Displaying items by tag: Carry on Henry movie
Carry on Henry
CARRY ON HENRY
UK, 1971, 89 minutes, Colour.
Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Terry Scott, Barbara Windsor, Kenneth Connor, Julian Holloway, Peter Gilmore, William Mervyn, Bill Maynard.
Directed by Gerald Thomas.
Of all British Kings, Henry VIII would be the least to need the advice to Carry on! By 1971, Carry on films had a 13 year history, tapping a number of historical situations. Here is an invention that the king had two more wives than his six, chronicled by William Cobler, so a load of old cobblers as the introduction suggests, to the background of Greensleeves (and later Chanson D’Amour and variations on the Trumpet Voluntary).
Sid James continues as a chuckling lecherer as the king, with the same performance as always. Kenneth Williams performance is always the same, but he provides good comedy as Thomas Cromwell. Terry Scott hams it up as Cardinal Woolsey. And Kenneth Connor, shows that he can give quite a different performance in every film. And, many of the supporting cast are present again, especially Barbara Windsor as the possible Queen. But, dominating everything is Joan Sims as the princess from Normandy.
In fact, a lot of the central plot hinges on French love garlic, the Princess putting it into her mouth in the bedroom, the king repelled by garlic, and various Gallic/garlic jokes throughout the film.
A lot of shenanigans, quite some pageantry, Charles Hawtrey as the least likely gallant knight attending to the Queen.
With the subject of Henry VIII, the emphasis on sex is more prominent than usual, crude jokes, clever innuendo, and, of course, as with the king himself, the female members of the cast seen as sexual objects for male gaze and groping. How would they remake this film in the 21st-century!?
