Carry On Behind (1975)

Carry On Behind is dismissed by some fans of the series as an inferior imitation of Carry On Camping, a crass caper that desperately tries to keep up with the times by offering viewers an endless tirade of even more risqué innuendo, crude toilet humour and gratuitous female nudity (bums and boobs, but no bush). I don't understand the criticism: in my opinion, that sounds like the recipe for a whole lot of fun!Sid James and Babs Windsor might not be along for the ride this time around (they were busy working abroad), and Charles Hawtree is also notable by his absence, but even without these stalwarts of the series, I had a great time: Carry On regulars Kenneth Williams, Joan Sims, Bernard Bresslaw, Liz Fraser, Patsy Rowlands, Kenneth Connor, Peter Butterworth and Jack Douglas ably represent the old guard, while new faces include TV talent Windsor Davies (It Ain't Half Hot Mum) and Ian Lavender (Dad's Army), sexy German actress Elke Sommer, and dolly bird Adrienne Posta (Adventures of a Taxi Driver/Adventures of a Private Eye).Between them they deliver the goods: Williams falls in a cesspit, Sommer takes a shower and flashes her butt, desperate middle-aged married men Davies and Douglas lust after bikini babes Carol Hawkins and Sherrie Hewson (of Coronation Street fame), Bresslaw goes in search of a foul-beaked Mynah bird, Posta wears a preposterous blonde wig (surely that wasn't her real hair?), Butterworth gets romantic with Sims, and Connor accidentally books a stripper for his caravan camp cabaret act! It might no be all that sophisticated, but its good for some guffaws and a fair few 'phwoars'.

Having had a hit with 'Carry on Camping', the team cover similar ground here; this time at a caravan park. Kenneth Williams plays Professor Ronald Crump, an archaeologist who is accompanied by Russian expert Professor Anna Vooshka, played by Elke Sommer, when Roman remains are found near the caravan park. Also present at the park are a couple of married men who have told their wives they are going fishing but spend the film trying to chat up the girls next door; a couple accompanied by the woman's mother and her myna bird and another couple with their huge dog. Over the course of the film we get the expected shenanigans; the myna bird keeps saying 'show us your knickers' whenever a girl is near and she naturally thinks it is one of the men, Crump constantly misunderstands Vooshka, thinking she is saying something rude; and the two 'fishermen' fail to get anywhere with the girls… over all a typical late entry to the Carry On series.This isn't the worst entry in the series but it is one of the weaker ones; where once we had gentle humour just about every joke was smutty; that isn't bad in itself but the jokes felt too predictable. The opening scene where Crump accidentally showed a film of a stripper rather than an archaeological dig let us know what to expect early on. The film certainly suffered from not having a full compliment of Carry On veterans; Williams was amusing as Crump and Kenneth Connor wasn't bad as the site owner but Joan Sims was reduced to playing the battleaxe of a mother in law. The story was okay and there were some (in)decent laughs, however the nature of the jokes meant the film probably isn't suitable for younger viewers while many of the jokes will seen puerile to older viewers.

