Carry On Spying (1964)

I admit that I didn't think too highly of this seeing as how the first "Carry On" film I saw was just okay. This on the other hand was better and enjoyable. This film focused a lot more on comedy and was definitely more entertaining. Was this the first spoof movie ever made? It's obvious that it takes elements from "James Bond" and this was when those movies were first coming out. I'm glad it ended up being better than Woody Allen's "Casino Royale".I wanted to see if this movie had the same actors and characters from the previous films. It had the same actors, but not the same characters. The basic story is that a bunch of bumbling spies are trying to destroy a chemical formula stolen by an organization known as STENCH. I will admit that some of the jokes don't hold up that well. Of course, that isn't their fault. This movie might be the lowest rated film on RottenTomatoes to have a rating of 100%, even though it's only four reviews. ***

I cannot believe at the time of writing this review this film has an average of 6.2, this is a 9 surely. Over 50 years on this remains a hilarious James Bond spoof. Banned from using characters from the James Bond franchise, Gerald Thomas creates Agent Charlie bind, 00-0. Kenneth Williams leads a team of British spies who must take on the STENCH criminals and capture the stolen formula of Professor Stark, who was blown up by the Milk man at the start. Spying stands out from the other early Carry on films by being very camp, Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey are on fine form. Barbara Windsor has just finished playing Gloria in the Rag Trade, she makes a great start to her legendary Carry on career, by playing Daphne Honeybutt, although it would be 3 years before she'd return as Sandra May in Carry on Doctor. Dilys Laye is gorgeous in this film and is uncredited for singing The Magic of love, but it was actually her voice. A real feel good film, and one that will make all the family smile.

James Bond send-up with the Carry On crew delivering their familiar brand of double-entendres and corny one-liners, accompanied by regular guest Bernard Cribbins, has a quartet of inept MI5-styled spies (Windsor, Williams, Hawtrey and Cribbins) sent to recover a top secret formula off "fat man" Eric Pohlmann. Their apparently easy mission is thwarted however when they run afoul the evil Dr Crow (Furse) and her plan for world domination as an exponent of the international criminal organisation called "Stench".Williams is more restrained that usual, and in my opinion, is the best of breed in this instalment. His nit-wit South-end accented secret agent hits every mark and is once again, nicely contrasted by Hawtrey's straight man. It's the usual farce as the quartet bound from one self-made catastrophe to the next, among the funnier moments is when Cribbins attempts to tunnel his way out of their imprisonment only to find himself still inside the cell, and when Williams steals the reel-to-reel recordings of the secret formula after its revealed to Dr Crow by Windsor under intense interrogation tactics ("oh no, I've lost one of me spools"). The twist ending is also a great laugh, courtesy once again of Williams' character's ineptitude.If you're not accustomed to the Carry-On or indeed, bawdy British humour, then "Carry On Spying" will either prove too absurd to endure, or, give you a reason to seek-out the other thirty-odd films in the series, some not as good, but few better than this entry.

This is yet another popular (and good) entry in the "Carry On" series. Like JACK, CLEO and SCREAMING, it's a parody of a current film or fad – in its case the box-office sensation that were the James Bond extravaganzas (in fact, it was the first of innumerable spoofs/imitations of that long-running franchise). Kenneth Williams (complete with funny accent) is more or less at his best here; accompanying him are Barbara Windsor (this proved to be her series debut), Bernard Cribbins, Charles Hawtrey, Dilys Laye (as a femme fatale), Jim Dale (playing the gang's long-suffering contact man) and Eric Barker (as, what else, their superior).While it cleverly features an androgynous villain (played by Judith Furse and voiced by John Bluthal), the film also lampoons earlier classic British thrillers – such as Hitchcock's 1930s efforts and THE THIRD MAN (1949). The action takes place in a variety of locales from a Viennese café to an Algerian harem; typical espionage elements are the gang's donning of various disguises to follow or elude enemy agents and the perilous train journey. By the way, the villains' headquarters are amusingly accessed via a public convenience – which also pays off with an inspired surreal ending. In a direct nod to the Bond model, we get silly acronyms for the various organizations involved (such as S.T.E.N.C.H., S.M.U.T., S.N.O.G., etc).