carry on behind 1975

rating

plot

Anna Vooshka, a beautiful professor of archaeology, bumps into Professor Roland Crump, to whom she has been assigned as an assistant by the Dean, on the eve of his departure from his University to excavate some reported Roman remains behind a British caravan site. As a result, the caravan in which Crump intended to live during the expedition is demolished by Anna's car. On their arrival at the site, they are told by the owner, Major Leep that he has allocated his two free caravans to the students helping with the dig.

The only solution is for Anna and Professor Crump to rent the dilapidated caravan owned by handyman Barnes.

Besides the excavation team, the holiday site is filled with a motley selection of holiday-making caravanners.

Arthur Upmore is there with his wife Linda, whose interfering Mother Daphne has insisted on bringing her bawdy talking Mynah bird as well as a huge cactus.

Next door are the Baxters: Joe, a young carpenter and Norma, his attractive wife who has refused to farm out her beloved Oliver, an enormous Irish wolfhound with an appetite to match. Indeed, almost before the holiday has begun Oliver has escaped and knocked over the Mynah birds cage, allowing the saucy bird to escape. Now both are on the loose to create chaos and misunderstandings - Oliver through his greed, and the Mynah as a fugitive in the bushes.

Two other holiday-makers eager to escape from humdrum domesticity are butcher Fred Ramsden and his electrician mate Ernie Bragg. They are ostensibly on a fishing trip while their wives repair to a Health farm.

So when two fancy free girls, Sandra and Carol pitch their tent next door, the men's thoughts are on anything but fishing. Fred and Ernie waste no time in chatting them up after they ask the men if they can mend their gas stove. The girls offer to cook dinner in return, while the lads go off to buy some wine. When Carol slips on some fat, the chicken she's putting in the oven flies out of the window and is snatched up by Oliver. As the dog momentarily releases the chicken, a minibus driven by the students, reduced it to a flattened carcase. In return for ruining their meal two of the students, Clive and Bob take the girls out for a meal.

On their return to find the oven smoking and all three birds (including the chicken) flown, Ernie and Fred drown their sorrows in a drink, tossing the leaking gas stove into the tent before retiring.

At the opening of the dig, Professor Crump and Anna have had an exciting day unearthing an erotic mosaic paving, which Anna conveys in her quaint English, must have been the flooring of a Roman house of pleasure. Later, after undressing and getting into bed, separated from Roland's half of the caravan by a blanket, Anna turns out the light and tosses a cigarette out of the window. This lands near the leaking butane stove, causing a blinding explosion which rocks the caravan and completely destroys the tent and its contents.

Roland, believing he is covered in blood, is convinced he is fatally injured and faints so Anna calls on Fred and Ernie for help. They then lurch inebriated into the caravan and after ascertaining that Roland is still alive, they patch him up with theodolite splints and dispatch him to hospital in an ambulance.

There the 'blood' beneath Anna's bandaging turns out to be nothing more than an overdose of split tomato ketchup. Roland is discharged after an operation to remove a splinter in his big toe. The following morning he finds Anna 'poking little holes' all over the caravan field to obtain earth samples. When Roland takes his turn with the earth auger, he accidentally pierces the water main causing chaos across the site.

In the local pub, Major Leep pays court to Daphne Barnes, who tells him she has not seen her shiftless husband since they parted company 10 years previously. After they have departed, Fred and Ernie are dismayed when the landlord tells them that the caravan field he sold to Major Leep for £2000 is riddled with underground holes from Roman mining operations is in imminent danger of caving in.

Unaware of their precarious nature of their operations, Professor Crump and Anna supervise student trench digging operations, which leave no doubt as to the importance of their archaeological find.

By evening everyone on the site prepares for a party to open Major Leep's new club house, to which workmen are hastily putting the finishing touches, including a fresh coat of paint on all the chairs.

The Mynah bird is still at large using insulting language to Daphne in the showers. Barnes, smartening up in a white jacket for the party, reluctantly enters the ladies ablutions and is immediately recognised by Daphne as her long-lost husband. As they reminisce over a game of cards in his caravan, he reveals he had a big win on the pools and is willing to turn over a new leaf if Daphne will have him back.

Back at the clubhouse the party breaks up abruptly when the 'singer' booked by the Major turns out to be a stripper who proceeds to carry out her routine to the full. As the indignant guests rise to depart, the seats of their clothes stick to the newly painted chairs. Hiding their bare behinds, they depart into the night and a downpour of rain.

Carol, Sandra and two local girls shelter from the rain in Fred's caravan, stripped to their underwear while they repair their clothes. They are joined by Fred, Ernie and two of the students, all singing boisterously and quite visibly 'refreshed'. Suddenly Fred and Ernie's wives turn up, and have every reason to believe that they are interrupting a drunken orgy.

During the night the rain pours down and the field begins to cave in, tilting the caravans into mud filled holes. Roland gets out of bed and immediately lands on top of Anna, Arthur has another painful collision with a cactus whilst Daphne and Barnes are flung together into each others arms on the caravan floor.

As the bulldozers fill in the holes, bringing the site back to normal, Major Leep bids farewell to the holiday makers, whilst Anna and Roland carry on digging behind the field. On a branch beside them sits the Mynah bird they have acquired from Daphne, who now has Barnes for company.

review

Without doubt, the last great Carry On. After the departure of so many important figures in the series with Carry On Dick, its quite remarkable that Behind actually succeeds in being so much more enjoyable than its predecessor. OK, it's very similar to Camping, but the performances and the brilliant chemistry between Elke Sommer and Kenneth Williams make it one to enjoy. In could be argued that the new additions to the cast freshened up proceedings, so the performances don't seem as laboured as Carry On Dick. It's just a shame that the momentum (as well as the writer!) weren't maintained by the films that followed.

Of the newcomers, it's Windsor Davies that has the hardest job filling in for an absent Sid James. However he pulls the role off with suitable aplomb, and makes a great partnership with Jack Douglas as two fruity fellows released from the shackles of married life to enjoy some saucy shenanigans in a caravan. The partnership reminds you of the classic Sid and Bernie partnership in Carry On Camping.

Elsewhere, the main focus of attention should be on the sparkling partnership between Kenneth Williams and guest star Elke Sommer. Kenneth is typical Kenneth as a mincing archaeologist and is excellent as ever (particularly the opening lecture) whilst Elke is the saucy foreign visitor who takes a shine to him.

Special mention must be given to Kenneth Connor as the randy Major Leep, who is fantastic. Especially for the line 'I shall get to the bottom of this, I feel a complete arse!'. Also; Hooray! Peter Butterworth gets a much bigger role this time around.

In fact the whole film is so enjoyable, it really is very difficult to criticise. General consensus may say that after Sid left there was no life left in the series. With no disrespect to Sid, that's complete bollocks. If anything, this is certainly the most enjoyable ensemble piece since Carry On Abroad.

On a sour note however, this was Bernard Bresslaws and Patsy Rowlands last Carry On. More change for the series was in the air, with the arrival of the next film.

other information

Despite playing Patsy Rowlands Mother in this instalment, Joan Sims was only four years older.

Major tie ins with CI Caravans were organised when the film was released. The company went under a couple of years later.

The writer Dave Freeman had written the film Bless This House which had virtually the same team behind it as many Carry On's and would go on to write the 1992 revival Carry On Columbus.

The voice of the foul mouthed Mynah bird was provided by the vocal talents of director Gerald Thomas.

bloopers

Ian Lavenders towel changes colour when he enters the washroom.

When the stripper makes her entrance on stage, they switch on the tape and music plays, which is odd as the tape isn't moving.

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