Carry On Up the Jungle

Carry On Up the Jungle
film poster by Renato Fratini
Directed by	Gerald Thomas
Produced by	Peter Rogers
Written by	Talbot Rothwell
Starring	Frankie Howerd Sid James Charles Hawtrey Joan Sims Terry Scott Kenneth Connor Bernard Bresslaw Jacki Piper
Music by	Eric Rogers
Cinematography	Ernest Steward
Editing by	Alfred Roome
Distributed by	The Rank Organisation
Release date(s)	March 1970 (UK)
Running time	89 mins
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	£210,000

Carry On Up the Jungle is the nineteenth Carry On film, released in 1970. The film marked Frankie Howerd's second and final appearance in the series. He stars alongside regular players Sid James, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Terry Scott and Bernard Bresslaw. Kenneth Williams is unusually absent. Kenneth Connor returns to the series for the first time since Carry On Cleo six years earlier and would now feature in almost every entry up to Carry On Emmannuelle in 1978. Jacki Piper makes the first of her four appearances in the series. Carry On Up The Jungle is a send-up of the classic Tarzan movies.

Plot

Lady Evelyn Bagley (Joan Sims) finances an ornithology expedition to the darkest, most barren regions of the African wilds to find her long-lost husband and baby son. The team are led by the fearless (and lecherous) Bill Boosey (Sid James) and his African guide, Upsidaisi (Bernard Bresslaw). Camp ornithologist Professor Inigo Tinkle (Frankie Howerd) and his idiotic assistant, Claude Chumley (Kenneth Connor) are in search for the legendary Oozlum bird, which is said to fly in ever decreasing circles until it disappears up its own rear end. Meanwhile June (Jacki Piper), Lady Bagley's unappreciated maidservant encounters the bungling yet compassionate Tarzan-like jungle dweller named Ug (Terry Scott) and the two begin to fall in love.

Some way into the mission, the travellers are kidnapped by a tribe of bloodthirsty cannibals known as the Noshas. With the help of Ug (later revealed to be Lady Bagley's lost son, Cecil) June and Upsidaisi manage to escape. Bill Boosey, Prof. Tinkle and Chumley are suddenly "rescued" by the all-female Lubby Dubby Tribe led by the stunning Leda (Valerie Leon) from the Lost World of Aphrodisia. They are taken to Aphrodisia and meet the king of the tribe Tonka who turns out to be Walter Bagley (Charles Hawtrey), Lady Bagley's missing husband, who was taken by the Noshas years ago but saved and brought to Aphrodisia by the tribal women. It transpires that these bikinied beauties need the menfolk to save themselves from extinction, as no males have been born in Aphrodisia for over a century. The men think their dreams have come true... until Leda makes it clear that the Lubby-Dubby women have no intention of letting them go.

Cast and Crew

• Frankie Howerd as Professor Inigo Tinkle
• Sid James as Bill Boosey
• Charles Hawtrey as Walter Bagley/King Tonka
• Joan Sims as Lady Evelyn Bagley
• Kenneth Connor as Claude Chumley
• Bernard Bresslaw as Upsidasi
• Terry Scott as Ug the Jungle Boy/Cecil Bagley
• Jacki Piper as June
• Valerie Leon as Leda
• Reuben Martin as Gorilla
• Edwina Carroll as Nerda
• Danny Daniels as Nosha Chief
• Yemi Ajibadi as Witch Doctor
• Lincoln Webb as Nosha with girl
• Heather Emmanuel as Pregnant Lubi
• Verna Lucille MacKenzie as Gong Lubi
• Valerie Moore as Lubi Lieutenant
• Cathi March as Lubi Lieutenant
• Nina Baden-Semper as Girl Nosha
• Roy Stewart as Nosha
• John Hamilton as Nosha
• Willie Jonah as Nosha
• Chris Konylis as Nosha

Crew

• Screenplay - Talbot Rothwell
• Music - Eric Rogers
• Production Manager - Jack Swinburne
• Director of Photography - Ernest Steward
• Editor - Alfred Roome
• Art Director - Alex Vetchinsky
• Assistant Editor - Jack Gardner^{[disambiguation needed ]}
• Camera Operator - James Bawden
• Assistant Director - Jack Causey
• Continuity - Josephine Knowles
• Make-up - Goeffrey Rodway
• Sound Recordists - RT MacPhee & Ken Barker
• Hairdresser - Stella Rivers
• Costume Designer - Courtenay Elliott
• Dubbing Editor - Colin Miller
• Titles - GSE Ltd
• Producer - Peter Rogers
• Director - Gerald Thomas

Filming and locations

• Filming dates – 13 October-21 November 1969

Pinewood Studios was used for both interior and exterior filming.

Production and casting

Carry On Up the Jungle is, in part, a parody of Hammer films' "Cavegirl" series: One Million Years B.C. (1966), Slave Girls (1968) ^[1] and more particularly Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan series of books and films.

Bernard Bresslaw learned all his native orders in Swahili; however, the "African" extras were of Caribbean origin and didn't understand. But Sid James, who was born in South Africa, recognised it and congratulated him.^[2]

The storyline is partly referenced in the Christmas Special Carry On, when all the characters sit down for Christmas Dinner and eat the Oozlum bird instead of a traditional Turkey.

Charles Hawtrey (born November 1914) as Walter Bagley plays the father of Ugg/Cecil Bagley Terry Scott (born May 1927) despite being merely twelve and a half years his senior. Joan Sims (born May 1930) as Lady Bagley plays his mother though she is three years his junior.

References

1. ^ Sinclair McKay (2007) A Thing of Unspeakable Horror: The History of Hammer Films: 105
2. ^ Ross and Collins, The Carry On Companion, B. T. Batsford: London, 1996. ISBN 0-7134-7967-1, p87.

External links

• Carry On Up the Jungle at the Internet Movie Database
• Carry On up the Jungle Location Guide at The Whippit Inn