Too much of everything

Absolutely Fantastic

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

CARRY ON DON'T LOSE YOUR HEAD was made at the peak of the popularity of the Carry On films, where they could afford to splash out on lavish sets, costumes and locations in movies set in various historical eras. It's a pretty typical entry in the film series, and not the most appealing one I've seen; by now, at least half of the jokes were feeling quite stale, to me, and not a patch on the CARRY ONs of seven, eight years before.That being said, there's still much to enjoy here, and aficionados of the films will be in their element. A delightfully weaselly Kenneth Williams camps it up as Citizen Camembert, Robespierre's right-hand man whose job it is to outwit the Black Fingernail, a masked folk hero who keeps on freeing aristocrats from the guillotine.Sid James bags the role of the Fingernail and appears to be in his element, with plenty of his trademark dirty laughter and energy to spare. He's supported by a virtually wasted Jim Dale, whose role seems to be entirely redundant, and Joan Sims in one of those nagging wife type roles she always seemed to occupy in later years. The best cast members are Charles Hawtrey as the fey Duc de Pommfrit and Peter Butterworth as the befuddled Citizen Bidet.The gags set in and around the guillotine are by far my favourite parts of this movie, although there's a rousing and elaborate sword-fight at the climax to get your teeth into. CARRY ON DON'T LOSE YOUR HEAD also contains one of my favourite gags of all time: Hawtrey is brought a letter just as he's about to be beheaded, and he tells the messenger to drop it into the basket where he'll "read it later". Class stuff.

Carry on don't lose your head is based on great scarlet pimpernel story from 19th century France. It is performed by the carry on team and is one of the carry on historical setting films of the 1960s like carry on cleo and up the Khyber. It is regarded as one of the strong carry ons of series. One half of the carry on team is on one side, the other half is on other. Sid james stars as scarlet pimpernel pitted against kenneth williams as french authorities pursuing citizen bidet. There are big sets used for film such as mansion where fancy dress ball held with dancing, posh costumes and jokes between sid james, kenneth williams and joan sims as sid james pretends to be an aristocrat. Other memorable sets are sunrise big gardens duel between sid james and authority enemy charles hawtrey and the public guillotining of criminals in France which the scarlet pimpernel hoping to avoid

This film is set during the French Revolution in 1789, where public executions were carried out efficiently and, seemingly, for entertainment. Basically, in order to stop all these rampant executions, two British noblemen, played by Sid James and Jim Dale (of course) travel to France and use various ways to thwart them. This is very amusing, in that their symbol of valiance is the "Black Fingernail", a funny send up of the "Scarlet Pimpernel". As it is a Carry On film, you're going to get one liners, slapstick, sight gags etc. You also get some pretty decent swashbuckling, that was a surprise. Also, you get a lot of speaking to the camera, also funny. Not perfect, but an amusing film. I'd recommend it, especially if you're a Carry On fan.

I've only watched 8 of the long-running and hugely popular "Carry On" films; their overall quality is quite patchy, but the most consistently entertaining so far have been CARRY ON...UP THE KHYBER (1968) and CARRY ON HENRY (1971). This one was actually in the same vein as the latter i.e. a period romp and, in fact, I find their brand of bawdy humor works best in this environment - not only because it allows for a contrast between modern times and the era being lampooned (including, in this case, parlor entertainment that features a minstrel tune whose chorus is lifted from The Beatles' "She Loves You"!) but also because it gives the low-budget films a semblance of grandeur not possible with their outings having contemporary settings.I decided to check this film before others in the series (happily, my local DVD rental outlet carries a handful of them) because I'm currently going through a bit of a swashbuckling phase as part of my Christmas marathon. Anyway, it's an extremely typical offering (despite dropping the "Carry On" from the title, though it did get renamed CARRY ON PIMPERNEL for the U.S.) that obviously deals with the French Revolution, which is being thwarted by a Scarlet Pimpernel-type figure who calls himself "The Black Fingernail" and leaves as his calling card a drawing with the "Up Yours!" gesture: the overall effect is hit-or-miss and the pace rather sluggish for what should essentially be a zippy adventure - but the host of practiced regulars from the series are in good form, thus ensuring the occasional hilarious moment or quip (usually for this gang, these would be double entendres and even include asides to the audience!).