Carry On Screaming (1966)

 "May I blow it?"

It's October. The month of Halloween. The month of ghouls and ghost and things that go bump in the night... and the next film in my slow, chronological meanderings through the Carry On series turns out to be rather appropriate. Who'd have thunk it?

Just as recent films have been genre pastiches, this time we get a glorious taste on the British horror films from the likes of Hammer and Amicus, very much in their heyday at this point. The look of the film is perfect, as are the opening titles and song. Yet, as ever, the success of this film lies in the superb performances and the gloriously crap jokes... and yes, the innuendo about the whistle is absolutely the best thing in it.

No Sid James this time, but Harry H. Corbett is a more than adequate replacement in what is more or less a starring role. Fenella Fielding, too, is a wonderful new addition with perfect timing. But best of all, as so very often, is Kenneth Williams, hamming it up in the best possible way as the dastardly Doctor Watt (Doctor Who is his uncle, apparently...!).

Everything about this film is wonderful and utterly unafraid to be silly. Charles Hawtrey gets a surprisingly small role (was his personal life more than usually chaotic at this point?), but it says a lot that the absence of the great Sid James is hardly noticeable here.

The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins (1971)

 "You're a walking repository of carbohydrates."

I suppose I have to start that this is a rubbish film, made by pretty much the cream if British comedy writers and performers as of 1971, but it ends up as (mostly) utter pants. But they are, at least, interestingly soiled pants.

Yes, I shall indeed go into a corner and think about what I've just typed.

This is a portmanteau film, with a very crude (in all senses) cartoon linking device separating seven long comedy sketches of varying quaity and various styles. The use of the seven deadly sins as a basis for portmantaeu film is not an inherently bad idea; its just that most of the sketches are rubbish.

Yes, the Galton and Simpson sketch with the stand-off between two cars on a country road is good, but we've all seen it before and here we have it wheeled out again, this time with Ian Carmichael. There's also a sketch on gluttony, penned by Barry Cryer and Graham Chapman that's rather good. Sadly, beyond that we have rather a lot of sub-Benny Hill nonsense (hot take: Benny Hill wasn't cancelled in 1988 because of "political correctness", but because hisentire format was unfunny and crap) and Blakey from On the Buses as a tyrannical park warden. We even have Harry Secombe blacking up- badly- at one point. The social attitudes are certainly of another era.

Still, rubbish though it is, this film is a fascinating snapshot of the variable state of British comedy fifty years ago. We tend to remember the best stuff, but there was also a lot of dross out there.

Jabberwocky (1977)

“Rat on a stick!"

 This is a very funny film, make no mistake about that. But it's also an interestingly placed one- Terry Gilliam's first non-Python film, or not, depending on your point of view, and moreover its use of so many well-known character actors in a comedy echoes Ripping Yarns. It can't really be seen in isolation, especially not if one happens to be a massive Monty Python geek.

All of which is to say that it's all very Python in its humour, and in a good way; this is no Yellowbeard. And it's wonderful to see the likes of John Le Mesurier and Harry H. Corbett getting to work with this kind of material. It’s also a treasure trove for the actor spotter, with a young Annette Badland as Griselda and a huge number of cameos.

But Michael Palin, as always, puts in a superb comic performance as our innocent and gloriously boring hero, a cooper’s apprentice turned hero who should have been a management consultant. Max Wall and John Le Mesurier are also superb, but it all hangs upon the brilliant Palin, whose working relationship with his fellow Python Terry Gilliam would of course go on to further great things. And it’s fascinating to see this as Gilliam’s first solo directorial credit for a full length film.

Python-connected films are always worth watching. But few are as brilliant as this one.