Displaying items by tag: Rosalind Knight

CARRY ON TEACHER

UK, 1959, 90 minutes, Black and white.

Kenneth Williams, Leslie Phillips, Kenneth Connor, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Hattie Jacques, Rosalind Knight, Cyril Chamberlain, Ted Ray, Richard O'Sullivan, Carol White.

Directed by Gerald Thomas.

The third in the Carry on series. With later developments, this is a very light entry into the series, almost G-rated, Norman Hudis, Talbot Rothwell taking over the writing in the early 60s..

The 1950s had seen the popularity of the St Trinians comedies in a girls school. Here is comedy and a boys school. The theme was to be taken up the next year in a rather broader style with Jimmy Edwards and Bottoms Up.

While Sid James was yet to come, the core group of Carry on is present here, the two Kenneth’s, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims and Hattie Jacques. Leslie Phillips appeared in a number of the Carry on films. Ted Ray is the principal of the school, Richard O’Sullivan the mischievous boy, aided by Carol White.

Ted Ray is the principal, wanting to retire, the cheeky boy, Richard O’Sullivan, overhearing, and planning all kinds of sabotage for the visit of an incoming principal played by Leslie Phillips, a psychologist spouting German and certainly no self awareness! Rosalind Knight plays his assistant.

It is mainly an opportunity for the core stars to do their thing, Charles Hawtrey composing and conducting a version of Romeo and Juliet, Kenneth Williams directing, Joan Sims is a sports mistress, Hattie Jacques very keen on the cane, Kenneth Connor as the science master. And some immediate infatuations between some staff and visitors. But, the revelation is a nine – the students upsetting the visitors so that they will not lose the headmaster they like!

A lot of slapstick, pratfalls, situations – and a reminder of British comedy in the 1950s. And, and anticipation of what was to come in the lengthy and popular series.

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.