User reviews

The wonderful thing about watching some of these lovely early Carry ON movies is the small cameos of wonderful British actors. Some were never really house hold names but the thing is that every time they appeared in a movie they would light up and bring something very special to even the most mediocre movies. Esma Cannon as a deaf old woman in this movie is a superb example. This lovely actress always added something very special to every film she was in and after reading the biog on IMDb she had what looks like an incredibly impressive career. Joan Hickson just about steals the film as the tipsy lady fond of a tickle of booze. She is absolutely fabulous. We all know in later years she played a very understated Miss Marple but in this movie you see her at her glorious best.The great Irene Handl is there too and she lifted every film she was in. Miss Handl came to Australia to star in Goodnight Mrs Puffin and BusyBody. She was a brilliant actress but few would know who she was by name. Sid James is less tacky in this movie and I really enjoyed him in this. Kenneth Connor is still rather annoying and I still find him the weak link. I wonder if the shower scene in this film is the first time we saw some bum in a movie. Its very brief. The Hawtrey and Williams drag scene when they go under cover is delightful. Hawtrey remains my personal favourite, he was indeed camper in this than the early ones. Hatti Jaques and Joan Sims are wonderful as always. Hatti is becoming my favourite apart from Hawtrey. It is interesting to see Sid James before they made his characters tackier and tackier. I found this a very pleasant little romp, I cant say I really laughed but I did enjoy it The production values considering the budget in these films was very impressive. For me its the small cameos I loved the most.

Joan Sims (The Last of the Blonde Bombshells) the gym teacher in Carry On teacher is here as a constable. Just out of the Academy and wanting to do a good job. Unfortunately, she has caught the eye of a fellow copper.

Shirley Eaton from Goldfinger is also here looking as good as ever.

The usual antics and sight gags with the normal Carry On gang; only this time in a police station. Bonus nudity that has not been in any of the other ones I have seen. Sorry, it bare butts on guys running to the shower.

It is kind of cute, even if the formula stays pretty much the same, just in different locations.

This is one of the first Carry-On films and, consequently is one of the best. The chemistry of the stars is already there and Connor's as the superstitious constable in love with a co-workers from afar, and Williams as the scientific deduction 'expert' both shine above the rest.

Sid James is surprisingly poorly used as the Sargeant supervising the chaos, but still a very funny movie throughout and one which should be included in anybody's Carry-On collection.

This was the fourth of the Carry On series and although dated by the police uniforms is one of the best simply because all of the regulars are equally well used and for once Sid James is kept under control and used as a foil for some of the situations which works well with his expressive face. Kenneth Williams is still in the intellectual role which eventually gave way to the over-the-top persona in the later films. Leslie Phillips gels well with the others ( even better than he did in Carry On Teacher )

If anything this film underuses the female stalwarts with Hattie Jacques and Joan Sims being love interests.

I've recently been working my way through these earlier, black-and-white CARRY ONS, finding them a breath of fresh air after the stale sauciness of the later entries. CARRY ON CONSTABLE, while proving less imaginative and well-made than some of the other entries made around the same time (such as NURSE and REGARDLESS) is still a fun little film.

Sid James joins the series as a likable sergeant forever at the mercy of his stuffy superior (a wonderfully straight-laced Eric Barker). After a flu epidemic, he takes on five new recruits (Williams, Connor, Hawtrey, Phillips and Sims) who soon get into all manner of pratfalls. The cast are good, even if the jokes aren't (most of them are over obvious, such as the bit with the out-of-control police dog). Even the predictable ending lacks bite when compared to the genuine thrills that concluded the later CARRY ON CABBY.

There's more of an emphasis on sweet romance here than crude gags, which is a pleasure. Williams plays the smug one, Hawtrey is accident prone and scene-stealing, as ever, while Sims plays it relatively straight and Phillips chases skirt wherever he can (Shirley Eaton memorably pops up out of the bathtub in one scene). Connor is unfortunately saddled with a superstitious character who ends up more irritating than amusing. There are better CARRY ON films out there, but compared to the ones being made a decade later this is pure class.

The fourth film in the long running British comedy series, Constable sees Sid James making his Carry On debut as Sergeant Frank Wilkins, whose police station has been hit by a flu epidemic leaving him relying on rookie officers to make up the numbers. Fresh from training college, PC Charlie Constable (Kenneth Connor), PC Timothy Gorse (Charles Hawtrey), PC Stanley Benson (Kenneth Williams) and PC Tom Potter (Leslie Phillips) make a series of blunders that look likely to result in Sgt Wilkins' transfer to another station. In order to make up for their mistakes, the four newbies attempt to track down and arrest a tough gang of thieves they believe to be holed up somewhere nearby.

