Carry on At Your Convenience
A film review by Graeme Huggan
Copyright 1998
Carry on At Your Convenience is all about the goings-on in the factory of a toilet manufacturer, WC Boggs (Kenneth Williams). Once they have won an order to manufacture 1000 bidets in two months and Charles Coote (Charles Hawtrey) has designed a suitable model, the factory employees set to work but are interrupted by union representative Vic Spanner (Kenneth Cope) and friend Bernie Hulke (Bernard Bresslaw) who call them out on strikes on the slightest pretext. Meanwhile, chief foreman Sid Plummer (Sid James) is growing tired of his wife Beattie (Hattie Jacques) and her budgie. He would much rather live next door with fellow Boggs worker Chloe Moore (Joan Sims) but once he discovers that the budgie can predict the winners of horse races, he is over the moon and flush with money. His daughter, Myrtle Plummer (Jacki Piper), is going out with WC's son Lewis Boggs (Richard O'Callaghan) and this causes conflict on the staff day out to the seaside when Vic Spanner vies for her attentions. In the end, if the strike does not cease, Boggs will have to close down his factory, but the support of a group of women led by Coote's wife-to-be and Spanner's mother, Agatha Spanner (Renee Houston), try to resolve the situation. Also, Sid realises that his budgie has caused him nothing but trouble since it started predicting horse race winners. There are some good performances, as usual, from Sid James and Kenneth Williams in their standard roles. Charles Hawtrey is third billing but only appears in a few scenes. His part is mildly amusing. Richard O'Callaghan is appealing as Bogg's stuck-up son, Patsy Rowlands is funny as Miss Withering, Bogg's assistant, and Renee Houston is terrific in her small part as Agatha. However, sole acting honours go to Hattie Jacques as Beattie Plummer. Although her character is not directly involved with the main storyline, she manages to input a great deal of pathos and feeling into her character. A marvellous performance from a marvellous actress. The film suffers from annoying performances by Bernard Bresslaw and especially Kenneth Cope. In his Carry on debut, Cope overdoes his role as Spanner making him so annoying as to be unfunny. Joan Sims returns as the love interest (instead of Barbara Windsor). Sims' 'usual' part as the downtrodden wife was taken by Hattie Jacques. Additionally, Bill Maynard as Fred Moore is very poor. This Carry on movie tries it best to entertain the viewer:- the locations and wealth of characters are appealing. However, the toilet humour becomes tiresome very quickly and some of the performances leave a lot to be desired. This movie does not know where it is going. It was made in 1971 and Talbot Rothwell the scriptwriter seems to be in two minds whether to go for 'bluer' jokes or to maintain the 'innocent' jokes success of most of its predecessors. That is why this film suffers. A minor Carry on film whose major asset is the performance by Hattie Jacques. The new 'minor-regulars' such as O'Callaghan and Piper are not able to enliven the movie and the toilet humour becomes humourless after a while.
My rating:- 2 out of 5 stars.
Written by Graeme Huggan.
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