Main Cast: William Hartnell, Bob Monkhouse, Shirley Eaton, Eric Barker, Dora Bryan
Release Year: 1958
Country: UK
Run Time: 85 minutes
Plot
This first entry in the long-running (some would say interminable) British "Carry On" series is at base a collection of motheaten army jokes, albeit served up with freshness and energy. Future Doctor Who star William Hartnell plays Sergeant Major Grimshaw, whose fondest wish is to win the coveted Best Troop Award before his retirement. Alas, this may never come to pass: his newest batch of conscripts include some of the biggest and stupidest foul-ups in military history. Popular comedian-cartoonist Bob Monkhouse and cockney bombshell Shirley Eaton head up the supporting cast, which includes such "Carry On" stalwarts-to-be as Kenneth Connor, Charles Hawtrey and Kenneth Williams. Carry On Sergeant was very loosely based on The Bull Boys, a novel by R. F. Delderfield. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Gerald Thomas's Carry On Sergeant was shot and released, ironically enough, in the very year that John E. Blakeley died -- Blakeley, a movie producer from Lancashire whose career in pictures went back to the 1930's, had specialized in movies built around music hall humor and music hall comedians, aimed specifically at northern British audiences; the most fondly remembered of his pictures were his wartime service comedies, including Somewhere In England, Somewhere In Camp, and Somewhere On Leave, which achieved slightly wider popularity in England. Carry On Sergeant was essentially a successor to those movies, with higher production values and better actors working around the comedic personalities -- it was a hit with middle-class British audiences and even saw release in America. Their first time out with this kind of vehicle, Thomas and producers Peter Rogers, Nat Cohen, and Stuart Levy felt that putting established dramatic actor William Hartnell -- enjoying stardom in a series of military roles at the time -- in among the comic performers was the best way to go, but once the series got rolling they realized that the more funny men (and women) the better, and the slapstick humor became the "Carry On" movies' focus and raison d'etre. In this instance, Hartnell, along with Shirley Eaton -- six years from emerging internationally as a "Bond girl" in Goldfinger -- as the eager wife of a National Serviceman called up on his wedding day, fit nicely in between the comic hijinks and sight gags, and Hartnell, in particular, lends Carry On Sergeant a touch of class that most of the later entries in the series not only didn't have but consciously avoided. Otherwise, the gags, apart from a few double-entendre jokes that are mostly comprehensible to British audiences, are among the oldest and most reliable in the field of comedy, going back well past, say, the Abbott & Costello comedy Buck Privates, probably to at least the middle of the nineteenth century in many cases -- and they're still funny, and nothing more so than the scene of gangly Charles Hawtrey getting his beyonet jammed in the practice dummy. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Kenneth Connor - Horace Strong; Bill Owen - Corporal Bill Copping; Charles Hawtrey - Peter Golightly; Kenny Williams - James Bailey; Norman Rossington - Herbert Brown; Hattie Jacques - Capt. Clark; Gerald Campion - Andy Calloway; Cyril Chamberlain - Gun Sergeant; Gordon Tanner - 1st Specialist; Frank Forsyth - 2nd Specialist; Basil Dignam - 3rd Specialist; John Gatrell - 4th Specialist; Arnold Diamond - 5th Specialist; Martin Boddey - 6th Specialist; Ian Whittaker - Medical Corporal; Patrick Durkin - 6th Recruit; Edward Judd - 5th storeman; Anthony Sagar - Stores Sergeant; Terry Scott - Sergeant O'Brien; Jack Smethurst - 1st Recruit; James Villiers - 8th Recruit; Terence Labrosse - Miles Heywood
Credit
Gerald Thomas - Director, Peter Boita - Editor, Bruce Montgomery - Composer (Music Score), Peter Hennessy - Cinematographer, Nat Cohen - Producer, Peter Rogers - Producer, Stuart Levy - Producer, John Antrobus - Screenwriter, Norman Hudis - Screenwriter, R.F. Delderfield - Book Author
The film was based on a play The Bull Boys by R. F. Delderfield. Norman Hudis adapted this into a script with John Antrobus contributing additional material.
"Carry on Sergeant" is a normal expression for an army officer to use. The title was used to cash in on the popularity of the 1957 film Carry On Admiral, which was written by Val Guest. At the time, the success of Carry On Sergeant prompted applause and audience laughter in serious settings where the phrase was used, including amongst audiences of the film The Devil's Disciple (1959).[1]
Carry on Sergeant had not been conceived as the start of a movie series; only after the film's surprising success did the producer Peter Rogers and director Gerald Thomas set about planning a further project. After reusing the Carry On prefix and some cast members in their next project Carry On Nurse (1959) and having success with that film, the Carry On series of films evolved.[2]
For six years Sergeant Grimshawe has been a training sergeant but never the leader of a Star Squad. He accepts a bet from another sergeant that in the next intake, his last before retirement, his squad will pass out top.
The next day Sergeant Grimshawe and his corporal, Corporal Copping, keenly survey the new arrivals. Among them are Charlie Sage, who was married the same morning to Mary and received his notification to report at once to the army during his wedding reception; Horace Strong - a weak willed hypochondriac who imagines himself to be suffering from every disease known to medical science and many that aren't; Miles Heywood - a popsy chasing layabout; Andy Galloway - a rock and roller; Pete Golightly - the clumsiest of clumsy types; and James Baily - an out-and-out individualist who considers the army old fashioned. Unfortunately for Sergeant Grimshawe, all these have been assigned to his squad.
Grimshawe tells Corporal Copping that he's been lumbered with a right shower and has no chance of winning the bet. The Corporal advises him to try kid glove tactics instead of his normal raging manner with the recruits.
That night the new boys visit the NAAFI along with Herbert Brown who has been on one training course after another and never qualified. Charlie, much to his delight, finds that Mary, his newly wedded wife, has followed him to the camp and wangled a temporary job in the NAAFI. She is befriended there by Nora who falls for Charlie's mate Horace. He is petrified when Nora starts making advances towards him.
Mary tells Charlie that Nora has fixed a spare bedroom for their wedding night. This doesn't work out quite as planned as both end up talking words of love to Sergeant Grimshawe!
The following morning Horace reports sick with a long list of imaginary ailment and is shocked to see a female medical officer - Captain Clark. This is the first of many visits to the M.O.....
As days of training pass by, Sergeant Grimshawe and Corporal Copping are becoming more and more gloomy. The squad is the most awkward and difficult they have ever handled and there seems no chance at all of them winning to coveted Star Squad prize. They have an uncanny aptitude for making the worst possible mess of everything they tackle.
The M.O. is fed up with Horace's visits. So she takes him to six specialists who confirm that there is nothing whatsoever wrong with him. What's more, they manage to convince him of the fact and he emerges a new man. Nora is delighted, but more than a little frightened when the new Horace gives her the caveman treatment.
In the hut the night before passing out parade (Sergeant Grimshawe's last day in the army) the shower decide that he has, after all, treated them pretty decently. With the new Horace in fine form they decide to give him an end of service present - and win the Star Squad award.
The passing out parade is watched by Captain Potts who is amazed to see what the Grimshawe squad can do. As they perform task after task with fantastic efficiency Grimshawe watches with tears in his eyes.
The squad have made it and with the Sergeant at their head, they march past the Inspecting General as the Star Squad. Grimshawe's ambition has been fulfilled.
On 10 June 2008, the Royal Mail issued a new first stamp that featured Carry On Sergeant, as part of a series to celebrate Carry On and Hammer horror films.[3][4]
Bibliography
Ross, Robert. The Carry On Companion, B. T. Batsford: London, 1996. ISBN 0-7134-7967-1
