| |
Carry On Dick
|
|
| Year: |
1974
|
|
Director: |
Gerald Thomas
|
| Stars: |
Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Barbara Windsor, Bernard Bresslaw, Hattie Jacques, Joan Sims, Kenneth Connor, Peter Butterworth, Jack Douglas, Patsy Rowlands, Margaret Nolan
|
| Genre: |
Comedy, Historical |
| Rating: |
  6 (from 3 votes) |
| Review: |
Life for travellers in the 18th century was a perilous one - you never knew when your coach would be held up by some dastardly highwayman, lying in wait to tell you a bad joke or two.....
In this adventure, Sid James plays Dick Turpin, our anti-hero. Disguised during the day as the mild-mannered Reverend Flasher, he dons his highwayman garb at night, and manages to run rings around King George's Bow Street Runners, most notably Captain Fancy (Kenneth Williams), Sergeant Jock Strapp (Jack Douglas), and Kenneth Connor as the lowly but stupid constable.
Helping Turpin (or 'Big Dick', as he is of course known) is Barbara Windsor as Harriet, his young housemaid and sidekick, and Peter Butterworth as Tom.
The head of the Runners, Sir Roger Daley (Bernard Bresslaw) insists on an arrest - especially after he and his wife are held up, and are forced to arrive at their destination stripped naked!
The unfortunate Captain Fancy tries to find Turpin, but in enlisting Reverend Flasher's help, he kind of doesn't give himself much of a chance!
Talbot Rothwell's script is pretty standard Carry On fare, with innuendo and slapstick the humour of choice whenever it is called for. The stars give their all, most notably Hattie Jacques as Martha, Reverend Flasher's housekeeper (who is never quite certain whether the Reverend is as holy as he makes out), and Joan Sims as Madame Desiree, the leader of a troupe of dancers known as Les Oiseaux Des Paradis (humourously mispronounced several times too often during the film....)
Overall, it's a pretty funny film, but sadly it never quite hits the heights of some of the earlier efforts.
|
| Reviewer: |
Paul Shrimpton
|
| |
|
|
