Carry on Camping (1969) User Reviews

Gone for a P.

[goblinhairedguy · 8/10 · 30 April 2005]

This movie (a real guilty pleasure for me) contains one of the best convoluted gags in movie history. The boys drive up to what they believe to be the nudist camp they're searching for. A sign states "All Asses Must Be Shown". The boys guffaw, their girlfriends are appalled. Sid asks where the manager is. "He's gone for a pee" is the reply. Soon, the scruffy manager appears, hitching up his pants, carrying a wooden letter "P" which he proceeds to nail onto the sign so it now reads "All Passes Must Be Shown".

Most of the other jokes are old as the hills (and welcome nonetheless), but whoever came up with this elaborate bit of business belongs in the Charles Kaufman/Preston Sturges/Jacques Tati club.

Very funny, one of my personal favourites of the series

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 14 June 2010]

I don't consider the Carry On movies the best movies I have seen or anything, but I do find them very entertaining. Carry on Camping is for me one of the better movies of the series, it is very funny and lively. It is perhaps too short, and the big slapstick finale was a wee bit of a disappointment compared to other scenes of the film such as the wonderful double entendre incidents. That said, it looks great, one of the better-looking Carry Ons I think, the music is quirky, the direction is lively and the film moves quickly. Not to mention a nice story, some hilarious dialogue and some of the funnier comedy set pieces from any Carry On movie. And the cast are on top form- Sidney James has a ball as an unlikely hippy, Kenneth Williams is delightful as pretty much always, Barbara Windsor brightens up the screen with her presence, Charles Hawtrey is hilarious and Peter Butterworth has possibly his finest hour as the miserly site owner. Overall, very entertaining, high art it isn't, but fun it is. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Oh yeah, I go all the way!

[hitchcockthelegend · 8/10 · 18 September 2009]

Sid Boggle (Sid James) and his friend Bernie Lugg (Bernard Bresslaw) hatch a plan to take their girlfriends, Joan Fussey (Joan Sims) and Anthea Meeks (Dilys Laye), to a nudist campsite called Paradise. However, when they get there it's not the paradise they envisaged, full of odd balls and bad British weather, things only perk up when a coach load of girls turn up. Trouble is, the guys must get shot of their girlfriends first.

Oddly, Carry On Camping is a film that is revered by the series fans yet frowned upon by critics. Plot wise I'm inclined to agree with the critics, it's as basic as can be and is nothing other than a series of vignettes weaved together to create a lurid camping based holiday film. Tis true, but hell the comedy is good here, smutty and awash with innuendo and making the most of the double meaning of the word camping. It's also one of the series best roll calls as regards its cast, most of the big hitters are here, it's easier to just say Jim Dale and Kenneth Connor are the two notable absentees.

From the sight of Barbara Windsor's bra shooting thru the air, to the hapless Terry Scott having buck shot removed from his posterior, Camping has no other intentions other than to titter the discerning Carry On fan. What often gets forgotten tho, is just what great comedy actors some of these series regulars were, witness here a sequence in a tent as Terry Scott, Charles Hawtrey and Betty Marsden attempt to get ready for bed, comedy gold. So one for fans only it seems, hooray for me then because I love Carry On Camping, always have, always will. 8/10

congratulating the film on being wonderful

[Lubie · 19 January 1999]

This is a classic....One of the best Carry On films and of course the most well known (thanks to the famous bra popping scene...Yes you know!) Sid James is on top form along with Charlie Hawtrey and Kenneth Williams. It has all the regulars in it which contribute to it being so wonderful and funny. If you have never seen it (I don't believe you) see it because you will never see camping in the same light again.

My brief review of the film

[sol- · 7/10 · 25 June 2005]

One of the most popular films in series, it is broad and amusing, and accompanied by quite a good score this time, yet it is only intermittently very funny. The sexual humour is at times rather amusing, and Kenneth Williams sparkles in his role, but arguably it is sillier than the par of Carry On films, with the last ten minutes or so of the film being really utter nonsense. In addition, having too many main characters means that they do not get a chance to be developed very well. But overall, it is quite an enjoyable experience nonetheless, with a number of very entertaining, even if not hilarious, scenes.