Constable sees little bit of cheeky innuendo ('You stupid constable!, 'I've lost my pussy') and gratuitous bare flesh (four bare male backsides and Shirley Eaton in her underwear) creeping into the Carry On formula, making this one a stepping stone between the more gentle comedy of the earlier films and the more ribald humour of latter entries. For much of the running time, though, the film is simply good-natured knockabout fun, consisting of a series of amusing episodic scenes, with a little romance thrown in for good measure, the whole thing coming together for a predictable feel-good ending designed to leave the viewer with a warm glow. As always, the likable cast put in winning performances, and as silly as it all undeniably gets, it's hard not to have a reasonably good time.

I wasn’t as taken with this one as the three previous “Carry Ons” I watched: truth be told, law and order is one of the most popular themes with star comedians (Chaplin’s EASY STREET [1917], Keaton’s COPS [1922], Laurel & Hardy’s THE MIDNIGHT PATROL [1933], Will Hay’s ASK A POLICEMAN [1939], Norman Wisdom’s ON THE BEAT [1962], etc.), so it couldn’t very well fail to find an audience – but I also felt the level of gags this time around to be curiously uninventive!

The film marks the series debut of Sidney James as a police sergeant under duress (and constantly threatened with a transfer by Inspector Eric Barker) during a flu epidemic who’s assigned a quartet of rookies to help him – the trouble is that these are none other than Kenneth Connor, Kenneth Williams, Leslie Philips and Charles Hawtrey (the station, apparently, is so hard-up that the prison cells are to serve as their quarters)! The boys deliver their typical schtick: Connor is nervous as the constable whose last name happens to be Constable (and especially given his uncommonly superstitious nature), Williams is a snobbish know-it-all (he figures himself an expert in picking out criminal types – except that the one he approaches to steer on the path of righteousness turns out to be Scotland Yard man Victor Maddern!), Philips the lothario (he falls for a pretty blonde policewoman – but who conveniently comes down with the flu to make way for series stalwart Joan Sims – and then offers advise to guest star Shirley Eaton on matters of romance), while Hawtrey is the prissy but wisecracking member. Cyril Chamberlain is on hand once more, and CARRY ON NURSE (1959)’s Terence Longdon cameos as a confidence trickster plying his trade on rookie Williams.

Again, there’s some tentative romance among the regulars – with James hitting it off with female sergeant Hattie Jacques and, as ever, Connor aching to attract the attention of a serious-minded colleague (in this case, Sims). As for flaws, I guess it boils down to a basic lack of plot: the film practically resolves itself into a series of sketches, some of which even turn repetitious – such as the rookies walking Barker’s dog or bursting into houses only to be met by scantily-clad females (which is how Eaton herself is belatedly introduced), while their helping old ladies in various ways is either unappreciated or greeted with outright hostility. Predictably, too, the quartet finally makes amends by taking the initiative to capture a gang of crooks. Incidentally, the film features some surprising male nudity as the rookies – intending to take an early-morning shower – are scalded and run out in panic; in the same vein, there’s definite camp value to seeing Williams and Hawtrey in drag (having gone undercover to catch potential shoplifters)!

All in all, however, I must admit that I’m having a great time with these early “Carry Ons” – which I find generally more rewarding than the later bawdier, i.e. rather tasteless, entries.

P.S. For some reason, the on-screen title of this one includes a comma after the “Carry On” epithet.

If Carry On Constable seems to remind you of America's Police Academy movies it should. A generation before that American troupe of players took on law enforcement as a satirical subject, the Carry On crew did the same to the London police force.

It's an epidemic in the precinct and most of the good cops are down with the flu. Both Inspector Eric Barker and Sergeant Sid James are in need of personnel so four men and a woman recruits from their Police Academy are assigned. Law enforcement in this district is now in the capable hands of Leslie Phillips, Kenneth Williams, Kenneth Connor, and Charles Hawtrey. Let's not forget Joan Sims who is clearly the best one sent from the Academy.

Sid James made is Carry On debut in Carry On Constable and really gets into the spirit of things. But I would have to say that Kenneth Williams really polishes up the twit character he would use so often and so well in these films. He believes that British law enforcement is waiting for him and the new ideas he brings to the job and can't understand why no one sees his potential. Check the situations he's involved in and you'll have no doubt why.

One of the better Carry On films, not to be missed and this one will make you a fan of the series.

