Displaying items by tag: Norman Rossington

GO TO BLAZES

UK, 1962, 80 minutes, Colour.

Dave King, Robert Morley, Daniel Massey, Dennis Price, Coral Brown, Norman Rossington, Maggie Smith, Myles Malleson, Wilfred Lawson, David Lodge, Finlay Currie, James Hayter, Derek Nimmo, Hugh Lloyd, Arthur Lowe, John Le Mesurier.

Directed by Michael Truman.

Pleasantly light farcical comedy from the early 60s, very much of British comedy in the 1950s – and indicating the trend to greater farce, innuendo, with the style introduced by the Carry on series.

This is the story of a smash and grab trio, smashing the window of a jewellery store and grabbing, the getaway car – but, unfortunately, caught by the police at a roadblock. Jail time. Then the realisation that the best getaway that everybody stops for is a fire engine! So, jail, it again and examining fire engines (with an enthusiastic Miles Malleson), they find an old wreck, steal a good fire engine, inserting the wreck and setting the place ablaze.

Most of the film is about the attempt to smash and grab, the elegant Daniel Massey being prevented a number of times, the other two, Dave King and Norman Rossington, going round and round with their fire engine, caught by a rather idiotic Derek Nimmo because of the flood in his shop, their realising they need to do some training and finding a disgraced fire chief, Dennis Price, who will train them.

In the meantime, Daniel Massey has made a fool of himself fleeing and entering into a fashion show at a highbrow shop, managed by Coral Browne, and with a French consultant, Maggie Smith very early role (and, at one stage, the French accent dropping to a blimey English accent when surprised). And, the realisation that the fashion store is next to a bank. They consult an expert on fire insurance, setting fires, all kinds of skills – and, very enjoyably, played by Robert Morley in full bombast.

It almost works. But, in the escape, they are recognised by the two ladies and the initial policeman pursuing goes in chase, the firemen kindly stopping to help some little girls with their treehouse doll rescue, trees then on fire, the police – and, disaster because they had filled their water hose with all the bank notes from the robbery!

On their way back to jail, that pass the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh and realise that this is a car that everybody stops for!

There are a lot of popular names from British films in the cast – but, for most of them, their appearances last only a minute or two!

NURSE ON WHEELS

UK, 1963, 85 minutes, Black-and-white.

Juliet Mills, Ronald Lewis, Joan Sims, Noel Purcell, Esma Cannon, Raymond Huntley, Athene Seyler, Norman Rossington, Ronald Howard, Joan Hickson, Renee Houston, Jim Dale, George Woodbridge.

Directed by Gerald Thomas.

A pleasant, old-fashioned British comedy. It was directed by Gerald Thomas taking some time off from making Carry on films. It was written by Norman Hudis who had written the early Carry on films but was giving way to Talbot Rothwell. And, it is very much geared towards the widest audience, only a little innuendo and a spoilt flirtation sequence.

Juliet Mills, in her early 20s, plays a district nurse, new to the district, under suspicion by the patients of the previous nurse, sometimes rude to her, offhand. She is strong-minded, rides a bike, has a driving lesson – and a later driving escapade which proves that she is far better on her bicycle. Ultimately, of course, her patients relent and she is accepted. There is also a romance with Ronald Lewis as a local farmer, sometimes curt, especially to a young man and his pregnant wife who want to park on his land, but, of course, a final reconciliation.

The film is striking for the number of character actors who take the roles generally of the locals, suspicious, hard, gradually relenting. And, there are at least half a dozen regulars from the Carry on films, Joan Sims with a very straightforward role as the vicar’s daughter, Raymond Huntley is the vicar, Jim Dale as the husband, and Joan Hickson as a housekeeper. And, especially, Esma Cannon as the nurses pleasantly dithery as the nurse’s mother.

There is a jaunty theme playing every time the nurse appears on her bike and then more frequently, possibly too often!

Life in English country towns in the early 1960s, the NHS, the district nurse, local doctors, and a variety of local characters.

CARRY ON NURSE

UK, 1959, 86 minutes, Black-and-white.

