Excellent adaptation.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

An agreeable comedy-cum-horror yarn that makes fun of all the "old dark house" clichés, WHAT A CARVE UP! never reaches the outrageous heights that made the later CARRY ON SCREAMING so memorable but instead provides a continuous stream of gentle humour that makes you wish nostalgically for the more amiable days of comedy. If you watched it with the sound off, you would think you were watching an old-fashioned black and white horror yarn full of creeping shadows and mysterious characters, as the film happily plays up all the clichés and genre conventions thus harmlessly spoofing them throughout. The script is fairly witty and humorous and after a laborious beginning, constantly moves from one scene of action to another to retain the interest. I think this film would be a lot harder to sit through were it not for the dream central casting of Carry On stars Kenneth Connor and Sid James who play out the comic aspects of the storyline to the full and display their full range of comic talents.In this film, Connor is portrayed as a nervous idiot (not unlike most of his other roles) whereas James is the straight man of the partnership. Both actors are at the top of their game and play each other off perfectly, particularly James who gives a flawless performance (perfect timing and delivery, everything). Horror fans and devotees of classic British cinema in general will be astonished at the role-call of talent that this film has to offer; indeed the astonishing cast is one of this movie's biggest strengths. First up is the ever sinister Donald Pleasence as the creepy man-in-black solicitor Sloane; although he doesn't actually do anything this has to be one of his most quietly menacing roles.Then there's Shirley Eaton as the young attractive blonde foil for Connor; Dennis Price, already stereotyped in his career as an alcoholic; Michael Gwynn as a loopy organ-playing relative and finally the great Michael Gough really hamming it up as the sinister Lurch-like family butler, complete with a hilarious limp. Although there's nothing in WHAT A CARVE UP! to really surprise or impress the viewer, the overall effect is a warming one and there are enough worthwhile jokes to make this a solid comedy, and indeed a superior one.

This kicks off a series of 7 titles I intend to check out as a tribute to the recently-deceased horror icon Michael Gough (even if he is the lead in only 3 of them!). It is a sort of remake of THE GHOUL (1933), though having practically nothing to do with it, except that we get a number of people converging on a household – the reason for this is that author Frank King wrote both a novel and a play by that name and, while the Boris Karloff vehicle followed the latter, the film under review was based on the former! Indeed, it is very much a companion piece – in theme and style, but also quality-wise – to William Castle's THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1963), the Hammer remake of another Karloff classic (in its case dating from 1932).Anyway, the film deals with that much-abused plot line of family members, who either hate each other's guts or are seen as interlopers, getting together at a large and remote estate for the reading of a will and, when someone realizes he is not getting what he had expected, begins to eliminate the others one by one (in fact, it was retitled NO PLACE LIKE HOMICIDE for the American market). Interestingly, when the makers hit upon the idea of making a spoof of this subgenre, they recruited two members from the "Carry On" gang – namely Sid James and Kenneth Connor – but the result still left much to be desired, perhaps because the trademark vulgarity of that series has been downplayed here and this, in turn, constrained the actors! That said, the rest of the cast is not to be scoffed at: future Bond Girl Shirley Eaton (she would play a similar role in yet another remake, TEN LITTLE INDIANS [1965]), Donald Pleasence (the best of the lot as the sinister-looking solicitor named, of all things, Everett Sloane!), Dennis Price (typically blasé) and Michaels Gough (the lame butler) and Gwynn (amusingly, he calls everybody mad when he is the one with the oddest behavior!), etc.Though most of the murders occur off-screen, we do get to see a mysterious presence slinking about a number of times; the final twist revealing the identity of the killer would later also be adopted by another uneven genre lampoon, Pupi Avati's TUTTI DEFUNTI…TRANNE I MORTI (1977). All in all, the film is undeniably mildly enjoyable but, at the same time, utterly forgettable...and, flawed though the original is, clearly inferior to it.

Absolute dross, totalling wasting the talents of Michael Gough, Dennis Price, Shirley Eaton and Donald Pleasance. Kenneth Connor as always overacts and overdrools(over Shirley Eaton)in his usual brow - furrowing scenery-chewing excuse for comedic acting. Sid, aware that the script contains no real humour, laughs at his own "jokes" in the hope that the audience will be conned into joining him; a ploy he was to use the rest of his life. How anyone ever found this mess even mildly amusing beggars belief. Surely the production team should have jacked it in after viewing the initial rushes and spent their money more wisely on Rolls Razor shares or bought up unexpurgated copies of Lady Chatterley's Lover to cash in the recent court ruling. Incredible to think that this tosh was contemporary with Beyond The Fringe and several years after The Goon Show.

I've finally managed to get my hands on a copy of this movie, after searching websites, video stores, and many a failed bid on eBay. And although it's a while since I last watched it, this movie is as good, if not better, than I remember.Sid James gets the best lines, and delivers them with the consummate ease of a true professional. Kenneth Connor is a bit like his roles in the early Carry On's - but he was very good in them. Throw in a wonderfully sinister Donald Pleasance, the typically statuesque and beautiful Shirley Eaton, and a host of other suitable strange and quirky characters, all locked in a creepy mansion where the guests begin dropping like flies one by one. It all adds up to a marvelous romp - not so much scary as very creepy, very suspenseful, and very, very funny.