Not the best film of the Carry On Series, but Carry On Behind certainly isn't the embarrassing blot on the Carry On landscape that all the subsequent Carry On's would turn out to be. 'Behind' is really funny in many places but does admittedly fall flat on it's derriere in others.Carry On Behind is set in an intimate caravan park, and just like all the other 'holiday' themed Carry On's such as Cruising, Abroad and Camping, we are given some in-depth character defining introductions to all our protagonists.Kenneth Williams plays Archaeologist Professor Roland Crump, who goes to a campsite where Roman Mosaics have been unearthed whilst digging a new cesspit. Accompanying him is the sexy Russian Professor Anna Vooshka played by the delectable Elke Sommer, who's poor understanding of the English Language is matched only by Crump's poor understanding of the opposite sex.Windsor Davies makes an impressive Carry On Debut as Butcher Fred Ramsden, who, along with Electrician Ernie Bragg (Jack Douglas), are going to the campsite intent on a spot of fishing, (bird watching more like, and not the kind ornithologists do either!), while their wives played by Liz Fraser and Patricia Franklin are away at a health farm. At the camp, they meet up with dolly birds Sherrie Hewson and Carol Hawkins, who uses their blatant sexuality to play on the two men's affections in order gain a free ride holiday from them.Adrienne Posta and Ian Lavender play a young married couple off on their annual jollies. Sounds Ideal, but not when Posta has more love for a Great Dane Dog than she does for her husband.Bernard Bresslaw & Patsy Rowlands (in their last Carry On) Play another married couple who's holiday is marred before it even begins by the ever present mother of Patsy's, and ever moaning mother-in-law of Bernie's, played by a slightly miscast Joan Sims, who also brings her potty mouthed mynah bird along for the trip.At the caravan site, the two main characters are Kenneth Connor as camp 'commandant' Major Leep, who's air of regimental respectability can barely disguise his hidden lust for scantily clad females, and the penny pinching Barnes, played by Peter Butterworth who gives us another one of his brilliant 'Mr Fiddler' type characters that we all know and love.One of the funniest moments for me, is when Kenneth Connor, in an inebriated effort to seduce Sims, plays 'The Galloping Major' in the absurd hope that it will get her in the mood for a bit of 'ows your father'. 'This'll get you going!' he chuckles gleefully, 'It certainly will' she nervously responds as she rushes for the door. A great scene from two great comedy actors.As you can expect being one of the later Carry On's, the innuendo runs thick and fast as does a moderate amount of nudity. Ex Benny Hill and Arthur Askey gag writer Dave Freeman takes over from the legend that was Talbot Rothwell, and gives the movie a more than adequate screenplay, though not a patch on his predecessor, who had left the series after the release of Carry On Dick the previous year. Eric Rogers's score is everything you expect a Carry On score to sound like and as always, he doesn't disappoint. The movies main theme music is actually quite catchy, as he seems to have adopted a jaunty ragtime piano sound that seemed to be going through a unexpected renaissance in the early-mid 1970's, courtesy of the movie The Sting.Sadly, there are a few very poor scenes, in 'Behind' which really do accentuate the decline of quality gags after Rothwell's departure, however, these weak points are well bolstered between some extremely funny moments, Had Rothwell stuck it out for another year, and wrote the screenplay for 'Behind', I have no doubt that we would have had a movie to rival Carry On Camping, but I'm afraid that scenario will simply have to remain another one of life's great 'What If's'.As I said at the beginning of this review, not the best Carry On out there, but certainly better than the one's that came after and to be honest, arguably better than some that came before.A great way to exercise the old chuckle box and kill 90 lazy minutes.Enjoy!

This film is a good film!. Not as good as Dick but a good film. It is a return to the modern world as the last film was set in 1750 we are now back into the 1970s..Any way the film is based around a caravan site there is a good combination of actors and characters.Bernard Bresslaw is great as Arthur Upmore , Patsy Rowlands is also very good as his wife. Windsor Davies and Jack Douglas are the Sid and Bernie characters as in carry on camping.Joan Sims is a little weak in this carry on not as good as in Dick.Elke Sommer is great as Anna Vooskha as is Kenneth Williams as professor Roland crump. Kenneth Connor is just as funny as ever. Peter Butterworth is the Mr fiddler type character as in Camping. Its a nice return for Liz Frazer who was last seen back in 1963 in Cabby? i think. Ian lavender is very good as the long suffering dog owner his wife Norma Baxter who loves her dog who keeps going into the Upmores tent. Carol and Sandra the birds who Jack and Windsor are after. A talking Mynah bird escapes and creates havoc all over the campsite. Overall a great carry on after this things took a turn for the worst and by 1976 the carry on series was dead and buried.As mentioned the plot is very similar to carry on camping with Carol and Sandra being the Babs and Fanny characters. Most of the last few where remakes of earlier films. Behind = Camping,the film has no real plot just sketches as in loving and Regardless. England is another version of carry on Seargeant , Colombus= Jack.Most of the locations in this film where used in earlier film and makes you pine for Sid and Babs. Barbara Windsor would have been good in this film.Overall 10/10