Carry On: Volume Two: Carry on Up Khyber / Carry [Import]

I remember when I saw the first in the "Carry on" series of ribald British comedies that was exported to the US - "Carry On Nurse" (1958!)- and still remember the final daffodil scene. (Those who are familiar with the film will know what I mean..). About 10 years ago Anchor Bay released a box set of some of the "Carry On" films and I enjoyed those. But there 29 CO films made between 1958 and 1978 and, little by little, they are seeing light on home video, especially DVD. A few have been released in versions only usable in the UK.

Now comes the first two - of what I assume will be an ongoing series - of "Double Features" from VCI. They recently acquired the catalog of The Rank Organisation and these are part of that licensing agreement.

This Double-Feature includes the 15th in the series - "Carry On Doctor", which pretty much picks up from where "Carry on Nurse" left off. And medical comedies are always ripe for double-entendres and saucy jokes, the lifeblood of the CO films. No sex or nudity but lots of humor that the British seemed to get away with easier than US filmmakers. Think Benny Hill! I won't go into the plots or cast of these films - the other on this DVD is "Carry on Up The Khyber" - whose main running joke is that the soldiers don't wear under shorts under their "uniforms" (that look like kilts.- because there are MANY reviews of the VHS releases of these films on Amazon. But you'll note that these go back almost 10 years.

What I will say is that the prints provided by VCI are in GORGEOUS color and apparently were remastered. Also, "Doctor" includes a young Jim Dale ("Barnum" among other stage hits) in his early film days.) Much of the comedy is silly and seemed to repeat from film to film (but then so did both Abbott & Costello and Hope& Crosby), but I still got a chuckle from them. A few of the jokes need knowledge of British social mores, but most come right through.

If the prints of the other films are this good, I'll look forward to more in this series from VCI.

The extras include a "Photo Gallery" that plays for about three minutes and a new edited trailer mixing scenes from the films.

I hope you found this review both informative and helpful.

Steve Ramm
"Anything Phonographic"

Forgotten how funny these movies were. Remember watching them as a kid back in England and they still make me laugh today. An absolute CLASSIC!!!