CARRY ON COWBOY

UK, 1965, 93 minutes, Colour.

Sidney James, Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Angela Douglas, Bernard Bresslaw, Peter Butterworth, Percy Herbert, Jon Pertwee.

Directed by Gerald Thomas.

One of the advantages for this episode in the Carry on a series is that audiences are so familiar with westerns. And, underlying the Carry on humour here, there is a basic plot that could have been in any of the westerns over the decades, a gunfighter, the mayor, the sheriff, the saloon, the Madame, the gamblers, the singers, cattle rustling, the new marshall, the confrontations and the shootout. All very familiar, but generally always welcome with audiences.

So, how does the British cast handle being characters in a Western? And, their accents? Sid James is the gunfighter, with a roving eye and a leer. But, most interestingly, there is Kenneth Williams doing his usual shtick but with a huge moustache and with a heavy American accent (which he said was based on the American director, Hal Roach). And, Joan Sims does her bit as the madame, while Angela Douglas, to appear in several Carry on films, is Annie Oakley.

There is a lot of play on names like Marshall P. Knut. And a joke with Charles Hawtrey being the Indian chief, glasses, British accent and his usual comic style, Big Heap and the large Bernard Bresslaw as Little Heap (looking back one hopes the comedy overcomes any racial offensiveness).

So, the usual jokes and puns, the innuendo, a lot of physical comedy and pratfalls, and variations on the familiar American Western conventions.

And, in retrospect, as with most of the Carry on films, many bloggers saying it is the best and some saying it is the worst. (This reviewer was favourable.)