Absolutely amazing

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

I always thought CARRY ON EMMANNUELLE was the worst of the Carry On films (not counting CARRY ON COLUMBUS, which is like some bastard cousin of the series), having seen it years ago and judged it to be pretty pitiful. However, having now watched all of the films, I can report that it's not the worst at all; that 'honour' goes to the preceding CARRY ON ENGLAND, which doesn't even feel like a proper Carry On.At least this film features a lot of the old regulars back on screen for the final time: Kenneth Williams, Joan Sims, Kenneth Connor, Jack Douglas, and Peter Butterworth feature in this, and the latter foursome make a particularly good quartet in their scenes as various household staff. The bit where they sit around the kitchen table and recount their amorous escapades is the highlight of the film and recalls the glory days of the show, with Butterworth shining in particular as the doddering old butler.A shame, then, that the main plot is such a boring rip-off of the classic erotic film series (and there's something typically cheap and tacky about the misspelling of EMMANNUELLE so as not to breach copyright). I don't know who thought that viewers wanted ample rear nudity from Kenneth Williams, but we get it. Suzanne Danielle is really pitiful as the lead and drags the film down whenever she appears, but on the plus side there are cameos from Victor Maddern and Beryl Reid which liven things up a bit. If you squint a bit, ignore all the tired sex jokes and nudity, and focus on the supporting characters, then you might just enjoy this. A bit.

The Carry On films had been declining in popularity for some years now. Carry On Behind (1975) was the last good Carry On but it bombed at the box office charts as did the truly awful Carry On England (1976). Times had changed and the saucy seaside postcard humour of the Carry On's had become old-fashioned, especially as the smutty and far more explicit Confessions Of A... and Adventures Of A... films were scoring favourably in the Box Office ratings.In one last blatant attempt to revive the series flagging momentum, producer Peter Rodgers and director Gerald Thomas turned to the subject of the French soft-porn film series, Emanuelle. A lot of the regulars such as Hattie Jaques, Charles Hawtrey and Barbara Windsor had left the series some years before whilst the late, great Sid James died in 1976, therefore leaving a big gap in the series that couldn't and never will be filled.The regulars that are present for this final installment of the series are the outrageously camp Kenneth Williams (who delivers a dire French accent throughout), the ever reliable Joan Sims, as well as Kenneth Connor, Peter Butterworth and Jack Douglas (who became a regular in the series in the early seventies) and they all look a noticeably lot older. Suzanne Danielle is in the title role as the promiscuous Emmanuelle and is fairly engaging in her role but not even having the sheer brilliance of Kenneth Williams manages to save this completely awful film. Interest wanes after just fifteen minutes as the film falls flat on its face with no sense of direction. The capable cast all struggle against a script that is awash with juvenile smut and jokes that all had been heard countless times in previous entries.The only scene that manages to ignite and raise a chuckle is when the gang are all discussing their most amorous experiences. Joan Sims recalls hers being in a laundrette where she spots a man she is immediately attracted to. They then use their laundry to act out their sexual fantasies. This scene is played out to perfection and you really have to see it to understand what I mean. But one good scene is hardly enough reason to watch this! The film was an unsurprising flop at cinemas and it served as the final nail in the coffin. The cast all seem to be on auto-pilot and probably wished they were doing something better. This film is the one that barley anybody had seen until it was released on video in the early 1990's, whilst on TV it has only been shown late at night. An absolute mess and one that is best forgotten! A sad end to a much-loved series.Ian Phillips

