Carry On Constable

Films in Focus

By Ed Garea

Carry On Constable (Anglo-Amalgamated, 1960) – Director: Gerald Thomas. Writers: Norman Hudis (s/p), Brock Williams (idea). Cast: Sidney James, Kenneth Williams, Eric Barker, Kenneth Connor, Charles Hawtrey, Leslie Phillips, Joan Sims, Hattie Jacques, Cyril Chamberlain, Shirley Eaton, Jill Adams, & Joan Hickson. B&W, 86 minutes.

In 1958, tiny Anglo-Amalgamated studio released Carry On Sergeant, a comedy starring William Hartnell as the soon-to-retire Sergeant Grimshawe. What the sergeant would like more than anything before he call it quits is to win the Star Squad prize with his very last platoon of newly called-up National Servicemen, and he has made a rather extravagant bet to that effect. Unfortunately for Grimshawe, he is stuck with a group of complete no-hopers. His struggle to shape them up into a prize-winning platoon helped make this film an unexpected hit. But it was also the supporting cast that viewers went to see, and four of them (Kenneth Connor, Charles Hawtrey, Hattie Jacques, and Kenneth Williams) would form the nucleus of what would become a franchise of 30 films, remembered affectionately by the British public as the “Carry On” series.

The four would play a version of their characters in the rest of the “Carry On” films: Connor was the neurotic one, Jacques the stable, out-upon one, Williams the pompous one, and Hawtrey the flighty one. Joan Sims, playing the over-zealous character, joined the cast in their next film, Carry On Nurse, and Sidney James, in the film we are reviewing. Eric Barker, Leslie Phillips, and Jim Dale were among those who also appeared in the films from time to time. The series was one of gentle comedy; among its many fans were the Beatles (John Lennon mentioned Charles Hawtrey in his introduction to “Dig a Pony” from the Let it Be album), the Pythons, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Rowan Atkinson, and virtually every other famed comic and comic writer in England. The series even spawned a TV movie in 2011 for England’s Channel 5 Television titled Greatest Ever Carry On Films.

Carry On Constable was the fourth film in the series and, as previously mentioned, marked the debut of James. James is Sergeant Wilkins a put-upon police officer serving under the incompetent and bullying Inspector Mills (Barker). Wilkins relies on the support of Sergeant Laura Moon (Jacques), who is secretly in love with him. When a flu epidemic decimates the police station, Wilkins receives three rookie replacements: Tom Potter (Phillips), an ex-playboy trying to make good in an honest line of work; Stanley Benson (Williams), as high-and-mighty pompous type who is certain that normal police methods are inadequate and prefers his methods of observation; and Charlie Constable (Connor), highly nervous and superstitious man who won’t do anything before checking with the stars. Special Officer Timothy Gorse (Hawtrey), an effeminate, harmless type, and Gloria Passworthy (Sims), a zealously efficient police officer, are also on hand for patrol.

Unfortunately, the rookies are not the best of the lot. While on their way to the station, they run into two jewel thieves making their escape. Potter and the others are oblivious and not only help the duo into their car, but also ask for directions to the station. This sets the stage for the rest of the movie, which is a thinly disguised series of gags and situations: Gorse get tangled midair on a bell tower rope while chasing a cat; Benson attempts to arrest a man entering his car because he thinks the man looks like the criminal type. The man turns out to be a detective sergeant. Potter, investigating a noise, bursts in on Sally Barry (Eaton) while she’s in her underwear ironing her dress for work. Benson forces an old lady back across a street she has spent 10 minutes crossing. And in the film’s funniest scene, Benson and Gorse meeting with a store manager experiencing a rash of shoplifting, disguise themselves as women, and are so inept that they manage to get themselves arrested as shoplifters.

There are also precious bits with Wilkins, getting a whiff of Benson’s superior attitude and assigning him to walk the stations K-9 officer, Lady, who always manages to drag him about. Kenneth Connors is funny as the phobia-possessed Constable Constable, walking around in the mornings in zodiac-printed pajamas, and fearing every superstitious things, such as inadvertently walking under a ladder while on patrol and spending minutes rubbing his rabbit’s foot before proceeding. There is also a great scene between him and Sgt. Moon: it seems Constable is in love with Policewoman Passworthy. Moon tells him to just tell her; she think Passworthy feels the same. But Constable tells Moon that he has to know if she’s a Virgo before he proceeds. “I beg your pardon?” Moon asks incredulously. “I just have to know what sign she was born under,” he answers, to her obvious relief. Playing the matchmaker, she checks Passworthy’s personnel records and tells him she was born late in August, which is a load off his mind. Connors and Jacques play beautifully off each other and what could simply be dismissed as an attempt at bawdy humor resonates with the human factor. And Phillips, having already broken in on Sally (Eaton), discovers the cause of her problem with her boyfriend and is now giving her advice to the lovelorn.

Amidst it all is the figure of Sgt. Wilkins, fighting his superior on one hand and trying to get the replacements into shape on the other. For us, this is a new side of James, who previously played joking troublemakers and crooks. He seems to be born into the role of the harried straight man, and his scenes with Jacques are both funny and touching, for both are in love with the other, but never thought of saying it.

There is also another very funny scene when Benson, working the desk, is confronted with a criminal recently arrested. By reading his face, Benson knows that he is really an honest man and can be helped to the right path. The man agrees and compliments Benson on his insight, but tells him he need 50 quid for a course to get him on the right path. Benson agrees to take his last 50 out of the post office and give it to the man when Wilkins comes to take the man away, telling Benson he’s one of the smoothest con-men he’s ever caught. The look on Benson’s face is precious as he realized that he was totally duped.

In the end we know the replacements, for all their bumbling, must be redeemed. And so they are. They find the car the jewel thieves escaped in and call it in to the station. But they stay behind, for Benson has a feeling the crooks are still in the area. So they search. After going through a lot of addresses with no luck they’re about to call it quits until Gorse points out a house that has been abandoned and is on the list to be torn down. He’s right, the crooks are in the house, and after much fighting, they capture the thieves.

Inspector Mills tries to grab the credit, but HQ bumps him upstairs to training and promoted Wilkins to inspector and appoints him in charge of the station. He and Sgt. Moon declare their love. Constable tells Passworthy he wasn’t sure until he found out she was born in August, to which she answers that she was born earlier. Constable tells Sgt. Moon that she lied to him, to which Moon replies, that all that astrology stuff really doesn’t matter anyway. Thus, we get a happy ending.

While Carry On, Constable isn’t fall-over laughing funny, it is nevertheless an excellent example of a gentle humor that isn’t seen that often these days. One blogger compared it to English comfort food: “Carry On's (sic) are the comfort-food of the British film-viewing public: they know what's on offer, and they know they will enjoy.”

Afterwords

Carry On Constable marked the point where Hawtrey, Williams, Connor, Jacques, Sims, and James solidified their characters. Never again would they deviate from their basic stereotype.

James was a last-minute replacement for Ted Ray, who was penciled in for the role of Sgt. Wilkins. However, Ray was under contract to rival company ABC, who distributed the Carry On films. ABC wasn’t too pleased about seeing one of their employees working for the competition and threatened to stop distribution, so producer Peter Rogers reluctantly droped Ray from the film and signed James to take his place.