Not High Art But Very Funny

[Theo Robertson · 6/10 · 9 January 2003]

This certainly one of the better CARRY ON films which had me laughing out loud at the scene where the farmer is lecturing his pregnant daughter " You don`t know what his name was ? Couldn`t you have asked to whom do I owe the pleasure ? "

The door is knocked and the farmer answers it to a man wanting some milk : " Oh hello there. I was round earlier and your daughter gave me it . And I would like some more please , but don`t worry I`m willing to pay for it this time "

Cut to farmer aiming his gun

Classic scene

How do you even review this iconic film?

[Sleepin_Dragon · 9/10 · 2 February 2016]

Carry on Camping is a national institution, from a Golden age of British comedy, one of those films I think every person has seen at least once.

A truly wonderful cast, they are all on top notch form, Kenneth Williams is utterly brilliant as the snooty headmaster, he combined so well with Hattie Jacques, who in turn delivered her lines with utter gusto, almost tragically. Every other cast member came up trumps, I absolutely loved Betty Marsden, sensationally funny as Harriet Potter, the domineering wife of Terry Scott's Peter Potter. Harriet's laugh has me in stitches every time.

Carry on Camping is a legendary film, Charles Hawtrey gets some of the funniest ever lines, the sequence with the Farm girl 'Couldn't your father do that?' 'no it has to be the bull,' his face is immensely funny.

As British as it comes, a film to enjoy again and again. 9/10

CARRY ON CAMPING (Gerald Thomas, 1969) **1/2

[Bunuel1976 · 6/10 · 9 February 2008]

This is perhaps the quintessential "Carry On" film, which also means that it's terribly dated when viewed today! That said, it's quite funny scene by scene – even if the plot itself is alarmingly thin and disjointed.

In fact, it follows three separate narrative threads during the first half which then come together: one involving Sid James and Bernard Bresslaw and their girlfriends, sisters Joan Sims and Dilys Laye; another with bickering couple Terry Scott and Betty Marsden, who pick up annoying drifter Charles Hawtrey along the way; and the members of a finishing school (including perky Barbara Windsor) and led by the series' all-too-typically reserved authority figures – namely Kenneth Williams and Hattie Jacques. With this film, the bawdiness which has since become synonymous with the series really took off – beginning with the very opening sequence, which finds James et al in a cinema showing a documentary about a nudist campsite!; a scene in which James and Bresslaw spy on the women's baths through a hole in the wall was subsequently much imitated.

Many of the film's best moments highlight Terry Scott – exaggerating his afternoon activity when asked by the wife how it was, knowing full well she isn't lending him the slightest attention; his encounter with a bull in a field; at the end, when he takes stock of the situation in his tent and forcibly throws out Hawtrey. Popular British starlet Valerie Leon, who appeared in a number of "Carry Ons", has a bit here as a salesgirl. By the way, CARRY ON CAMPING was trimmed by the BBFC on its original release; ironically, it ended up being the highest grossing film of the year in the U.K.!

Sheer bliss.

[ianlouisiana · 10/10 · 26 May 2008]

This is the "pur sang"of "Carry on",the benchmark against which all other examples of the genre must be compared and found wanting.Here is everything that the self - appointed comedy fascists who want to tell us what we can and can't laugh at detest. Nearly every taboo they have tried to impose is gleefully smashed in very short order.This movie is proof that freedom of expression in art has been brutally repressed,presumably in the name of progress.Since the demise of "'allo,'allo" on TV nothing as remotely as funny as the most average "Carry on" has been allowed on our screens at home,presumably on the grounds that we might laugh at it and cause the end of civilisation as the Highgate Mafia imagine it.The scene in the tent with Miss Brown and Meesrs Scott and Hawtrey is brilliantly done - Laurel and Hardy would have been proud to have made it. Wonderful comedy actors are given a brilliantly funny script.That's all there is to it.It will make you laugh immoderately - I guarantee it. "Carry on Camping" - even the title is a little bit whoops dearie -was not considered to be anything particularly special at the time it was released,yes it was funny,but in an era of funny films it sort of got lost in the mix;Carry on fans loved it of course,but it had a relatively short shelf life and it needed the invention of the VCR to resurrect it and eventually lift it to its proper place at the top of the pantheon of British movie comedy. Be happy that,up to now,the intellectuals have not "discovered" the "Carry on" canon and "explained" the hell out of it.to us peasants. Fearfully I can envisage the day when the "Post - Modern - Ironic" brigade decide that Sid James is the new Jacques Tati,i.e. not actually funny.Until then let's happily accept that Sid,Hattie,Babs,Hawtrey and the others were the finest movie comics in British cinema and man the barricades against the intellectualisation of the last bastion of working - class humour.