Any Briton old enough to remember the sixties and seventies, and those younger Britons with an interest in the history of British comedy or the British cinema, will have a good idea of what a "Carry On" film involves- bawdy, seaside-postcard humour revolving around sex, with plenty of jokes involving sexual puns, innuendoes and doubles entendres. The cast will include several voluptuous, scantily-dressed dolly birds, one of whom will always be played by Barbara Windsor, and most or all of the following:-

A dirty old man (generally played by Sid James) A supercilious and slightly camp character (Kenneth Williams) A weedy, ineffectual and more-than-slightly camp character (Charles Hawtrey, or occasionally Frankie Howerd) A formidable, physically unattractive old battleaxe (Joan Sims or Hattie Jacques, or occasionally both) A straight man (Jim Dale)

The above description would fit most of the later entries, those from the late sixties or seventies, but in fact the series dates back to 1958 and the earlier entries are rather different in tone. The first three "Carry Ons" from the fifties lampooned national institutions- the Army, the National Health Service and the education system- and "Carry On Constable" did the same for the police. It was the first of the series to be released in the sixties, but the "Swinging Sixties" did not necessarily begin to swing on 1st January 1960, and in the early part of the decade permissiveness was still in short supply. This was a time when Sid James had not yet become a dirty old man (at least not as far as his screen persona was concerned), when Joan Sims was still slim and attractive, when nobody had heard of Barbara Windsor and when "Carry On" humour was still relatively clean and decent rather than suggestive.

The basic idea for the film- a group of incompetent recruits joining the police- is similar to that of the later long-running American "Police Academy" franchise. Five new officers straight from training school arrive at police station which is severely understaffed due to a flu epidemic. They are, to say the least, a mixed bunch. PC Stanley Benson (a typical Kenneth Williams character) is a pompous would-be intellectual with his own eccentric theories about criminology. PC Charles Constable, whose surname makes him the butt of several jokes, is gloomy and absurdly superstitious. PC Tom Potter is a suave but lecherous upper-class cad (like most characters played by Leslie Phillips, both in the "Carry On" series and elsewhere, even though Phillips himself was from a working-class background). Special Constable Timothy Gorse (like most characters played by Charles Hawtrey) is the camp and ineffectual one. The only capable member of the team is the only woman, WPC Gloria Passworthy.

Compared to most of the later "Carry Ons", this one has very little smutty humour, although it was the first to include some nudity. (Male, very brief, and not full-frontal). Much of the humour is character- based, and the scriptwriters are able to get some mileage out of the characters played by Williams and Connor. Williams plays the sort of arrogant know-all who never allows his pet theories to be disturbed by inconvenient facts; he believes that his knowledge of physiognomy enables him to tell at a glance which people are honest and which are criminals, and his belief is not in the least affected by the fact that he is invariably proved wrong. Constable Constable is so superstitious that he allows both his professional work and his love-life to be governed by his horoscope, and is terrified of dogs because they are "the symbol of Pluto, darkest and most evil of the planets".

Not all the characters are so successful. Phillips's posh playboy and Hawtrey's effete weakling arouse a "seen it all before" feeling, and, unfortunately, too many of the attempts at humour derive from some very unoriginal slapstick or tired old routines- a man being knocked into a pond by a boisterous dog, an old lady being helped across the road against her will by an over-enthusiastic policeman, etc. There was even a "man slipping on a banana skin" gag, something that would have been a bit corny even in 1860, never mind 1960. Perhaps this explains why the "Carry On" scriptwriters were so keen to embrace sexual humour as soon as the relaxation of censorship would allow it. Those bawdy puns which make us groan today probably seemed quite fresh and original in the sixties- certainly more so than banana-skin jokes. 5/10

This one is similar to Carry On Sergeant, the first one, but maybe a bit better, and we get one more added to the team, Sid James, but not with his cackling laugh, he plays it more straight like his roles in his previous British comedy drama's.

The comedy is provided by the likes of Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Leslie Phillips, Kenneth Williams and Kenneth Connor, who seems to have slipped from to spot in the team. Hattie Jacques is playing it straight too, not as funny as C-O- Teacher, but still good. Joan Hickson, Cyril Chamberlain, Irene Handl, Shirley Eaton and Terence Longden are back and to back up the glamour from Shirley we have JIll Adams and Dorinda Stevens. Jill did quitev a few Brit Comedy Dramas in the Fifties and Sixties, but this was her only Carry On, she retired from acting in 1966 to be a restaurateur, but sadly passed away in 2008 in Portugal where she lived, aged 77. Dorinda had a similar career (she also had a short role in 'Carry On Jack', she retired from acting in 1965 and has also since passed away aged 80 in Hampshire, 2012. Itb was Shirley Eaton's last Carry-on as well, but she is still with us, now aged 83.