The Carry On films are supposed to be innuendos, nob gags, a tiny bit of nudity, and dialogue with double meaning, but this film just goes too far with all these things. Basically the film is spoofing the long running French erotic movie series, so the lead female character Emmannuelle (Suzanne Danielle) is the beautiful sex mad wife of French Ambassador Emile Prevert (Kenneth Williams), having sex with many VIPs in frustration, and getting in press scandals because of Theodore Valentine (Larry Dann), desperate to have her. She is having sex with all these people, but the only guy she really wants is obviously her husband. Other than this story, there is a sequence, where Emmannuelle and the house staff: Leyland (Kenneth Connor), Mrs. Dangle (a bigger Joan Sims), Lyons, or "Loins" (Jack Douglas) and Richmond (Peter Butterworth) discuss their strangest sex experiences with each other, and flashbacks, not accurate to their comments, appear. Also starring Beryl Reid as Mrs. Valentine, Henry McGee as Harold Hump and Howard Nelson as Harry Hernia. Danielle may look good naked (from the back at least), but Williams (from the back also), ugh! As for the sex sequences you see most (thankfully not all) of, they are just disturbing and uncomfortable, especially when they involve the five remaining Carry On regulars, Barbara Windsor refused by the way. It is a rotten comedy with nothing good to say about it, just as bad as Carry On England, no good moments - well, you can't ignore Danielle nude, just a ridiculous piece of comedy crap! Very poor!

CARRY ON EMMANNUELLEAspect ratio: 1.85:1Sound format: Mono"Carry On" regular Sid James had been dead for almost two years when this threadbare concoction hit UK cinemas in 1978, and principal scriptwriter Talbot Rothwell had retired from the business in 1975 following a bout of ill health, throwing the long-standing (and extremely lucrative) "Carry On" series into disarray. While CARRY ON EMMANNUELLE isn't the worst of them - that 'honor' belongs to CARRY ON ENGLAND (1976), an utterly turgid wartime entry - Lance Peters' script was initially rejected by star Kenneth Williams as unworkable, though the finished product could hardly be worse! A mild, half-baked spin on the "Emmanuelle" series (inspired by Just Jaeckin's 1974 softcore drama), the 29th "Carry On" epic features Williams as the French ambassador to London, whose sexpot wife (Suzanne Danielle, surprisingly assured in her screen debut) has it off with all and sundry whilst pining for her husband's absent libido (lost when he landed on a church spire during a parachute jump - which demonstrates the film's level of wit). Series stalwarts Joan Sims, Jack Douglas, Kenneth Connor and Peter Butterworth look suitably embarrassed as members of the ambassador's household staff, and Larry Dann plays a downtrodden nerd who falls in love with Danielle following an amorous encounter on Concorde; Beryl Reid is his mum, a vision in chintz. Opening with a dreadful disco ditty ('Love Crazy', written by Kenny Lynch and sung by 'Masterplan') which must have seemed dated even in 1978, CARRY ON EMMANNUELLE swaps the double entendres and deconstructive satire of Rothwell's era for a barrage of blatantly obvious sex jokes, none of which are even remotely funny, while Williams is reduced to mugging frantically over Danielle's 'suggestive' dialogue and dropping his drawers every time there's a lull in the action. While exploitation fans in other countries had been enjoying frank cinematic depictions of sex and sexuality since the late 1960's, British voyeurs - ie. those whose tastes ran more to NAUGHTY KNICKERS (1970) and DEEP THROAT (1972) than the mature exploration of adult themes favored by Ken Russell (THE DEVILS), Stanley Kubrick (A CLOCKWORK ORANGE) and others at the cutting edge of mainstream outrage - were forced to endure heavily censored imports and tawdry homegrown comedies (I'M NOT FEELING MYSELF TONIGHT, CAN YOU KEEP IT UP FOR A WEEK?, LET'S GET LAID, etc.) which reinforced sexual stereotypes of every persuasion, and CARRY ON EMMANNUELLE is no better or worse than any of them. Having bombed at the box-office, this SHOULD have been the series' last gasp, but director Gerald Thomas and producer Peter Rogers revived the format in 1992 for the equally lackluster CARRY ON COLUMBUS, while "Carry On London" (shudder!) currently exists in pre-production limbo. All together now:"That woman is lo-o-ve crazy / She's lovin' all night! / That woman is lo-o-ve crazy / Won't stop for a bite!..."Told you it was dreadful, didn't I?...