Carry On Constable is the fourth Carry On film. It was released in 1960. Of the regular team, it featured Joan Sims, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Sid James, Hattie Jacques and Kenneth Connor. Other cast members included Leslie Phillips, Eric Barker, Joan Hickson, Shirley Eaton, Esma Cannon and Irene Handl. It was the first "Carry On..." film to include some nudity.
Plot summary
As a result of a flu epidemic, the Police are seriously understaffed and overworked. Officer upon officer is going down with the nasty bug. Things look up however with the news that three new recruits are shortly to be arriving at the Police Station. According to Sgt Wilkins, they'll be keen, alert, raring to go constables, how wrong he is!
On their way to the station however, the new recruits inadvertently assist some jewel thieves into their getaway car. Not exactly what you'd call an auspicious start. The new Constables are self proclaimed intellectual PC Timothy Benson, Ladies Man PC Tom Potter and PC Charles Constable who is extremely superstitious. All of them have their flaws, and these are highlighted later by the arrival of WPC Gloria Passworthy who is an extremely efficient unit of personnel. They are all aided in their duties by Special Constable Gorse, who is camper than a row of tents.
As soon as Constable claps eyes on Passworthy, its love at first sight, unfortunately the course of true love never runs smoothly. At the initial inspection parade Inspector Mills tells Constable he has a very arresting face, whilst Mills is subjected to a séance.
Its a miracle that these officers are actually let out on the street, but when they are more calamities ensue. Benson observes a man behaving suspiciously and proceeds to talk him of the robbery he's about to commit. He's slightly crestfallen to discover that the man is actually DS Liddell of CID. His luck doesn't get any better later as he assists an old woman across the street, only to discover she had already crossed from the other side.
Meanwhile Constable believes he's just heard a murder being committed, but it turns out to be a noisy radio. Potter investigates a report of an intruder, but finds a young woman in the bath. Gorse is having rotten luck as well. He attempts to rescue a cat in a church, by pulling the bell-rope in an attempt to frighten it down. However, he ends up clinging to the rope for dear life when his plan backfires.
When Inspector Mills reads their reports, he's far from happy, and is even less happy when Potter takes the police dog for a walk, loses control of the mutt and it sends him flying into his newly constructed fishpond. Finally Mills decides they'll have to go when Benson and Gorse drag up whilst looking for shoplifters in a ladies department store and end up arresting the Lady Mayoress.
Thankfully, things go their way due to a wages robbery. The thieves have got away with £100,000. Benson and Potter locate the getaway car and call the others. All four of them proceed down the street referred to as the 'street of a thousand mouse-holes' and discover a house which looks empty but has fresh tyre-tracks leading up to the drive.
The thieves are discovered, and a fight between the robbers and the policemen occurs, with the police managing to arrest them and recover the money. Of course this has done no harm to their status at the station.
Speaking of the station, its soon all change. Inspector Mills has been promoted and leaves, so Sgt Wilkins takes his place. Finally Charlie Constable gets his girl (with a little help from Sgt Moon) and stops being superstitious.
Cast overview
Trivia
- Norman Hudis was sent to Slough Police Station to research the screenplay. He was very worried about the film following his experiences at the Police Station.
- The role of Sergeant Wilkins was intended for Ted Ray following his work on Carry On Teacher. However, Ray was contracted to ABC (despite being unused by them), who distributed the "Carry On..." films to cinemas. Unhappy seeing one of their contracted actors in a rival production, they threatened to stop distribution, so Peter Rogers reluctantly dropped him from the films and replaced him with Sid James, who started his full-time membership of the "Carry On..." team.
Filming dates
Filming dates - 9 November 1959 - 18 December 1959
External links
