Carry On Girls

Infobox Film
name = Carry on Girls

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image_size = 220px
caption = Publicity photograph
director = Gerald Thomas
producer = Peter Rogers
writer = Talbot Rothwell
narrator =
starring = Sid James
Barbara Windsor
Joan Sims
Kenneth Connor
Bernard Bresslaw
June Whitfield
Peter Butterworth
Jack Douglas
Patsy Rowlands
Wendy Richard
Margaret Nolan
music = Eric Rogers
cinematography = Alan Hume
editing = Alfred Roome
distributor = Rank Organisation
released = 1973
runtime = 88 mins
country = flagicon|United Kingdom United Kingdom
language = English
budget =
preceded_by = Carry On Abroad
followed_by = Carry On Dick
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0069848

"Carry On Girls" is the twenty-fifth "Carry On" film, released in Britain in 1973. The film is notable for the absence of both Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey for the first time: Williams was appearing in a West End play, "My Fat Friend", and Hawtrey had been dropped from the series the year before.

Plot Summary

The film takes place in the boring seaside resort of Fircombe, where district councillor Sid Fiddler (Sidney James) proposes a beauty contest to boost tourism. The incompetent mayor, Frederick Bumble (Kenneth Connor) agrees to the idea, but the duo face fierce opposition in the shape of Augusta Prodworthy (June Whitfield), an advocate of women's lib. As the beauty queens arrive in town, publicity man Peter Potter (Bernard Bresslaw) is prodded into action in a number of increasingly unlikely ways, and the mayhem escalates as the contest draws ever closer. The contestants all stay in in the Palace Hotel owned by Connie Philpots (Joan Sims) and, much to her protestation, the beauty queens take over the hotel as their own, upsetting older residents with the exception of the Admiral (Peter Butterworth) who revels in the company of scantily clad girls. As the contest draws closer the women's lib movement do everything in their power to sabotage the day which ends in disaster.

Certification

The film marked a slightly more risque treatment of the topic with more nudity and openly sexual jokes than previous films. Discreet cuts by the BBFC (mainly in the hotel fight sequence between bikini-clad contestants) enabled the film to gain the more commercially acceptable A certificate (open to families) than the more restrictive AA certificate, barring entry to the under fourteens.

Trivia

* Fircombe is appropriately portrayed by Brighton, the British seaside town which had previously featured in the works outing scenes of "Carry On at Your Convenience".

* The beauty contest is supposedly held in the theatre on the (now-derelict) West Pier and the film includes some on-location footage of the external parts of the pier.

* The external shots of the hotel are in fact of "Clarges", also in Brighton, owned by actress Dora Bryan who had previously appeared in the very first film of the series Carry On Sergeant in 1958.

* This film marked a brief return to the series by Joan Hickson as the dotty Miss Dukes; she had previously appeared in the second film Carry On Nurse in 1959 as the ward sister.

* The part of camp television presenter Cecil Gaybody portrayed by Jimmy Logan had originally been written for Charles Hawtrey who had a falling out with Peter Rogers on the previous film Carry On Abroad and subsequently did not appear in any further films.

* The film features a small role for Robin Askwith in the part of Augusta Prodworthy's photographer son, in his only Carry On appearance; he would later find fame in the "Confessions Of..." series of films which ultimately put paid to the end-of-the-pier humour of the Carry Ons.

* When the character of Peter Potter catches the train for Fircombe and is waved off by his sparrowy fiancee, the location used was Marylebone Station. Windsor Station, not far from Pinewood Studios, was the location used for Carry On Loving in 1970 where it was renamed "Much Snogging On-The-Green".

* The film is notable for being one of the very few that did not star Kenneth Williams who was taking part in a West End production and filming the International Cabaret series for the BBC.

* The shoddy editing, particularly noticeable in the scene where Barbara Windsor and Valerie Leon discuss Bernard Bresslaw's latest publicity stunt, has been significantly cleared up in the 2003 Carlton DVD release. There are still several continuity botches, however.

* Veteran character actor Arnold Ridley, familiar as Private Charles Godfrey from situation comedy "Dad's Army", has a memorable two-line cameo as Councillor Alderman Pratt, during most of his appearance his character is seen to be asleep but wakes up to utter the immortal line (in retaliation to Sid James' "You're up for it aren't you?" - "Yes, Anytime!"

* Being unable to ride a motorbike, Barbara Windsor used a double for the film's final scene where she flees the scene with Sidney Fiddler in tow, and this is clear as the stunt person wears a headscarf to secrete his/her face.

* In December 2007 truth emulated fiction when Ingrid Marie Rivera, a contestant in "Miss Puerto Rico Universe", alleged that rivals had laced her gown, swimsuit and make-up with pepper spray [Daily Telegraph Issue 47,447 dated 21st December 2007] .

Notes

External links

*imdb title|id=0069848
* [http://www.thewhippitinn.com/carry_on_films/carry_on_girls/"Carry On Girls" at The Whippit Inn]