Kenneth Connor, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Hattie Jacques, Joan Sims, Wilfrid Hyde White, Shirley Eaton, Terrence Longden, Bill Owen, Leslie Phillips, Susan Stephen, Susan Beaumont, Ann Firbank, Joan Hickson, Michael Medwin, Rosalind Knight, Norman Rossington, Jill Ireland, June Whitfield, Ed Devereaux, Susan Shaw, Irene Handl.

Directed by Gerald Thomas.

In retrospect, very much a film of its time, British comedy in the late 1950s, beginning the transition to explicit comedy, still a lot of innuendo but also a great number of ogling male characters.

This is the second of the Carry on series, beginning with Carry on Sergeant. Sid James, a staple of so many of the later films, had not yet joined the cast. However, a great number of the continuing cast appear here, most of the men spending their time as patients in the hospital ward. The women are nurses or visiting their husbands and boyfriends.

Hattie Jacques begins her several appearances as matron, Joan Hickson as a rather strict numbers (anticipating Miss Marple), Shirley Eaton, five years before Goldfinger, leads the nursing staff, and Joan Sims, the most regular of Carry on characters appears for the first time. There are some guest appearances by Wilfrid Hyde White and Michael Medwin. And there are some amusing cameos by various British character actors including Bill Owen, a myopic Rosalind Knight, Irene Handl and an early appearance by Jill Ireland.

While Kenneth Williams is more subdued, less facial idiosyncrasies, he plays the superior patient, interested in studying, until, at the end, the men in the ward, with drink and laughing gas, trying to remove a bunion on Leslie Phillips‘ foot, Kenneth Williams in charge of surgery. Kenneth Connor, always plays quite a different role in each film and here he is a boxer.

A lot of the verbal humour, a lot of expected hospitals shenanigans in the ward, innuendo, the 1950s British male gaze – and seeming very much more slight and innocent the later developments in the Carry on series.

CARRY ON SERGEANT

UK, 1958, 84 minutes, Black-and-white.

William Hartnell, Shirley Eaton, Bob Monkhouse, Eric Barker, Dora Bryan, Bill Owen, Charles Hawtrey, Kenneth Connor, Kenneth Williams, Terrence Longden, Norman Rossington, Hattie Jacques, Terry Scott, Ed Devereaux.

Directed by Gerald Thomas.

The first of the Carry on films which were to continue into the 60s and 70s, all of them directed by Gerald Thomas. This film was typical enough of the comedy of the 1950s, a focus on the military, a group of national service for 10 weeks training, a motley and comical group, as well as a focus on the sergeant who wants to win an award for the best company, his corporal assistant and the commanding officer. Very much focus on the male characters.

However, Shirley Eaton, some years before Goldfinger, is the just married wife of one of the recruits, Bob Monkhouse, and Dora Bryan does her usual comic thing as a rather flighty cook.

In many ways, this is a straightforward British comedy, a basis for the future Carry on films, but very different from the jokey, sometimes a leering style of the subsequent films. (Comparison can be made with Operation Bullshine of 1959, the army, much more in the vein of the later Carry on films.)

Which means that this film is enjoyable for audiences of British comedy of the 1950s.

Interestingly, in view of the later Carry on films, the first list of cast seen in the opening credits highlights stars who were not regulars in most of the Carry on films (William Hartnell as the sergeant having top billing, Eric Barker, in some of the films, as the commander and the later top-rated billing of Bob Monkhouse). Then, the next list has the regulars who are there right from the beginning, Kenneth Connor, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, then Hattie Jacques and even a glimpse at the beginning of Terry Scott, conversing with Ed Devereaux.

Kenneth Connor is an extreme hypochondriac, Hattie Jacques the doctor, Charles Hawtrey as usual, but enjoyable to see Kenneth Williams as an intellectual soldier, helping others, but his usual speaking style.

No Sid James until the third Carry on film. No Joan Sims, but she appeared in the next one.

For fans of the Carry on series, instructive and perhaps surprisingly enjoyable, especially with its reticence, reminding us how the series began.