The Carry On team's foray into the world of horror films remains one of their finest send-ups, with loving references to a slew of classic horror films combined with the usual mix of excruciating puns.
Albert Potter (Jim Dale) is necking with his girlfriend Doris Mann (Angela Douglas) when she is mysteriously abducted, the latest in a line of strange kidnappings. Scotland Yard's finest, Det Sgt Bung (Harry H. Corbett) and his incompetent sidekick Constable Slobotham (Peter Butterworth) are on the case and the trail leads to the house of Dr Watt (Kenneth Williams) and his sister Valeria (a very vampish Fenella Fielding). Could the good doctor be abducting young women and turning them into life-like mannequins for shop windows?
Thomas, who directed all the Carry On films, and the cast have a ball: they even manage to throw in a werewolf sequence when Bung and Potter accidentally drink the wrong potion, and there's a nice homage as the theme tune to Steptoe and Son plays as Bung mounts his horse and clip-clops down the street. And, of course, there's Williams's immortal line as he meets his end in a vat of boiling oil: "Frying tonight!"
Highly recommended.
Did you know? Sgt Bung's car is a 1904 Brushmobile. The Brush company was based in Loughborough, Leicestershire, England, and only six of these cars were ever made.
(4 Star)
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