't Lose Your Head is a one-time favourite of mine. This rewatch was a great reminder of just why that was. There's so much to love: Joan Sims is back to her squeaky, tarty, slightly common greatness as Desiree. Williams is delightfully arch as the villain of the piece. Sid James has a great dual role as Sir Rodney Ffing and The Black Fingernail and no end of other disguises - including a rare James drag sequence. Hawtrey has his most flamboyant part so far, waving his handkerchief and "mwaah haa haaa"ing for all he's worth.More so-bad-it's-good dialogue too, delivered most memorably. Elspeth March telling Sid James he's always had magnificent balls is so funny I now start chortling at just the sight of her. Joan Sims delivers the line "My brother... the Count" with such pitch perfect emphasis even Hawtrey appears to corpse in the shot of him from behind. It's one of my favourite moments in the film, and as an added bonus I'd somehow forgotten it was coming up so got the full impact. Another favourite moment - and one that typifies the Hawtrey eccentricity - has him asking Kenneth Williams if he's looking for The Black Fingernail. When Williams responds in the affirmative, Hawtrey whips out a little hammer from his pocket and bashes Williams's resting hand with a smile. It would be just terrible if it wasn't also terribly funny.The film looks very opulent - particularly the ballroom scenes where the setting and costumes add a touch of class.Sadly, this rewatch also served to remind me what's not great about Don't Lose Your Head. The straight to camera stuff gets old rather quickly. Dany Robin is lovely, but her casting is a little odd. I've always thought the "He loveth me" Beatles reference a bit cringeworthy - and not in the good way. And most damning of all there's that tedious final swashbuckling sequence which goes on for about ten minutes with barely any dialogue and nothing to keep the viewer's thoughts from drifting elsewhere. There's too much goodness in the film for this not to be a classic. But it's not THE classic.After all these years, I've only just realised how similar Follow That Camel's theme is to Up The Khyber. Both evoke that stiff upper lip British patriotism - a theme running through both films. Indeed, Camel - a great film in its own right - shares many elements with Khyber. Bernard Bresslaw is at his most intense and brings something very special here. Sims smoulders nicely, as does Anita Harris. Butterworth and Dale's Britishness is put to the test.Williams has lost all subtlety by this point and is just one big caricature. All facial contortions and manic energy. But it's good caricature. Or at least it's very funny. As in Cowboy, he plays a role here - a harsh German officer - and there are very few hints of his trademark vocal inflections and elongated vowels. Hawtrey, of course, turns in his usual performance with no hint of a French accent. His character named Le Pice of course pays off when Williams tells Phil Silvers that Hawtrey will not be going with him ("You will not be taking Le Pice").Speaking of Silvers, he's the oddest piece of casting yet. But as a one-off I quite enjoy him, and in the context of the Foreign Legion his presence makes some kind of sense here. Williams was very vocal about Silvers' inability to memorise dialogue and reliance on cue cards. I can only imagine the clash of cultures (and egos) behind the scenes. I do wonder, too, what Sid James would have done with this role.Butterworth reprises his "what a wonderful idea" bit when drag is suggested, once again not realising that he himself will end up doing it.There's lots that's in questionable taste here. As well as the racial stereotyping, there's Angela Douglas's character getting taken advantage of by every man she meets - eventually winding up roofied and in a harem. And she enjoys it all. Perhaps I'm too used to the series, but it's difficult to get offended by any of it. At risk of objectifying Douglas myself she really does look very pretty indeed throughout.As with Screaming! and Don't Lose Your Head, a couple of the sequences felt a little too prolonged. With Camel it was the walking through the desert scenes and the comedy chart that showed their progress. They felt like filler, and I can't think of too many examples of this in the earlier films.Even so, Camel is a far better film than I'd remembered.</blockquote>

Verification: Who played JR Ewing?