Carry On Loving
Their Mating Game is a Riot!
The 20th Carry On film produced by Peter Rogers and Gerald Thomas follows Sidney and Sophie Bliss (Sid James and Hattie Jacques) who run a dating agency called Wedded Bliss. The film is set in Windsor and there are some great shots of Windsor Central Station and the streets of this beautiful castle town. The entire premise of the Wedded Bliss agency was their Computer which supposedly matched couples together, with lots of flashing lights and whirring sounds. An aged idea now, but back then in 1970 no one had really thought of match-making through computers, can you imagine what this wonderful long-departed cast would think of online dating today!
One day a totally naive young man by the name of Bertrum Muffet (Richard O Callaghan) visits Wedded Bliss searching for a wife and dips his nervous toe into the dating pool, which leads to the usual hilarious Carry On antics. Meanwhile Charles Hawtrey plays a hapless Private Detective, in one of his best suited and funniest roles. The film also starred the beautiful and tragic Imogen Hassall in her sole Carry-on Outing, whose transformation from a prudish Victorian to a stunning 1960’s ‘It Girl’, didn’t just put a big smile on Terry Scott’s face, that’s for sure.
Although the relationship between James and Jaques is nowhere as strong or interesting as it was in Cabby, it is still something unforgettable and there was a genuine warmth between these two stalwarts of the Carry on team on screen. This is a very enjoyable addition to the series with some great opening music and a genuinely funny script, with the same extras in the opening and closing shots of the film. Carry On Loving is filled to the brim with double entendre and a couple of chuckle filled twists that I really enjoyed. Despite the film being somewhat predictable, it’s still a good watch and is well worth giving a try, if you come across it on a rainy Sunday afternoon with nothing else to do.
6/10 – Calum Roberts