Carry On Dick

Dir: Gerald Thomas

1974

**

Carry On Dick, the 26th in the Carry On series, represented the end of an era as it was the last time Sid James (who had stared in nineteen Carry On films), Hattie Jacques (who had stared in fourteen Carry on films) and Barbara Windsor (who had stared in nine Carry on films) would appear in the franchise. It also represented the beginning of the end as the quality of humour took somewhat of a nosedive and the double entendres were far more obvious and rather lazy in comparison to the earlier films. Carry On Dick was also to be scriptwriter Talbot Rothwell's last Carry On. He is probably best remembered for the line "Infamy! Infamy! They've all got it in for me!" from Carry On Cleo (although he actually borrowed it from Denis Norden and Frank Muir) but in later Carry On films the lines got a little bit more racy on Gerald Thomas and Peter Rogers' orders to try and 'sex up' the series and compete with the popularity of soft-core sex comedies of the time, something that never really worked for the much loved franchise. The 'Dick' jokes become a little tiresome fairly early on and many of the cast members look tired and unwell, indeed, a few of them, including leading man Sid James, were sadly only a few years away from their graves. Kenneth Williams and Jack Douglas never really worked together as pair on screen, Carry On Dick being a mere echo of some of the great double-acts of the previous incarnations. It was sad to see the decline of such a well-loved series.