Film Snail

5.7

Carry On Girls

NR·1973·88m

Comedy

Summary

Local councillor Sidney Fiddler persuades the Mayor to help improve the image of their rundown seaside town by holding a beauty contest. But formidable Councillor Prodworthy, head of the local women's liberation movement, has other ideas. It's open warfare as the women's lib attempt to sabotage the contest.

Cast

Sid James

Sidney Fiddler

Barbara Windsor

Hope Springs

Joan Sims

Connie Philpotts

Kenneth Connor

Mayor Frederick Bumble

Bernard Bresslaw

Peter Potter

June Whitfield

Augusta Prodworthy

Peter Butterworth

Admiral

Jack Douglas

William

Patsy Rowlands

Mildred Bumble

Joan Hickson

Mrs. Dukes

David Lodge

Police Inspector

Valerie Leon

Paula Perkins

Margaret Nolan

Dawn Brakes

Sally Geeson

Debra

Angela Grant

Miss Bangor

Wendy Richard

Ida Downs

Arnold Ridley

Alderman Pratt

Robin Askwith

Larry Prodworthy

Patricia Franklin

Rosemary

Brian Osborne

First Citizen

Bill Pertwee

Fire Chief

Marianne Stone

Miss Drew

Brenda Cowling

Matron

Zena Clifton

Susan Brooks

Mavis Fyson

Francis Cake

Laraine Humphrys

Eileen Denby

Pauline Peart

Gloria Winch

Caroline Whitaker

Mary Parker

Barbara Wise

Julia Oates

Carol Wyler

Maureen Darcy

Jimmy Logan

Cecil Gaybody

Ron Tarr

Bearded Audience Member (uncredited)

Ernest Blyth

Hotel Guest (uncredited)

Daniel Brown

Audience Member (uncredited)

Paul Chapman

Sound Man (uncredited)

Jimmy Charters

Audience Member (uncredited)

Billy Cornelius

Police Constable (uncredited)

Billy Davis

Audience Member (uncredited)

Shirley English

Woman Liberator (uncredited)

Iris Fry

Lady at Hospital (uncredited)

Hugh Futcher

Second Citizen (uncredited)

Alan Gill

Audience Member (uncredited)

Pat Hagan

Hotel Guest (uncredited)

Victor Harrington

Audience Member (uncredited)

Aileen Lewis

Town Councillor (uncredited)

Alf Mangan

Audience Member (uncredited)

David McGillivray

Man at Beauty Contest (uncredited)

Alan Meacham

Audience Member (uncredited)

Michael Nightingale

Gent on Tube (uncredited)

Edward Palmer

Elderly Resident (uncredited)

Fred Peck

Man on Tube (uncredited)

Bob Ramsey

Audience Member (uncredited)

Pat Ryan

Hotel Guest (uncredited)

Ian Selby

Audience Member (uncredited)

John Smart

Audience Member (uncredited)

Philip Stewart

Hotel Guest (uncredited)

Reg Thomason

Town Councillor (uncredited)

Rita Tobin-Weske

Audience Member (uncredited)

Cy Town

Press Photographer (uncredited)

Jim Tyson

Beauty Contest Judge (uncredited)

Philip Webb

Town Councillor (uncredited)

Elsie Winsor

Cloak Room Attendant (uncredited)

Fred Wood

Audience Member (uncredited)

Jill Goldston

Palace Hotel Maid (uncredited)

Crew

Director

Gerald Thomas

Writer

Talbot Rothwell

Reviews

John Chard

February 10, 2014

The team have feminists in their sights.

The seaside resort of Fircombe is struggling to attract the tourists, so Sid Fiddler (Sid James) proposes a beauty contest to draw some much needed punters into the town. Getting the inept Mayor (Kenneth Connor) to agree was easy enough, but opposition comes in the form of Augusta Prodworthy (June Whitfield) and her league of feminists.

Lurid, smutty and just about average in the pantheon of the Carry On series. No Kenneth Williams for this one, but a point of interest is that Robin Askwith appears for the only time. Askwith ironically would become the star of the "Confessions" series of film's which would take the sex comedy to a whole new plateau from 1974 onwards. Carry On Girls has its moments, Bernie Bresslaw in drag brings quite a few gags, while Peter Butterworth as a lecherous old man steals the film.

Also pleasing for the franchise faithful is that the Sid James and Barbara Windsor (Hope Springs) pairing gets a nice arc befitting the relationship the pair built up during the series. Beauty contests and feminist whiles are given the treatment in Talbot Rothwell's screenplay, and the dying seaside town in need of a boost has a certain warmth to it (filmed on location in Brighton on England's South Coast). But really it's mild Carry On fare outside of the flesh and double entendres that are laced in humorous stereotypical cheapness. 5/10