You meet the strangest people camping

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 27 October 2018]

The Carry On ensemble in something of a homage to Howard Hawks's Man's Favorite Sport tackle the subject of the great outdoors and man wanting to commune with nature.

It all begins with Sid James and Bernard Bresslaw see a nudist camp in a newsreel and make up their minds to go camping somewhere in that vicinity. The wives Sylvia Sims and Dilys Laye have something to say about it. In any event James and Bresslaw wind up nowhere near the nudists and with the wives and a whole lot of other strange folks who like camping.

Prissy schoolmaster Kenneth Williams is taking the girls in his charge camping and along with them is their matron Hattie Jacques. She's one formidable woman, but when she starts developing amorous feelings for Williams that's also a good laugh. The young girls themselves are merciless with their pranks.

Last but not least is everybody's favorite interloper Charles Hawtrey who somehow interjects himself between marrieds Terry Scott and Betty Marsden. Hawtrey buying sporting goods is good for chuckles and Scott asserting himself and dealing with Hawtrey is more than chuckles.

This is a good entry in the Carry On series.

A British comedy classic

[phys06417 · 10/10 · 12 September 2001]

85 minutes of pure fun, which is not, unlike much of today's comedy ruined by political correctness. Innuendo, double-entendres and slapstick are the order of the day here as two friends- Sid James and Bernard Bresslaw-take their prudish girlfriends- Dilys laye and the incomparable Joan Sims- on a camping holiday to try and loosen them up. There are hundreds of things to recommend- the famous exercise scene with the lovely Barbara Windsor, Portly Hattie Jacques trying to seduce camp Kenneth Williams and an all too brief cameo by the gorgeous Valerie Leon as a shop assistant to name but a few. Some of the humour may be predictable, but overall, this is a quality movie.

A late sixties series high point..enjoy

[tonypeacock-1 · 6/10 · 19 December 2020]

I like how the characters have the same name as their respective actors eg. Sid (as always!), Bernie, Babs, Joan, Charlie (Charles Hawtrey)...

The music score by Eric Rogers included simple melodies included in several of the other entries in the series.

The real star of the film is the late Barbara Windsor as feisty school student Babs.

We see her character fighting towards the start of the film in her girls school but it is her antics at the Paradise Camp that really attract attention. One scene in particular!

The film builds up to a crescendo where several characters end up on a camp site, 'Paradise Camp'.

Other Carry On film regulars play up to their usual typecast reputations as sexually desperate, matronly, under the thumb (Terry Scott) husband and single Charlie Muggins (Charles Hawtrey).

Sid and dim Bernie (Bernard Bresslaw) take their girlfriends to the camp in the hope it is a nudist camp!

The owner of the camp, Josh Fiddler (Peter Butterworth)is as his name suggests a bit of a con artist it transpires. The Paradise Camp far from being a nudist paradise for Sid is just a field!

The film like all Carry On entries is compact but extremely funny in parts, and made so cheaply.

Most of the actors have now died but their comedy lives on.

Oh my, that was silly!

[Boba_Fett1138 · 4/10 · 20 January 2008]

The carry on movies just aren't know for being subtle and are filled with sexist and sexual orientated jokes. The fact that it's a '60's movie and all of the men are ugly 40-50-60 year old, who are chasing young beautiful women in their 20's or early 30's makes the jokes and movie as a whole even more dirtier. These sort of movies were quite popular in the 60's and 70's and there are quite some British movies such as this one. No way a movie such as this one could had been made in the United States at the same time. As a matter of fact you still can't really make a movie such as this one and get away with it. I sort of like this boldness and totally political incorrectness. It's so wrong that it actually becomes funny.

