Carry On Henry

Dir: Gerald Thomas

1971

**

Carry On Henry, the twenty-first Carry On film of the series, is a substandard affair and unfortunately a precursor of what the franchise would descend to. The film was initially titled Anne of a Thousand Lays, a rather crude pun on Anne of a Thousand Days, starring Richard Burton, a double entendre too far for the censors. There is a fine line between risqué, cheeky comedy and smut and Carry On Henry comes very close to crossing it. Harry Secomb was the first choice to play the title character, half of me is curious what he would have been like in a Carry on but on the whole I think it's best they settled for series regular Sid James. The rest of the cast are all mainly present, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims and Terry Scott have rather sizable parts (oh Matron!), Barbara Windsor joins the film in its second act but Peter Butterworth and Kenneth Connor are given disappointingly minor roles. Unlike nearly every Carry On film made before Henry doesn't have that one big memorable scene, nothing that makes it particularly memorable or makes it stand out among the other films in the series. The beginning of the end of the franchise in many respects, with the series only reaching up to its usual high standards for one last time after this (Carry On Abroad).