Sergeant Grimshawe wants to retire in the flush of success by winning the Star Squad prize with his very last platoon of newly called-up National Servicemen. But what a motley bunch they tur... Read allSergeant Grimshawe wants to retire in the flush of success by winning the Star Squad prize with his very last platoon of newly called-up National Servicemen. But what a motley bunch they turn out to be.Sergeant Grimshawe wants to retire in the flush of success by winning the Star Squad prize with his very last platoon of newly called-up National Servicemen. But what a motley bunch they turn out to be.
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWilliam Hartnell was rather like his character off screen, and could regularly be heard barking at actors who fluffed their lines. Indeed, a visiting brigadier was highly complementary to Hartnell's drilling technique.
- GoofsWhen Captain Potts pins the chart to the training progress board, the board has the intake as No.29 but when the prize giving is announced near the end of the film it is announced as the prize giving for the 60th intake
- Quotes
Captain Potts: Who are you?
Miles Heywood: 4277298 Private Heywood, M, sir.
Captain Potts: Heywood? Ever heard of General Heywood?
Miles Heywood: My father, sir.
Captain Potts: Really? Read Admiral Heywood?
Miles Heywood: My grandfather, sir.
Captain Potts: Air Commodore Heywood?
Miles Heywood: My uncle, sir.
Captain Potts: Ah! Quick test. What's the first thing that comes into your head?
Miles Heywood: Women, sir.
Captain Potts: You're a soldier by tradition and instinct.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Film Night: Carry on Forever (1970)
Now I'm not sure if the series of films was always going to be "Carry On" or if it just seemed a good link from this film, which uses the line "carry on Sergeant" several times that may be the source of the title or it may have been as a result of the title; chicken or egg to me I'm afraid. Either way this is the first of what we now know to be the long running series of British humour that was Carry On and, as a starting point it is amusing and lightly enjoyable as it lacks the crude excesses of the later films. Here the plot is simple there are a load of new recruits and they are all useless and fall around a lot to the dismay of their platoon sergeant. The jokes are all fairly obvious and none of them ever made me laugh out loud even if they just about did enough to keep me amused. Fans of the series will notice some aspects missing from the usual Carry On mix but for my money the things that were missing in terms of tone were not too badly missed.
With a more "normal" approach from the film (very much of its time) the cast have less excessive touches to their character but they still do well with what they have. Monkhouse is a surprising straightman, driving the main narrative but he is still pretty good. The regulars are all enjoyable with lower-key performances than we would get later. Kenneth Williams is nicely restrained but isn't as funny as he was later on; Kenneth Moore is very funny with his character and Charles Hawtrey does his usual stuff to good effect. Hartnell adds a sense of class to the film and people like Jacques and Scott are effective.
Overall, fans of the series might not like this more restrained opener but it is light and amusing fare if you're in the mood and as long as you don't expect too many belly laughs. Fun in a low-key sort of way surprising considering the direction the series then took.
- bob the moo
- Jan 30, 2005
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Carry on Sergeant!
- Filming locations
- Stoughton Barracks, Barracks Road, Stoughton, Guildford, Surrey, England, UK(the parade ground)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- £73,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 24 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.66 : 1