"Carry on Camping" is of course a movie with loads of hits and misses. It also is often so bad and cheaply made that the movie becomes funny because of its amateurism and simplicity. A real campy comedy!

It has an incredible disjointed story-line, that features loads of characters, who don't really share any connectivity, aside from the fact that they are on the same camping. It sort of disappointing when looking at the story-lines they came up with. I am convinced even I myself could had come up with better and more funny ones and so could you have! I mean, the movie focuses on the dreadful thing called camping. This concept screams for more and better thought off jokes, no matter how stereotypical they all would had been.

It's quite disgusting to see these ugly over 50 year old (Sid James was 56 but looked 66 and Charles Hawtrey was 55 chasing these well formed young girls that are in the prime of their life. And the girls are all more than happy to let all these guys get in their tents and take their clothes off at every possible occasion. It's so wrong to watch! But maybe also very funny because of that.

So, this really isn't a great or greatly made movie. Nevertheless I still always enjoy watching these sort of 'carry on' type of movies because of its very amateurism and silliness-factor. Long life political incorrect movies!

4/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Makes you proud to be British!

[Jonno-B · 12 June 1999]

This film definitely has to be a strong contender for the title of best "Carry On" film ever. The whole film says "Carry On" from the characters and location to the plays on words (ie the finishing school for girls entitled "Chayste Place") and the inevitable double entendres. The fact that the film was shot on the back lot of Pinewood Studios, and not in a campsite in Devon, is really not important, as the atmosphere is captured marvellously. This is also another example of how it would be nearly impossible in real life to have such a collection of people in one place at one time. Including an old lecher, a hen-pecked husband, a camp camper and a party of girls from a finishing school. I would recommend this film to anyone who has an interest in comedy, British Cinema, or if you just feel like a good laugh.

Carry On Camping

[jboothmillard · 6/10 · 16 June 2005]

This is pretty much the only modern day Carry On film of the whole bunch, unless you count Constable or Spying, and it's quite good. Basically Sid Boggle (Sid James) and Bernie Lugg (Bernard Bresslaw) with their girlfriends, Joan Fussey (Joan Sims) and Anthea Meeks (Dilys Laye), see a short film in the cinema about camping, when in fact it is about a nude camp. So looking around a camping shop, they find the information they were looking for, about "Camp Paradise" owned by Josh Fiddler (Peter Butterworth), but they certainly had other expectations when they get there, no nudity. Soon enough though, a bus filled with school girls, led by Dr. Kenneth Soaper (Kenneth Williams) and Miss Haggard (Hattie Jacques), arrive and they automatically change their minds about leaving. Sid has his attention set on the cute Babs (Barbara Windsor). Other characters in the camp include the helpless Charlie Muggins (Charles Hawtrey), and Peter Potter (Terry Scott) with his very irritating wife Harriet (Betty Marsden). It is interesting that most of the stars use their own shortened names, and there are some good saucy gags, including the well known scene where Babs' bra pings off during exercising, just a good old fashioned comedy. Carry On films were number 39 on The 100 Greatest Pop Culture Icons. Good!

A naughty entry in the famous series

[dave13-1 · 6/10 · 13 April 2012]

By 1969, the Carry On series was relying more and more on blue humor, as this entry demonstrates. Here Sid James convinces his girlfriend (Joan Sims) to join him on a camping trip, while omitting to mention that their destination is a nude campground. To James' dismay, however, the campground has put in a clothing mandatory policy, so he sets about to naughty things up, especially with a busload of private schoolgirls that includes series regular Babs Windsor (who looks about ten years past private school age, but who cares?). The resulting hi jinx, silliness, misunderstandings and broad farce are familiar to any watcher of the series but fairly entertaining anyway. I personally found the DVD transfer to be a bit grainy, but watchable, and watching this movie was like re- visiting an old friend, familiar and comfortable.

