Carry On Cowboy

In 1958, Carry On Sergeant had been a surprise hit. By 1966, when Carry on Cowboy appeared, the tenth film in the series, the Carry Ons had become a British institution like fish and chips. People enjoyed seeing their favourite comics poke fun at 'sober' targets such as the police, teachers, spies and the medical profession. If the Ealing comedies represent sophisticated British screen humour at its best, then the Carry On films undoubtedly provide popular comic entertainment at its most professional, in the tradition of the Music Hall and seaside postcards. Colour had arrived with Carry on Cruising in 1962, but the gags had always been a splendid shade of blue. Carry on Cowboy is probably the most enjoyable film in the series, largely due to the fact that it is unique in sending up a totally non-British type of film in a completely British fashion. The story is strong enough to stand comparison with 'real' Westerns. Jim Dale's Marshall P. Nutt, the innocent sanitary engineer mistaken for a deadly gunfighter and forced to live the role is a comic hero in the mould of Charles Laughton in Ruggles of Red Gap, Bob Hope in Fancy Pants, Paleface and Son of Paleface and Kenneth More's The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw. Similarly, while remaining their Carry On selves, Sid James as the outlaw Rumpo Kid, Kenneth Williams' prissy Judge Burke, Joan Sims as a veritable Mae West of a saloon owner and Charles Hawtrey and Bernard Bresslaw as comic Indians, are all recognisably characters from innumerable Westerns. Pinewood stands in convincingly for Stodge City, Angela Douglas makes an attractive sharp-shooting Annie Oakley and none of the staples of the genre are missed as comic targets. As a result, Carry on Cowboy succeeds both as a genuinely funny movie with its unique view of the Wild West and as an entertaining Western. The humour may be broad, but it rarely fails to score a hit on the funny bone.