New posts

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 88709" data-attributes="member: 23">A wet Saturday meant time for a Rogers/Thomas double-bill yesterday, with Carry On Matron and the big-screen version of Bless This House.Having never watched all this material chronologically before, I'm finding it interesting to see the flow of cast from one film to another, even on the non-Carry On titled work. Bless This House featured a number of players from Matron including Sid James (of course); Terry Scott; Patsy Rowlands; Bill Maynard and Wendy Richard. It also featured several who would go on to the next couple of Carry On films: James; Rowlands; Peter Butterworth; June Whitfield; Sally Geeson; Carol Hawkins; Robin Asquith; Hugh Futcher; Marianne Stone; Billy Cornelius; Michael Nightingale. Geeson and Hawkins would make their Carry On debut just after appearing together in Bless This House. Peter Butterworth would return to his first full role (roles, even) in Abroad after a series of cameos in the films since Up The Khyber. This was facilitated by him having a major part in Bless This House. Even more extreme, Bless This House was Whitfield's first work with Rogers and Thomas since 1959's Carry On Nurse. This quickly gave her a re-entry to the series proper in the next couple of Carry Ons. Sadly, Bless This House would prove to be the final Rogers/Thomas film for Terry Scott, making Matron his last Carry On.Rather than a full-on medical Carry On, Matron at times feels more like The Big Job with a medical backdrop. Apart from a couple of sketches in which Terry Scott's Dr Prodd acts out very old jokes with regular supporting players Amelia Bayntum and Margaret Nolan and a typically daft moment in which Joan Sims is almost put off eating her sausage on overhearing a new mother's concern about her baby's "thing", most of the medical gags come from Kenneth Williams as hypochondriac Sir Bernard Cutting. And he gives it his all. Every moment is filled with exaggerated facial expressions and larger than live body movements. By the time he's trying to prove himself with Matron and discovering Hawtrey's wonderfully named Dr F. A. Goode in her wardrobe it's all in there: the Snide voice; the Cockney; the snob; the look to camera; the catchphrases; the indignant outrage. It could have been terrible, but I found it to be the funniest sequence in the entire film, helped greatly by Hattie Jacques grounding the whole piece as Matron, horrified at being used this way. The lines are terrible, and are played as such, with a wink to the audience that feels very much like watching a live theatre performance. So when the film's most groan-worthy line comes, the audience is in on the joke. And it's a corker: "I'm a simple woman with simple tastes and I want to be wooed", Matron breathily tells the persistent Sir Bernard as she fights him off. To which he retorts "Oh, you can be as wooed as you like with me."Sid James plays the criminal type he was perhaps best known for outside the series abetted by Bernard Bresslaw, Kenneth Cope and Bill Maynard. Watching last night, I found myself recasting Maynard with Peter Butterworth. Not that I needed to, since Maynard is perfectly fine here and it's good to see him in the thick of things in this, his final Carry On. Like Terry Scott, Bless This House would be his Rogers/Thomas curtain call, and I can't help being curious about why.Matron marks the end for a third main player: Jacki Piper (I hadn't realised how much this film marks the end of an era in terms of cast changes). After three fairly major roles in Up The Jungle, Loving and At Your Convenience, her role here seems quite low impact. It's certainly the smallest of her four appearances. But size isn't everything - not even in a Carry On. Like the efficient, nameless Sister that she plays, her presence is quite reassuring. In many ways she feels like the spirit of Carry On Nurse. Like most of the nurses in the earlier film, her character neatly avoids romantic entanglements. With a smile, she gently rolls her eyes at any innuendo she overhears and simply gets on with her job. She brings a reality to things.If she's the spirit of Nurse, then perhaps Barbara Windsor's Nurse Susan Ball could be said to evoke the saucier elements of Doctor. As expected, she strips down to her bra and panties at least once, and there's a romantic plot with Kenneth Cope spooned in. In truth, though, this is quite a subdued role for Windsor, too. Again, while it's not her most memorable appearance, Windsor makes the best of it and imbues Susan with an endearing sweetness. She's very kind to her roommate even when she thinks he's a her.Rather than Windsor, the obligatory brief female nudity comes from a random nurse in the bath as several people climb in through her window (a throwback to a similar scene in Doctor. For all I know it might have been the same nurse). But for an early Seventies Carry On, this is a surprisingly wholesome film. Even the innuendo feels very much toned down compared with the most recent half a dozen films.The two Carry On girls, Piper and Windsor, and are kept apart for pretty much the entire film (I'm fairly sure the only scene they share is the wedding in the final scene, and even then there's not so much as a glance between them. It's easy to forget they even appeared in a film together. I can only guess it's because they almost occupy two completely different Carry On worlds and for them to interact would have caused a rift in the space/time continuum. So it probably worked out for the best.Derek Francis is someone I've underestimated until this viewing. His angry farmers in Camping and Henry; outspoken Sir Henry in Doctor and permanently grumpy Arthur in this film are worlds apart from the reserved Brother Martin in his next appearance.Bless This House is even more wholesome than Matron. It's interesting to watch this looking at the similarities to the Carry Ons rather than the differences to the TV series. It does feel very much like a big screen sitcom outing (maybe I'm imagining it, but many of them seem to involve new neighbours, fast food joints and weddings), and a pretty good one, too. The now familiar pairing of Terry and June helps. It's fun to see Peter Butterworth share a scene with his real-life spouse Janet Brown. And it's always good to see Butterworth's screen wife, Patsy Rowlands. Butterworth's avuncular-but-cheeky persona here feels very much like I imagine the man himself to be. He and Asquith are the two major bits of big screen recasting here which I suppose could be due to availability of the originals, but also perhaps for commercial reasons (though Asquith would be pre-Confessions here, so maybe he wasn't here for the name). I seem to recall something in the Peter Rogers autobiography about him being unhappy with Robin Stewart about something at this point. I'll have to take a peek later.Interaction between neighbours is always fun, and this has the best of both worlds with the close-knit relationship between The Abbots and the Lewises (and the departing Hobbses) and the escalating feud between the Abbots and the Bainses, fuelled by their offspring becoming romantically involved.There's no rocket science here. It simply, efficiently goes through the motions and the result is a nice little early Seventies time capsule.</blockquote>

Verification: What month follows July?