One of the best in the series

[japanagogo · 9/10 · 20 June 2005]

If you ask people to name a carry on film, many name Carry on Camping, perhaps due to the famous scene of "flinging" Barbara Windsor. However, it deserves to be memorable for other reasons, namely: * Sid James is at his comedic best (particularly when he mistakes Joan Sims' stew for his foot bath) * Amelia Bayntun (Joan Sims' screen mum, Mrs Fussey) is a perfect representation of the overbearing mother in law/overprotective mother. (She reprises this role as Charles Hawtree's mother in Carry on Abroad a few years later).

* The winning-formula familiar pairings of Sid James/Joan Sims and Kenneth Williams/Hattie Jacques.

* The 60s references work well, and echo the times in places (Terry Scott looking at holiday brochures, at a time when foreign holidays were becoming viable for ordinary people, the hippy ending showing the class of generations).

* The quaint references to pre-decimalisation money, notably when Sid James and Peter Butterworth are talking about the camping fees.

For my money, Camping was the last great carry on. Convenience and Abroad were good, but Camping saw the regulars at the height of their powers, and it showed. Wonderful little film.

Carry On No. 17

[michaelarmer · 6/10 · 3 May 2020]

Not a great Carry On, this is many people's favourite, but not for me, its rated above several much better Carry On's, that shows you how much many of the reviewers on here know, which is very little, Its got too much sexual innuendo, smut and daftness, not enough good dialogue and acting.

Leaving out Hattie Jacques was a mistake, and Jim Dale would also have improved it. Kenneth Connor was also missing, unfortunately. The best actors were Peter Butterworth and Joan Sims, Dilys Laye provided the real beauty as well as good acting.

Barbara Windsor was in it, but not in a good way, her bra flung off, which is probably why it is rated highly with some, being sex pests,

The better Carry On's are all without this kind of stuff, based on witty dialogue and good humour, not on tits and arse, If you want to look at sex stuff, get a porno or a Playboy.

That'll be a pound then.

[highnumbers · 10/10 · 26 November 2006]

Fantastic Carry-on-Noir (an overlooked sub-genre that includes Carry on Screaming and Carry On at your Convenience). The strong main plot romps along nicely driven by excellent performances by Lotharios Sid James and Bernard Bresslaw. However the real interest lies in the characters of Charlie Muggins (Hawtrey's finest performance?), Joan Fussey (Joan Sims) and Peter Potter (bravo Terry Scott). Exploring issues from the unbearable constraints of monogamous relationships in post 60's Britain to the working class rejection of pastoral values the trio act their hearts out in a triumvirate unparalleled in modern cinema let alone Carry On movies(although Mutiny On the Buses' Reg/Olive/Jack comes close).

Epic performances like these sometimes overshadow the strong ensemble cast. Kudos to Peter Butterworth's deft Josh Fiddler, Hattie Jacques understated Miss Haggard and Babs Windsor's excellent pair of perky norbs.

First class satire.

Good fun

[grantss · 7/10 · 11 January 2016]

Good fun.

Having seen a advert for a nudist camp, two men decide to go camping there. They then taking their unwitting girlfriends along, but end up going to the wrong camp. Meanwhile a busload of girls from nearby school are heading to the camp too, plus a varied assortment of characters...

One of the better Carry On films. The humour can be quite naughty at times, but is more often clever than dirty. Generally not as low-brow as the Carry One films sometimes could be. Some good skits and one-liners.

Plus, the movie has a great fun-driven momentum. Never a dull moment.

Very Dated But Watchable

[sqdb · 5/10 · 27 June 2015]

I have always been a big fan of the Carry On films and I own all of them on DVD. Carry On Camping, however, is not one of my favourites and I watch it rarely now. Basically, your enjoyment of this film will depend on how much you like Barbara Windsor. Personally speaking, I detest her, she is only famous because of her boobs and I much prefer the Carry On films that she is not in. The ending of this film is also very dated, featuring a hippy band and makes me cringe now when I see it. The film is also primarily famous for the scene when Windsor's bra flies off during an exercise session and hits poor old Kenneth Williams in the face. I suspect this is why this film has a strong following, particularly among men. However, I do not regard it is one of the best Carry On films, though I appreciate that it is treasured by some fans. The film was also cut in several scenes by the British censor back in 1969 and these cuts have never been reinstated in any version that I have ever seen. This does not ruin the film, though and it is worth seeing, though I doubt that you will want to see it too often. This is not the worst film in the Carry On series, but it is a long way from the best too. It is a watchable but very dated film now and just not as funny as it once was.