Two other actors who had cameos in this were Victor Maddern and Esma Cannon, they did a bit more in Carry On a bit later.

With this the Carry On's hit the sixties, but it was a while before the sixties feeling hit the Carry On crew, but with this they keep going at a steady rate.

With a flu epidemic decimating the ranks of the local bobbies, the police are forced to quickly take on some new recruits who in other circumstances may not have quite made the ranks – a decision made by Inspector Mills and then dumped on Sergeant Wilkins to deal with. However not even Wilkins' low expectations are met when at least a handful of the new recruits turn out to be barely able to manage themselves, never mind the wider community.

This is quite an enjoyable little film that is never funny but manages to be amusing if you are in the mood for a light, dated comedy. The story is simply a rerun of Carry on Sergeant in the way that an efficient Sergeant (in this case Sid James) is charged with turning a bunch of bumbling, inept recruits (this time into the police) into an effective unit of men, encountering much amusing bumbling along the way (with even some of the same actors playing the same sort of characters). In this regard it is pretty much a cookie-cutter of a story but to look down on the film for being unoriginal and basic is to really miss the point when it comes to the Carry On films. Aside from the poor story, the film is actually quite amusing but never really made me laugh more than once or twice; certainly those not in a forgiving mood will dislike this because it doesn't have much life to it but those looking for a movie for a wet Saturday afternoon will maybe enjoy it.

The cast are a selling point and do manage to do quite a bit with the basic material even if they don't raise it that much. Sid James has a minor role in his first Carry On film and, although he is a good presence, he is less effective than he was in other films. Barker is a nice straightman and holds up that side well enough while the main comedy is brought off by the recruits themselves. Connor repeats his "uptight and resisting love" performance to reasonable effect. Hawtrey and Williams do good work with their usual stuff (Williams playing upper-class early in the series) while Phillips makes a nice addition with his usual stuff. Sims and Jacques are OK but have very little to do around the edges but are nice filler.

Overall this is nothing special but it is amusing in its own way despite never making me laugh. The script does throw up a few nice touches and is cheeky rather than smutty or anything like that and, despite being a rerun of Carry On Sergeant, it is still enjoyable in a rather amusing and light sort of way.

The arrival of three keen constables straight from police college should be good news for Inspector Mills - but Sgt Wilkins rightly fears the worst!

Sid James makes his Carry on debut here, and he's more subdued here, and not the cackling, lady chaser he plays later in the series. The other four - Leslie Philips, Kenneth Conner, Charles Hawtrey, and Kenneth Williams - wreck havoc in the police station and on the beat. That's where the fun comes; there's less verbal humour, and more slapstick. It's an entertaining entry, but the best is yet to come.

Eric Barker ("Insp. Mills") is struggling to keep crime under control with three of his experienced officers down with the flu. Luckily, his streetwise sergeant "Wilkins" (Sid James) thinks he knows how to best manage the group of new recruits sent out to fill in the gaps. Big mistake, though, putting "Gorse" (Charles Hawtrey) in charge of the ops room - as if chaos wasn't already in the air anyway. I always thought these films worked best with James/Sims & Williams/Jacques doing their well established stuff - and for the most part here, that's what they do. Aside, though, I found Leslie Phillips and Kenneth Connor a bit too one-dimensional with their humour erring more on the side of charmless smut. Still, it's quickly paced, the writing is at the better end for the franchise and there are plenty of daft scenarios and double-entendres as it takes a kindly and gentle swipe at a police constabulary that has as many nutcases within as it has to deal with on the outside.

Despite Sid James making his debut, and Charles Hawtrey coming into his own at last, 1960's "Carry On Constable" (the 4th in the iconic 'Carry On' series - again written by Norman Hudis & directed by Gerald Thomas) is as hum-drum as the first three. James & Hawtrey, with Eric Barker & the regular Hattie Jacques, run a London police station hit by a flu epidemic, getting a batch of new recruits: Kenneth Williams, Kenneth Moore, Leslie Phillips (great again) & Joan Sims. Cue a parade of silly, tame, slap-stick themed set-pieces featuring the likes of Shirley Eaton, Joan Hickson, Irene Handl & Terence Longdon. Familiar faces, but also a familiar bland standard.

This was back when Carry on films weren't just about the sex and dirty jokes but had more comedic aspects and plot to them. Carry on Constable has a great cast with Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Kenneth Connor and Leslie Phillips playing the bumbling policemen sent in as backup during an outbreak of the flu and Sid James playing the strict Sergeant trying to whip them into gear.

A lot of the comedy is more slapstick and one liners than anything else and it's wonderful seeing this in 2020 as it turns 60 years old, has some historical value.

