Carry On Screaming (1966)

The fortune-making Carry On team spoofs Hammer Studios with a broad, farcical and sometimes near-the-knuckle look at the conventional spook thriller.

When his girlfriend Doris (the beautiful Angela Douglas) disappears under mysterious circumstances from the forest clearing in which they have been dallying, Albert Potter (Jim Dale) reports the matter to Detective Sergeant Sidney Bung (Harry H Corbett) and his assistant, Slobotham (Peter Butterworth).

Investigating several similar disappearances, Bung and Slobotham find a house near the clearing but are unsuspicious of its very suspect owners, Dr Orlando Watt (Kenneth Williams) and his vampirish sister, Valeria (Fenella Fielding).

Fielding has the Hammer cleavage thing down in a little Gothic number obviously inspired by TV horror host Vampira’s gown, and once again she showcases her comedic abilities by doing a spot-on impression of Joan Greenwood, the British actress featured in such films as Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) and Mysterious Island (1961). Her voice and mannerisms are pitch-perfect parodies of Greenwood’s, but encased in a sexy exterior that Greenwood never quite possessed.

Bung is led into the strange world of the mysterious Dr Watt, the dead doctor who is periodically electrically revived to help Valeria steal another woman to wax down and sell as a dummy.

The actual stealer is their machine-made creation, Oddbodd Monster (Tom Clegg).

The reluctant Bung investigates and finds a seven-foot-tall monster, an angry Mummy, and Kenneth Williams’ nasal cry of “Frying tonight!”.

In the absence of Sid James (who was busy appearing in both a stage play and his TV sitcom George and the Dragon), Harry H. Corbett stepped brilliantly into the spotlight as the Holmesian Scotland Yard detective and contributed a stunning performance of dogged determination, sceptical raised eyebrows and incompetence.

He is also blessed with the nagging of Joan Sims as a domestic feed for the comic business at his Victorian home.

His Dr Watson is brought to life by Peter Butterworth in the first of several outstanding character supports that hover down the cast list but grab most of the best lines.

This pitch-perfect parody of Hammer’s campy horror flicks is undoubtedly one of the series’ finest productions. It is awash with delightfully bad jokes, stunning performances of manic horror and sexual innuendo –  At one point, Valaria asks Bung if she can “blow his whistle.” During a subsequent bout of lovemaking, she asks if he minds if she smokes.

When he assents, she does, of course, start smoking – from every orifice in her body until the room is totally engulfed in smoke.

The interior sets are stunning, with Director Gerald Thomas establishing the ethos of horror through the crumbling brick seen behind flaking paintwork; a small, shadowed window; primitive light encased in cobwebs and the acid-stained, experiment-affected floors of the lab – ideally suited to the obsessions of the mad Doctor and his seductive sister.

The film bristles with mesmerising sequences, taking a comic look at every facet of horror cinema.

Detective Sergeant Sidney Bung
Harry H Corbett
Dr Orlando Watt
Kenneth Williams
Albert Potter
Jim Dale
Dan Dann
Charles Hawtrey
Valeria Watt
Fenella Fielding
Emily Bung
Joan Sims
Doris Mann
Angela Douglas
Detective Constable Slobotham
Peter Butterworth
Sockett
Bernard Bresslaw
Oddbodd Monster
Tom Clegg
Pathologist
Jon Pertwee

Director
Gerald Thomas

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