The quintessential Carry On

[Rrrobert · 8/10 · 24 July 2020]

The quintessential Carry On.

Other entries were technically better crafted films with stronger stories better photography and more interesting filming locations but this just has a joyous atmosphere that can't be beat.

Key is having the majority of the core team present and each playing the character they do best.

Sid James is a scheming lech on the make, Bernard Bresslaw his affable but dim mate, Joan Sims is James' warm but assertive girlfriend, Kenneth Williams a haughty head of a girls' school evading the advances of a lovelorn Hattie Jacques, Barbara Windsor is a saucy schoolgirl, Charles Hawtry a friendly but naive first-time camper, Terry Scott the put-upon husband of a relentlessly jolly domineering wife (Betty Marsden, in her only Carry On lead role), and Peter Butterworth the money grubbing owner of the campsite where they all end up.

Dilys Laye is funny and effective as Bresslaw's girlfriend Anthea Meeks, itching to come out of her shell. Laye played significant roles in four Carry On films but her screen presence makes it seem like it was more. Julian Holloway is one of my favourite Carry On support players and he has a fun turn here as the bus driver.

The story peters-out when the hippies disrupt things, but the character interactions are a winner.

Carry On Camping

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 24 July 2023]

"Boggle" (Sid James) and girlfriend "Fussey" (Joan Simms) decide to take a camping holiday with their best pals "Bernie" (Bernard Bresslaw) and "Anthea" (Dilys Laye). Now the boys reckon they have alighted on a nudist camp site, but sadly they got that wrong and after being fleeced by the owner (Peter Buttherworth) they embark on a series of escapades that introduce them to Kenneth Williams ("Dr. Soaper") reprising his doctor/matron relationship with Hattie Jacques and their bus-load of young nurses on a works holiday from their hospital. You can guess the rest as this innuendo-ridden slapstick extravaganza continues with incidents from just about every aspect of rural life packed in to varying degrees of comic effect. Though the punchlines are pretty clearly telegraphed, I found this to be one of the more natural and funnier outings for the gang. It's borderline farce a lot of the the time, and smutty as usual - but "Babs" (Barbara Windsor), "Peter" (Terry Scott) and his camping aficionado wife "Harriet" (Betty Marsden) all chip in a bit more substantially with the sub plots and that makes this a bit more entertaining. At the better end of the franchise, I'd say - and there's a goat!

Well, it must be a European thing...but to me it seemed like "Porky's" and "The Benny Hill Show" morphed into one wretched film.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 23 November 2010]

I know the Carry On films were very popular--after all, they made 1038312 of them (more of less). However, as an American who did NOT grow up watching them (and no one in the States did), I have a very, very hard time understanding why they were so loved. After all, at least to me, they look like an extended episode of "The Benny Hill Show" with actual nudity along with all the smarmy and low-brow humor....very, very low-brow humor.

This installment finds two morons trying to get their girlfriends to accompany them to a nudist colony by tricking them. When I said it reminded me of Benny Hill--but this also looked like a 1980s slutty teen comedy but with older and unattractive leads. If you LIKE smutty humor that has absolutely no cleverness or finesse, then this film is for you! In addition to genuinely broad and dim writing, there are some horribly broad performances. The worst was the guy who played Dr. Soaper--most 6 year-olds are more subtle and professional! Not all the actors are THAT bad, but most are at least in the same ballpark as Soaper.

I am sorry, but I am the dissenting voice. I hated this film and just saw it as smutty and unfunny. About 2/3 the way through the movie, I just turned it off--life is too short.

Very Funny Stuff!

[Gmarkjames · 19 August 2002]

This is my favourite in the 'carry on' series. The laughs keep coming thick and fast. All the usual characters feature which is an excellent thing, each player fitting perfectly in the story. It's an extremely fun british comedy to watch so...9/10