7/10: Funny and entertaining, perfect for an afternoon

I enjoy the Carry on movies, they are entertaining, cheeky and witty and make my day when I need it. While a tad too short and rather basic and cookie-cutter in the story structure, this fourth entry known as Carry on Constable is an enjoyable one and lifted by the Carry on debut of regular Sid James, and he is funny as always. The rest of the cast are rock solid as well with Kenneth Williams and Joan Sims especially standing out. The writing is cheeky in alternative to smutty, a trait that plagued some of the later entries, and while not the original on the block the gags are equally amusing. The film looks good too with nice locations and the like, musically it is quite quirky and it is snappily directed. Overall, very enjoyable. 8/10 Bethany Cox

A police station is suffering from major staff shortages due to a flu epidemic. Four new recruits are assigned to the police station in order to try to fill that void. The trouble is that they are all incompetent and soon find themselves causing major headaches for Inspector Mills and his long-suffering sergeant Frank Wilkins...

Although Carry On Constable is, ultimately, a fairly funny film it just felt to me that there was something slightly amiss with this offering...

One thing that seems to be noticeably absent is the presence of an actual story; if you look at Carry On Cabby as a comparison piece to this film then that film actually had a good story and felt like it had something to say (as well as being absolutely hilarious). The lack of plot with this film means that Constable just feels like a montage of sketches (which is fine when the visual gags land), but it doesn't work quite as well when these sort of things aren't happening. I also didn't think the script or the dialogue was quite as sharp as some of the other entries either; the only time we really saw a good incident of this happening was when Constable Benson helps the old lady across the road as that scene showed a misunderstanding via clever word play. A weaker example is the Constable Constable gag which is funny once, but in one scene it is really over-milked to the point where it just stopped being funny.

Still I have to admit that there are still laughs to be found here and when they do land some of them are very funny. As with most of the carry on films some characters are better/funny than others; I felt that Hawtrey and Williams worked best together and their cross-dressing scene was another highlight of the film. Phillips is a good actor and is good at what he does, but his creepy lothario role here (which is more-or-less the same as the role he played in Carry On Teacher) may not be to all tastes. Connor is funny at first, but his schtick starts to wear thin after a while. Jacques and James are both good and Joan Sims does fine as well (though she isn't used particularly well in this film).

As I've said if you're a fan of the series then you should still enjoy this as there are laughs to be found and as with many Carry on films there's never really a dull moment. For me though it just didn't have quite the same spark to it as some of the entries that have both preceded and followed this particular entry.

The first carry on of the 1960s is based on police force. It has good strong screenplay and seems to be proper made film. It's important to stick to good script for film series which beginning and proving successful. It stars legend Sid james in his first carry on film which is notable for this. He's chief officer having to manage his misfits (the misfits being Kenneth williams, Kenneth connor, Leslie phillips and Charles hawtrey's characters) but has problem of being responsible to stern chief constable Eric barker and stern fellow constable Hattie jacques. It is the last Leslie phillips carry on film before he went on to star in other comedies like doctor films. There are good gags like Charles hawtrey and budgie and there are various situations that constables face and mess up like helping little lady across road. Filmed in black and white, maybe film seem different in colour. Police uniforms are black and white.

This is the fourth installment of the carry on collection and I've got too say after watching the first three I would say this is the best so far, and it's great too see sid james enter into the carry on crew, great acting by the Regular crew of William's, connor and hawtrey and the charismatic lesley philips, set in a local police station and the funny goings on being local constables, my final score for this movie is 6.5

Just saw this (2023) and I think I last saw it in complete form way back when it first came out?

Bits of it have popped up in film review shows, but it was good to see it again. Some Carry On devotees may not have seen the earliest films in the series, so are unaware that the first 5 or 6 were just lovely, British light comedies, of the type our hard-up film industry made so many after WW2.

This one has bumbling nitwits in a police station, with Sid James in his first Carry On role as the Sergeant. They're all helped by acting stalwarts like Joan Hickson, and Irene Handl, and though it's all pretty silly, it is after all a comedy.

And it has a feel-good ending, just a great example of what the British film industry could do on a very tight budget. Special mention for Leslie Phillips, drops into his "ooooh, I sayyyyyyy" leer a couple of times, would be seen countless more times in films and TV, though in this case he had Shirley Eaton and Jill Adams to lust after, so every excuse!

The franchise soon transferred into its better-known guise, 'seaside postcard' bawdy humour, with the likes of Carry On Cabby, Cleo, and Cowboy (etc etc), the well-known regulars, and occasional guest stars.