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Carry On Cowboy
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| Year: |
1965
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Director: |
Gerald Thomas
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| Stars: |
Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Angela Douglas, Bernard Bresslaw, Peter Butterworth, Jon Pertwee, Percy Herbert, Sydney Bromley, Edina Ronay, Lionel Murton, Peter Gilmore, Davy Kaye, Margaret Nolan
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| Genre: |
Western, Comedy |
| Rating: |
  6 (from 5 votes) |
| Review: |
1965 was a quiet year for Carry On movies - the previous year saw three released, and 1966 would see a further two. So this effort was the only thing that Carry On fans had to look forward to. And it's a pretty good effort.
Filmed entirely in Pinewood Studios and nearby Black Park, this movie tells the story of Stodge City, a town turned from a puritan, temperate 'paradise' into a murderous, lawless town when the Sherrif, Albert Earp, is killed by Johnny Finger, a.k.a. The Rumpo Kid. In shades of Blazing Saddles, the call goes out for a new sherrif, and instead of a lawman, the town gets a drainage engineer, in the shape of Marshal P Knutt. Expecting to go 'clean up the town', Marshal heads out west, surviving the best efforts of Rumpo, his gang, and their tame indians, led by Chief Big Heap, who will do whatever they ask in return for a steady supply of Fire-water.
Also in town is Annie Oakley, who turns out to be the daughter of the murdered Sherrif and is seeking revenge on 'the man who shot my pa'. All standard fare as westerns go, but there are some interesting scenes, a few chuckles, and some memorable lines along the way.
Sid James is his usual self as the Rumpo Kid, and I actually like this performance more than most, because he'd probably have made a good cowboy actor on this performance. Jim Dale is spectacularly hapless as the out-of-his-depth lawman, and this helped him to pull off a more than creditable performance as the soppy yet successful romantic lead, since both Joan Sims (as the saloon owner Belle) and Angela Douglas (as sharp-shooting Annie Oakley) fall for him. Everyone else are really there as wallpaper in this one, and even Kenneth Williams (as the mayor), Bernard Bresslaw (in his first Carry On role as the Chief's son Little Heap) and Charles Hawtrey (as Chief Big Heap) are never stretched very far.
It's worth seeing, and might be better appreciated were it not part of a long series of successful comedies. They have done better than this, but you'll easily find movies that are far less funny and far less watchable.
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| Reviewer: |
Paul Shrimpton
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