CARRY ON MATRON
A film review by Graeme Huggan
Copyright 1996 Graeme Huggan
Carry on Matron is the last great Carry-on film in my opinion. Made in 1972, it still features most of the regulars of this genre. Sid James plays the head of a gang of crooks intent on stealing contraceptive pills from the local maternity hospital and selling them off to make a profit, Kenneth Williams is Sir Bernard Cutting, head of the hospital but also a hypochondriac, Hattie Jacques re-takes her role as Matron, and Charles Hawtrey is the psychiatrist Dr.Goode. The jokes come in fast and so do the laughs, with humorous antics between the Matron and Sir Bernard. This time, Williams is after Matron (Jacques) when he needs to prove himself that he is a man after visiting Dr.Goode. The doctor (Hawtrey) is sworn to secrecy:- "I assure you, that anything you say to me today will go in one ear and straight out of the other!" Bernard thinks he is having a sex change and needs to prove himself. There are great cameos from Joan Sims, an expectant mother who is many weeks overdue and is eating constantly in every scene, and from Kenneth Connor as the expectant father who still thinks he's at work (at the railway station). Sid James' gang including Cyril his son (Kenneth Cope) try to find out where the pills are by getting Cyril to dress up as a nurse and live in at the nurses home. He has to share a room with Nurse Ball (Barbara Windsor) and she soon sees through him! The film ends with the attempted robbery of the hospital's pills with panic ensuing. There are good performances by Hattie Jacques as the Matron, however her character seems a little more subdued and quieter than her previous 'Matron's'. Williams is, as usual, on top form, but Sid James isn't given a very good part in this movie and I would forgive anyone to forget that he was in the movie at all. The same does not go for Charles Hawtrey, for although he only first appears in the movie after 30 minutes gone and has scarce screen time, he seems to steal every scene he is in. By not making use of Sid James and Barbara Windsor's talent to full effect, the film seems to flounder, but it certainly makes up for it with it's good storyline and it's other appealing characters. This film is genuinely funny and i could watch it again and again and not get bored!
My rating:- 4 out of 5 stars.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews